science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
novel by American writer
Stephen Goldin
Stephen Charles Goldin (born February 28, 1947) is an American science fiction and fantasy author.
Biography
Goldin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A graduate of UCLA with a bachelor's degree in Astronomy, he worked for the U.S. Navy a ...
, the second book in the
Family D'Alembert
The Family D'Alembert series is a set of science fiction novels by Stephen Goldin
Stephen Charles Goldin (born February 28, 1947) is an American science fiction and fantasy author.
Biography
Goldin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A g ...
series, the first of which was expanded by Goldin from a novella by E.E. “Doc” Smith.
This is the second in a series of ten Family D'Alembert novels. Set in a future where humankind has expanded to the stars but reverted to an old-style feudal system of government in an advanced technological setting, all known planets and space are ruled by an Earth-based Empire.
Plot summary
Jules and Yvette D'Alembert are a brother and sister team of aerialists in the D'Alembert family Circus of the Empire. But they are also legendary agents "Wombat" and "Periwinkle" in SOTE, "The Service of The Empire", the imperial intelligence agency, sent to investigate the disappearance of a planetary economist and his wife on a moon devoted to recreation: seemingly a vacationers' paradise...
The plot is based in part on