Light Paths

Hendrix offers a fresh look at a familiar SF concept: life on a space station, here called the orbital complex. In an opening reminiscent of 2001, characters wing their way to Hendrix's space-faring community, which floats over an Earth decimated by Nanogedon, a military disaster that left 125 million dead but also brought the world's nations and corporations together in one last effort to repair the planet's ecology and insure peace. Characters such as billionaire brat Roger Cortland, his utopian-scientist mother, Atsuko, and corporate spy Jhana live in a low-gravity, high-tech world that's cyberpunk-slick and ineffably postmodern; although one wonders why, in a bajillion-dollar O'Neill-esque space habitat, there are so many grunge-wearing techno-teens mouthing schmaltzy rock lyrics. But whatever Hendrix lacks in musical facility he compensates for in his creation of a credible and realistic utopia that ultimately must unite against an aggressive Earth to insure its own, as well as humanity's, survival. Taut, engaging, even occasionally reassuring, Hendrix's novel leaves readers wishing for another portion of this space-age slice of life. (Sept.)