THE SECRET OF THE ROUND BEAST

The second in a trilogy, this volume continues the story of geneticists Lava and Ryland Langstrom. Aided and confounded by their children and various allies and enemies, Lava and Ryland are now engaged in a struggle between biological self-determination and cybernetic evil that pits the technologically advanced moon against primitive earth. Love blossoms between manufactured and natural beings, and like calls to like in creatures of mixed animal and human DNA. At the close, the omniscient Round Beast prevents supercomputer New Think from destroying it by threatening loss of the wonder of biological integration that only Round Beast embodies. Tedious, clumsy, and silly, with few redeeming virtues. A self-conscious throwback to the days of Hugo Gernsback and the Grey Lensmen of E.E. (Doc) Smith, with wooden characters engaging in unlikely activities. Only for the desperate.