STARSEED

Sequel to Stardance, the Robinsons' combination of dance, aliens, and politics in orbit above 21st-century Earth. Morgan McLeod is a dancer at the end of her career who still desperately wants to dance. Her only option is to apply to the orbiting, gravityless, hollowed-out asteroid Top Step; here, she learns how to survive in space and ultimately seeks union with a red-goo symbiote from Titan, thus becoming a Stardancer, able to live, work, and create indefinitely in space. Her narrative describes her progress in close detail from the time she leaves Earth until her training is interrupted by a missile attack on Top Step, directed from Earth by fanatical anti-space, anti-alien elements. Morgan's lover, Robert, a Chinese who at once flees back to Earth, becomes her prime suspect; she will track him down and defeat the evil conspiracy of which he is a part by means of a sudden total gestalt involving all Stardancers. Some fairly convincing exposition, an overdose of Zen, and a tiny plot tossed in almost as an afterthought. The female characters giggle too much. Still, Stardance fans will want to investigate.