Aspect, 1999, $6.50, ISBN 0-446-60846-7, 511 pages, paperback

The sixth book in the Hope saga, Patriarch's Hope follows Nicholas Seafort as he battles a global environmental disaster, another mutiny, and an eco-terrorism group with a price on his head.

Feintuch delivers a good read, just as he had done wit the first four books (his fifth book wobbled badly at the start). In some ways, he's back on track--superb space-borne assault scenes for example. In another sense, he repeats the error of the fifth book by making this less military sci-fi and more political sci-fi. Yes, the main character has become Secretary-General of the UN, but no, I don't want to read about a quasi-theological world state with an environmental message hammering at my head.

Overall, this is an average work. I can't find too much fault with it, but I can't find too much excitement either. I still haven't figured out why medical technology hasn't kept pace with interstellar space technology, or why firebases pump water on a spaceship to fight fires. Go figure.

Feintuch was best when he wrote about exploring the unknown in the first four books, when he wrote with passion in mind and not deadline pressure. Let's hope the next book in the series returns to that mindset, as the ending of Patriarch's Hope seems to indicate.

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