Description:

In the distant future, corporations have become sustainable communities with their own militaries, and corporate goals have essentially replaced political ideology. On a youthful, rebellious impulse, Lawrence joined the military of a corporation that he now recognizes to be ruthless and exploitative. His only hope for escape is to earn enough money to buy his place in a better corporation. When his platoon is sent to a distant colony to quell a local resistance effort, it seems like a stroke of amazing fortune, and Lawrence plans to rob the colony of their fabled gemstone, the Fallen Dragon, to get the money he needs. However, he soon discovers that the Fallen Dragon is not a gemstone at all, but an alien life form that the local colonists have been protecting since it crashed in their area. Now, Lawrence has to decide if he will steal the alien to exploit the use of its inherent biotechnical processes -- which far exceed anything humans are capable of -- or if he will help the Resistance get the alien home.

From Publishers Weekly

This hefty novel of interstellar war and alien contact in the 25th century, a sort of Starship Troopers as if written by Charles Dickens, ranks as one of Hamilton's best. Though he's a mercenary for the Zantiu-Braun corporation, which gets its profits by periodically looting old interstellar colonies, Lawrence Newton has his eye on picking up a treasure trove of alien technology not on his employer's approved list of loot. When the Zantiu-Braun Third Fleet descends on the planet Thrallspring, the invaders unexpectedly find the inhabitants, who have access to some of that lost alien technology, prepared to fight back. After several hundred pages of well-depicted action and intrigue, the technology of the "dragons" makes the war superfluous, a definite victory for all opponents of the corporate pirates. It also makes it possible for Newton himself to travel in both time and space, and to put right the mishandling of a youthful love affair that forced him into exile in the first place. Ignoring conventional wisdom about expository lumps, flashbacks and viewpoint shifts, Hamilton (The Reality Dysfunction) nicely develops character while he also does some fine world building that's as good as it gets in space opera short of Lois McMaster Bujold. Despite the somewhat uneven pacing, the book is undeniably a page-turner and should provide many absorbing hours for the author's existing readers as well as a salutary introduction to a major SF author for a new audience. (Mar. 11)Forecast: With a five-city author tour and national print advertising both mainstream and genre, expect this one to rack up strong sales.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In a far future, where interstellar trade has devolved into legitimized piracy, the Zantiu-Braun Corporation sends an elite troop of Skins, nearly invulnerable soldiers, to the planet Thallspring to collect their periodic dividends. The residents of Thallspring, however, have different ideas, as well as a secret weapon that has the potential to change not only the future but the past as well. The author of the "Night's Dawn" trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God) offers a standalone novel that combines personal drama with high-tech military sf and political intrigue. Hamilton has a knack for complex, believable characters; his heroes have flaws while his villains act according to their own codes of honor. A good choice for most sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.