Searcher

Babylon 5 star Boxleitner beats the odds in this entertaining sequel to his first novel, Frontier Earth. Not only does this clever SF/western hybrid feature better pacing and characterizations (among them, Cissy, a plainspoken ""soiled dove,"" and two articulate Apaches), but Boxleitner's rock-solid plotting drives home the old alien vs. human story by contrasting it with the Apache-white man conflicts in Arizona, circa 1882. The returning hero, Macklin, an Associative Monitor Corps member, is helping to protect a human society still in its formative stages from a predatory race known as the Kra'agh, savage, smelly aliens who want to turn Earth into their very own supermarket. During his first adventure on Earth, culminating at the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, a partially amnesiac Macklin loses his fellow Monitor, Dorree, who leaves him to fight the Kra'agh alone while she seeks help off world. After a stint as an Earp gunslinger, Macklin feels more like a cowboy than a Monitor sworn to watch over primitive worlds. Later adventures lead him out of Tombstone to Tucson and eventually to Apache Peak and a sacred Apache mountain site, which also happens to contain the first alien hive for Kra'agh invasion forces. By humorously skewing western legends and showing respect for history by exercising restraint where he should, such as in his depiction of the Sunrise Ceremony/Gift of Changing Woman, Boxleitner succeeds in making this series one to watch with anticipation. (Jan. 9)