|
Originally published as two volumes—Rissa Kerguelen and The Long View—this first paperback edition combines both works.
The paperback version hit the racks in 1977 right after Star Wars hit the theaters. While Star Wars kept audiences spellbound,
Rissa Kerguelen
captured this reader's imagination far more profoundly. La Femme Nikita meets Han Solo! No ordinary science fiction novel, Rissa Kerguelen is an epic tale of feminine charm, guile, and revenge unleashed on a galactic scale.
In response to global financial crisis, North America adopts an election-based corporate-run government. When United Energy and Transport is elected, its Presiding Committee seizes total control, canceling further elections. To secure its financial interests on foreign soil, UET quickly overruns those governments. The brutal Committee Police force maintains global order through fear and assassination. Using stolen alien technology UET begins exploring deep space. On Earth, it implements a prison-model totalitarian welfare system to control the growing number of poor—and political dissidents.
After the Committee Police murder her journalist parents, a five-year old Rissa Kerguelen becomes a ward of the state, to live out her life in total welfare. When—as a teenager—Rissa escapes, she becomes a poster child of the underground, and is hunted relentlessly by the chagrined Committee Police. Under the guardianship of the Hulzein Establishment—a matriarchal autocracy of great wealth and power outside the reach of UET—she learns sophisticated armed and unarmed combat techniques, control of air and land vehicles, political and financial manipulation, psychology, mastery of several languages, the art of disguise, sexual prowess, self-discipline and other invaluable skills.
Her training complete, and her parents' deaths vindicated, Rissa begins her incredible journey across space and time with the Committee Police one step behind. Through a series of chance events, she finds herself allied with Bran Tregare, secretly a Hulzein by blood, and captain of the only armed ship to escape. Together, they implement an armed fleet, and embark on a mission to free Earth from UET control. But unknown perils await them on every front: space faring aliens, UET, and the Hulzein Establishment itself!
Beyond the adventure and suspense, Busby weaves an impressively complex tapestry of elaborate characters and events over space and time on an unimaginable scale. By embracing the theory of relativity—a subject most science fiction writers eschew—Busby not only flatters the intelligent, science-minded reader, he achieves a more dynamic and believable story—one that remains as thrilling today as when it was published. — Paul A. Scott
|
