SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 25th July 2006.

In "City Of Pearl", Shand Frankland came to the second planet of Cavanagh's Star. called Bezer'ej. She was a police inspector specialising in Environmental Hazards. The particular hazard she was to investigate was an immortal, indestructible alien warrior.

Now Shand has become an human-alien hybrid with the same scary attributes.

Earth's military and commercial empires want Shand - or samples of her body - very, very urgently. They know there's profound wealth to made from anything that makes one invulnerable and immortal. However, Earth's muddled and mercenary ambitions wouldn't mix well with the very literal and very strict rules of ethical behaviour that the alien race, the Wess'har, impose on the worlds they occupy.

Shand and Aras know that it would be a catastrophic disaster for Earth to obtain tissue samples but they believe they are capable of frustrating any attempt

However, Rayat's and Lindsay's plans are much, much more extreme than Shand and Aras could have imagined.

I didn't like this as much as "City Of Pearl" - I was so surprised by the freshness that filled the first book. Much of this second book was just uninspiring fiddling around with the consequences of the first book. The end of the book picked up speed and some excitement, finishing up with quite a shocking ending.

In fact particularly shocking for me as I'd bought both "Crossing The Line" and "The World Before" (the final volume in the trilogy) but having read the end of the second book in the series, I'm not so sure I want to continue*.

*Well, as it happens I did continue and I have to say that I'm glad I did