Firedance

Here Barnes continues (but does not complete) the story of Aubry Knight begun in Streetlethal and Gorgon Child . Knight, a street-fighter and hired killer turned social activist is blessed with superhuman strength, agility and endurance. With the help of his wife Promise Cotonou-Knight and a team of loyal associates, Knight now leads the Scavengers, an organization of the disenfranchised that has achieved power and influence by rebuilding quake-struck Los Angeles. But old enemies die hard; in this case, Phillipe Swarna, dictator of the PanAfrican Republic, sends assassins to avenge his son's death at the hands of Knight. The attempt misses Knight but costs the life of one of his dear friends, and Knight--his family threatened--reverts somewhat to his warrior past, determined to kill Swarna with the untrustworthy aid of an American intelligence splinter group called STYX. Barnes leavens his tale with potted mysticism and a measure of psychological depth, but it remains a story more like a comic book than a novel, flavored unpleasantly with the fetishization of muscle, physical violence and macho codes of ``honor.'' (Dec.)