ROGUE STAR

Second installment in Flynn’s massive, ambitious near-future saga (Firestar, 1996), with rich heiress Mariesa van Huyten continuing her Prometheus project to save humanity by forcing its expansion into space. Among the complications this time: weasely US President Donaldson tries to finagle Mariesa into allowing her LEO space station to be used as a weapons’ launch site; the People’s Crusade, set up to combat pollution, racism, etc., suffers an internal schism; young ex-drug dealer Flaco Mercado faces some tough tests as he becomes an apprentice space rigger; and an experimental spaceship investigates an asteroid far out in space, discovering possible signs of alien activity. A yarn that depends more on politicking, ideology, and wish fulfillment than real plot; nonetheless, fans of volume one should be pleased.