Avon, 1995, $5.50, ISBN 0-380-77300-7, 275 pages

In an interstellar future, the government spends a considerable part of its time preventing corporations from annexing chunks of the galaxy. And with that much money and power at stake, sure enough multiple little skirmishes break out with carrier-and-fighter technology.

Enter Charley Stoner, a search operator trained to detect and defeat such corporate attempts, who flies the mission of his life around Hydri IV. This time, aliens intercede where corporations tried to travel.

Evidently, this is an extension to a 1986 story written by Susan Schwartz. It does a good job at balancing information and the unknown--the tension of flight ops as well as fighter pilot humor play off each other nicely. You start pulling for Stoner and his section as they battle foes external and internal.

Well done.

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