STARMIND

Third in the trilogy (Starseed, 1991, etc.) about the Stardancers, human-alien symbiotes who are able to live unprotected in space, and who can share a mingled consciousness as and when they wish. This time, Cape Cod writer Rhea Paixao is devastated when her husband, Rand Porter, decides to accept the position of Resident Shaper for music/dance productions aboard the huge, luxury Shimizu Hotel in High Earth Orbit. Rhea, however, having agreed to live in space for a trial period, grows unhappy and homesick, and has an affair with one of Shimizu's employees. Meanwhile, the five richest and most powerful people on Earth are hatching a plotbarely hinted at in the narrativeto destroy the Stardancers, whose benevolent activities they regard as inimical to human development. A handful of telepathic non-Stardancers, though kidnapped by the conspirators, manage to alert the Stardancers just in time to avoid disaster. And finally the Stardancers arrange for everybody on Earth to gain the ability to fly and live unprotected in space. Agreeable, sometimes. But it would have been far better had the plot been properly articulated and integrated into the mundane life-in-space/art-in-space goings-on.