THE MUTANT PRIME

This sf generation saga, a debut novel and the second in a five-book series (The Mutant Season, 1990, coauthored with Robert Silverberg, not reviewed), is set in a future in which an emerging subset of the human race, mutants, is capable of paranormal abilities. The cast includes Michael Ryton, mutant aerospace magnate, testifying before a Senate committee investigating the catastrophic failure of a lunar dome that his company produced parts for; Melanie Ryton, his sister, mutant without powers, who hides behind blue contact lenses in her job as a newscaster; shuttle officer and hero of the lunar disaster Kelley McLeod, who is a ""normal"" and forbidden flame from Michael's past; Narlydda, mutant artist, hiding her mutancy from an adoring public; and Skerry, mutant trouble-shooter. Into the ordinary complications and everyday disasters of their lives comes Victor Ashman, alleged supermutant, long awaited and predicted by the Mutant Community. But is Ashman really the ""mutant prime"" and, if he is, is he savior or monster? Relatively shallow treatment of potentially deep themes: the plot is cliched, and the characters' problems are more dramatized than dramatic.