Tor, 1995, $5.99, ISBN 0-812-55095-1, 350 pages

Some people are born lucky. Tristan is one of them. Escaping the clutches of the Dominion by crash landing on a planet with aboriginal inhabitants, Tristan learns to hunt lots of strange-sounding animals. He even gets a hunting buddy named Pulou. And then his mom gets sick and walla-walla-bing-bang, off he goes to find his long-lost father, only to be captured by the Dominion whose governor holds him hostage. And so we follow Tristan the lucky, who makes friends, goes to space pilot academy, and falls in love with the evil governor's pure-as-the-driven-snow daughter.

Thornley's prose reads well enough, the characters flesh out well enough, and the plot moves along fast enough. So, what's the problem? I am not quite sure. The whole idea that the good-guy empire would give into the bad-guy empire just because one of its general's kids is being held hostage just doesn't make any sense. And yet, the Dominion's chief bad guy gambles everything based on this premise.

Or, put another way, would Hitler risk WWII based on the idea that he held Gen. O'Connor's kid? From the rest of the plot, the bad guys have fewer ships, fewer men, fewer resources, and fewer intelligence officers than the good guys. What a way to bank on victory.

The space battles and military action occur at the end, with minimal detail or interest--as if put in as an afterthought. Other events occur that also serve to break the logical cohesion of the story.

This is supposed to be the first in a series. Sorry, I'll pass on any further installments. Too many coincidences, too many dopey plot points, and too little action make this a mistake to pick up.