ISBN 0-441-00238-2 (US pbk)

"Sword knows about aliens. He fought them in the Third Alien War, which left his body shattered and his mind cold as crystal. Now, fifteen years later, the aliens are back. And rather than fight another costly war, Earth's government offers to parley.

"But when Sword agrees to represent the military, he discovers one thing he hadn't known. Even he can't understand an alien mind. He can only change it..." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1995]

"This is the third self-contained novel employing the same main characters. Told in first person by the female protagonist, Cassandra or Cass.

"Wilhelmina Baird definitely has style and an endearingly flippant touch with language. There's street-wise poetry in every simile. And irony at the drop of metaphor. Each book gets better. This one's got some pretty strange exobiology. Check it out.

"If you haven't read the previous 2 novels, I suggest that you do... you'll appreciate this one even more". --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 5 November 1995).

Recommended.

• Biograph -- Wilhelmina Baird