Ivory

In novels like Santiago and The Dark Lady , Resnick has shown a talent for spinning wild and woolly tall tales of the spaceways that recall the narrative poems Robert W. Service wrote about another frontier. Resnick's latest space opera covers 7000 years between the 19th century life of the legendary, mammoth Kilimanjaro Elephant and the interstellar search for its sacred ivory by Bukoba Mandaka, the last of the Masai. Mandaka hires obsessive researcher Duncan Rojas, who ferrets out of computer files episodes in the massive trophy's flight through the hands of gamblers, collectors and thieves, kings, politicians and alien artisans. This is another enjoyable Resnick yarn in which the inventive, colorful storyteller sustains a romantic vision of human destiny. (September)