The Fall of Sirius

In this sequel to McCarthy's Aggressor Six, the ruthless Colonel Malyene Andreivne awakens from suspended animation to discover that 2000 years have passed since the alien armada known as Waisters reduced her home star system, Sirius, to rubble. Although the creatures who have revived her seem truly strange, sporting chlorophyll-tinged ""hair"" and maintaining class divisions like those of insects, Andreivne learns that they are all various offshoots of Homo Sapiens, fellow members in the Suzerainty of Human Species, who have joined together against a new threat from the Waisters. Tough and acerbic, McCarthy's likable heroine must unite her fellow surviving sleepers with their distant human cousins before the Waisters arrive. Fraught with epic space battles, exotic aliens and a complex, confusing clash of politics, McCarthy's universe forms the background for truly operatic space theater. Although an armistice of sorts is eventually reached, fans need not despair: mention of a Blue Star disease portends another adventure. (Sept.)