THE CURE FOR STARS

Unaware that a vicious enemy pursues him, an alchemist scours Earth for the cure to a disease that afflicts aliens in this SF sequel.

In his last adventure, ninth-century alchemist Al-Khidr discovered an artifact in Egypt that took him to planet Lyra. There, an Earth disease called Mutmut had sparked a pandemic that attacked Lyra’s male population. Now, Al-Khidr, determined to find a cure, uses a jump-sphere to ride a wormhole back to Earth. He winds up in Giza, where his journey began, but some things have changed, from structures he’s never seen to strange currency. It turns out he’s nearly a millennium off—the tail end of the 1700s, after Napoleon led the French occupation of Egypt. Al-Khidr quickly befriends Estelle Molire, a French naturalist who studies plants and can help him find the specific herbs he’s looking for. He’ll just have to keep his sphere out of the hands of thieves. Meanwhile, Al-Khidr doesn’t know that Gen. Hatathor of Lyra has reached Earth with his own jump-sphere, though apparently by accident. He hunts for Al-Khidr right away, as Hatathor needs the alchemist’s sphere to get home, having lost his space-time device when he landed in the sea. Hatathor, like many Lyrians, abhors humans and Earth, the source of Mutmut. The general must track Al-Khidr using Lyrian tech; it’s not so easy, as Hatathor’s unchecked aggression makes traveling incognito a virtual impossibility. He races across the country, through Alexandria, Cairo, and farther south, to snatch the jump-sphere from his “filthy human” enemy by whatever means necessary.

The hero of Odin’s trilogy is immensely likable in this outing. His entire quest is to help a race that’s not his own. Still, Al-Khidr faces minimal conflict. He has to recover his sphere from a thieving monkey and resist his immediate attraction to Estelle, especially with police officer and fiancee Nefertiti waiting for him on Lyra. In addition, for much of the story, he’s oblivious to Hatathor at his heels. Interestingly, it’s the antagonist who endures the most obstacles. Unlike Al-Khidr, Hatathor isn’t on his home turf; he relies on tech and his sleeve-device (a weapon and language translator) that uses a solar charge that’s much slower on Earth than Lyra. In a clever turn, Hatathor’s alien “reddish skin” stands out in Egypt only because he, at one point, dons a White French soldier’s pilfered uniform. Despite following a series launch set on another planet, this sequel forgoes much of the SF in favor of late-18th-century historical fiction. Odin deftly fuses Al-Khidr’s and Hatathor’s stories with real-world events, like the ongoing French Revolutionary Wars, and historical figures. French Gen. Louis Desaix and Egyptian ruler Murand Bey both make appearances. The narrative and dialogue are occasionally too contemporary; for example, Al-Khidr feels “low-key proud” of Estelle. Nevertheless, descriptions can be memorable. Alexandria’s vibrant streets at night are lit with flame torches and candles while people “with different skin tones, a variety of dialects, and languages” mingle. An exhilarating cliffhanger sets the stage for the series conclusion.

An engaging mix of historical fiction and SF.