STAR CHASE

Planet-hopping, mindless but lively. Reed Norvack, unjustly condemned to a criminal colony for the murder of Nels Larsen, his genius benefactor, is rescued from death by beautiful fellow-framee Mai Valoris on orders from arch-criminal Than Lear, who mistakenly believes that Norvack has the secret to Larsen's discovery of ""The Promised Land."" Norvack jumps at the chance to escape--he's got to clear his name--and he and Mai set off on a planet-, star-, and ultimately universe-hopping odyssey filled with vividly described places and things but populated by somewhat less well conceived characters. And once the murder-mystery is dipplly cleared up, Norvack learns that he has been reconstructed with a silicon-based body structure for the express purpose of battling Yeeluth, a sentient, life-destroying energy force which is depopulating the parallel universe of ""Promised Land."" And so it goes--more Star Wars fallout, but better than many.