Starrise at Corrivale — Diane Duane

Starrise at Corrivale accomplishes what it sets out to do: it's a reasonably entertaining primer for the Star*Drive universe, a campaign setting for TSR's science-fiction role-playing game Alternity. Star*Drive is fairly recognizable space-opera fare, a view of the future in the 26th century, with various stellar nations exploring and exploiting their way across the galaxy, often coming into conflict. Starrise at Corrivale, the first book of the Harbinger trilogy, is the first fiction to be set in Star*Drive, and is authored by an old hand at developing licensed worlds, Diane Duane. (Duane has written numerous bestselling Star Trek novels and has also borrowed time with Spiderman and the X-Men.)

Starrise at Corrivale revolves around well-meaning tough guy Gabriel Connor, a Marine for the Galactic Concord. Connor, who is part of the military contingent accompanying a diplomatic mission, is unexpectedly thrust into the center of intrigue in the negotiations between two hostile worlds. Duped into abetting a murder, then discredited and booted from the Marines, Connor must figure out what nefarious forces are at work in the system, and why, if he hopes to clear his name. --Paul Hughes