Ghost

Anthony's latest novel is one of his most minor efforts, a mechanical working out of an absurd, rattletrap plot, overwhelmed by talk and introspection. The story is set in a future in which a law has been passed (the Miscegenation Act) forbidding the marriage of two people of the same race (this in response to ""savage race riots'' and the need to slow population growth). Kerr Shetland, captain of the Meg IIa ``timeship'' traveling beyond the farthest reaches of the universe in search of new energy sources for an energy-poor Earthand his crew of six spend the trip in a paroxysm of racial, sexual and psychological self-examination, finally reaching some sort of epiphany when the ship breaks up on the rim of a Black Hole, and they are transformed into pure spiritall to little effect. (September 15)