SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in May 2001.

An uneasy armistice has now been achieved after thirty years of war between humanity and the Ahtra, a powerful and ancient alien race. Captain Eli Drammon, his reputation ruined by an incident during the war, now commands a humble transport ship. He's been sent to rescue the crew of a military vessel that has crashed upon a desolate desert world.

This should of course be an easy and straightforward assignment. However, there is disturbing evidence of previous Ahtra activity on the planet, there is something surprising deep underground and the long desert season is about to change into something much more active

Well, well, well. Kay Kenyon has created an excellent novel in "Topic Of Creation". It is so much better than her previous work "Drift", sorry, "Rift", which although quite good, did seem to involve rather too much wandering around meeting strange people. This novel is tightly-plotted and chock-full of great ideas. It was an exciting read - halfway through the book, I paused to grab another bagle, refill the coffee and empty the ashtray, then I read straight through to the end.

What's it got? Well, interstellar empires and big guns, an excellent alien culture, a wild, wild jungle of a world full of ravening monsters, long-lost secrets uncovered and, to cap it all, alien sex.