Unknown Soldier

Blasted back in time from 2085 to 1985, Special Forces Commander Jack Carrigan cannot remember his name or where he came from. He does recognize the voice of Chief Resident Shawna Nicholson, whom he meets in a hospital when he is brought in for treatment following the explosion which caused his amnesia. As Nicholson, another doctor and Carrigan flee armed Arab terrorists, also from the future, Carrigan's memory gradually returns. It turns out that Nicholson reminds him of Katry, a woman he loved and whose life he fatally risked on a mission in his own time. As the novel races toward a dramatic showdown over the time travel device which carried Carrigan back, he and Nicholson move toward an understanding with an unexpected but possibly welcome sexual advance made by this time-traveling Rambo. Reichert ( The Renshai Trilogy and the Bifrost Guardians series) has written an imaginative, colorful and well-researched adventure, made all the more convincing by such details as the death of a sympathetic character. However, Reichert demonstrates a repeated attachment to bad puns which distract from the story. ``I'm thirty, too,'' observes one character. ``That's thirty, also, not thirty-two.'' (May)