Rinn's Star

Perestroikaital per PW style is a distant memory, crushed centuries ago by the maniacal Pamyat and replaced by a ``New Leninism.'' But as colonies spread through the stars, the old order is again threatened. A new breed of humanity, mutated into a telepathic race, has frightened the Soviet government into forbidding all contact between its citizens and the new humans. Meanwhile, the Soviet star colonies, galvanized by the challenges of a universe opening up to exploration and conquest, are rattling the cage of their political confinement. So when Soviet Captain Selenkov ignores his government's prohibition and rescues the lovely Rinn McCrea, a maverick telepath, the stage is set for love to triumph over bureaucracy. This is a competently told tale, and some of the political backdrop is very well drawn. But the characters are uninteresting and the plot offers few surprises. An enigmatic alien race introduced toward the end, an inconclusive conclusion and the final glimpse of our hero and heroine marching off to a new adventure all point to a sequel. Downing is an editor for the science fiction magazine Pandora. (Dec.)