THE THIRD EAGLE

by R.A. McAvoy ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 15, 1989

Science-fiction and hard-cover debut for the author of the popular paperback fantasies Tea with the Black Dragon, The Book of Kells, etc.: a pleasant but rather insipid space coming-of-age yarn. Young, tattooed, red-skinned warrior Wanbli leaves his impoverished planet Neunacht on impulse, to go wandering the spaceways in the vague hope of becoming an actor. Wanbli befriends a Dayflower, a short-lived alien mathematical whiz who kills himself when rejected by the galactic equivalent of MIT. Next he wins a job as a movie extra and stuntman, then is forced to flee when he nearly kills the director by accident. Finally, Wanbli steals a ride on a ship operated by revivalists, Earth-folk revived from suspended animation after centuries of space flight. There are other ships full of as-yet-unrevived travelers, but the revivalists are much too poor to buy a habitable planet of their own, and subsist by intercepting and cannibalizing the sleepers and their ships. Appalled, Wanbli revives all the sleepers (they turn out to be distant relatives), then thinks up a plan whereby he can save the sleepers while helping the revivalists and his own desperately poor home planet. Low-key, intermittently entertaining stuff, but meandering, often YA-ish, and downright irritating at the times when McAvoy knows things her readers don't.

Pub Date: Feb. 15, 1989

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1989

Categories: FICTION