Hellfire

The third book in Johnson's Theirs Not to Reason Why series (after An Officer's Duty) continues the odd but enjoyable military science fiction tales of Ia, a human-alien hybrid whose precognitive talents allow her to plan hundreds of years in advance. Ia knows that she's unable to prevent the war between humans and the Salik, but she also knows that she can assemble the best possible team to win, even if her choices often leave her superiors baffled. Naturally, the handpicked crew of her starship includes eccentric personalities (sarcastic and tough Delia Helstead uses knives as hairpins) and develops unforeseen complications (Ia's ex-lover, Meyun Harper, is the ship's engineer). Ia's powers continue to present a narrative problem%E2%80%94being able to see every strand of every potential future makes her, if not infallible, at least so minimally fallible as to border on uninteresting%E2%80%94but Johnson's reluctance to dole out bits of Ia's knowledge in anything other than tiny morsels at least puts the reader in the same position as most of her troops: confident in the result, but uncertain of how it will be achieved. Some genre tropes weigh things down a bit, but fans should still have fun. (Aug.)