THE WAR OF THE SKY LORDS

Sequel to the so-so The Sky Lords, a medium-future post- holocaust saga of duelling airship warlords that have enslaved the disease-ravaged, starving survivors on the ground; second part of the Sky Lords trilogy. Jan Dorvin, the Minervan heroine of part one, having acquired the Sky Angel, a brand-new ship bulging with Old Science technology, attempts to defeat her rival warlords in their ancient, disintegrating vessels, and free their hapless slaves. Meanwhile, beneath the Antarctic icecap, a few genetically altered humans, the Eloi, survive; they have produced a human offspring, Ryn, a handsome, lonely youth who fantasizes about being Robin Hood. Somehow, a set of bad-guy Sky Lords have learned of the icecap base's existence, and their fleet hotfoots it southward in the hope of extracting Old Science secrets from the Eloi. Ryn, calling himself Robin, desperate to escape the stultifying Eloi, joins their fleet in his own advanced spaceship by promising to help them defeat Jan; but then he betrays them to join Jan. The latter has her own problems: her computer system is in revolt, and her son is turning into a clone of the evil, genetically enhanced Milo. Finally, the vengeful bad-guy Sky Lords show up to attack Jan; Milo takes over the Sky Angel and kicks Jan out, along with the injured Robin. After various unpleasant adventures, they escape in Robin's ship while a monster takes care of the bad guys. Amiable nonsense for the most part, though some of the incidents have a repellently sadistic edge. Depravities, however, are no substitute for orthodox storytelling virtues, which are in rather short supply here.