Conference noted::sf

1214.0. "Tara K. Harper's Lightwing" by JVERNE::KLAES (Be Here Now) Tue Mar 22 1994 17:38

Article: 532
From: [email protected] (Humphrey Aaron V)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Prograde Reviews--Tara K. Harper: Lightwing
Date: 19 Mar 94 20:20:39 GMT
 
Tara K. Harper: Lightwing
 
A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey  [some spoilers]
 
Tara K. Harper, says her bio at the back, has a Bachelor of Science
degree, has worked in "the electronics and computer test-and-measurement 
field", and tries to keep up with the fields of genetics, biophysics, 
physics and space exploration.  That kind of scientific background 
certainly shows up in _Lightwing_. 
 
That said, I'm not sure that this is hard SF, though I'm a bit fuzzy
at what qualifies a book for that subgenre, not having read as much
Analog as I might have.  Most of the main characters in the book are
scientists and engineers, trying to crack the secret of the FTL drive,
and I often found myself bewildered by the technical jargon flying
around--mainly because the author made it up herself, ESP and FTL not
being fields I'm up on.  In the latter, particularly, despite my
passing familiarity with relativity physics, I often had little clue
what she was referring to.  But this _is_ future tech, right? 
 
Oh, yes, the ESP bit.  Well, there's more than one alien race floating
around, and a fair number of strains of mutated human stock (usually
called H'Mus), including the protagonist, Kiondili Wae.  Several of
the aliens and many of the H'Mus have ESP abilities to a greater or
lesser degree; these abilities also have their technical uses, being
somehow able to interact with and control "fields". 
 
Kiondili Wae, a H'Mu ESPer with a bit of a chip on her shoulder and
tragedy in her past, gets transferred to Corson Station, where she
immediately gets into trouble and makes enemies.  There's more than a
bit of professional rivalry, lots of technical problems, and Wae's
emotional problems cause their fair share of trouble too. 
 
The aliens are well-drawn.  We really only get one sample of each
type, except for the H'Mus, but they're all interesting--the Ixia, a
carnivorous race who instinctively pounce on weakness (sometimes
literally); the Moal, whose musical communications remind me somewhat
of Cherryh's tc'a (who spoke in matrices); the Ruvians, who are H'Mus
so far removed as to no longer have a constant physical form, or
sexuality; the Dhirrnu, practical jokers with racial memory; and
others only sketched out.  I can't help wondering if Harper has
written/ will write more books in this universe... 
 
For those who like to quantify these things, I'll give it a 7/10.  The
last half of the book really pulled me along, and the characterization
is good. 
 
%A Harper, Tara K.
%T Lightwing
%I Ballantine del Rey
%C New York
%D July 1992
%G 0-345-37161-5
%P 261 pp.
%O Paperback, US $4.99, Can $5.99
 
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