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REVIEW
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"Very powerful story!"
Skolian Prince Del-Kurj Valdoria Skolia, Heir to the Ruby
Throne, didn't go home with the rest of his family.
Instead, he's become a pawn—a very tricky one at that.
Right now, he's being held on a military base and he
doesn't have a lot of contact with his family, or anyone
else for that matter. One of the few people who visits him
is Mac. Now Mac feels sorry for Del and has taken him off
the military base in the past. So when Mac offers to take
Del with him to introduce a hopeful singer to his contact
at Prime-Nova, Del jumps at the chance. Through a series of
mishaps, Del ends up "auditioning" for one of the bigwigs
at Prime-Nova and is offered a contract. After getting
approval from the general in charge of Del, Mac accepts on
Del's behalf and ends up becoming the new star's manager. Eventually, Del gets together a band and even manages to
move off the base into the apartment of one of his band
members. Finally, Del has everything he ever wanted—the
chance to live his own life without his family involved.
The only problem: what will happen when they find out? Will
they force Del to go home? Will they allow Del to stay on
Earth? Will Del become a rock star? How will he handle
performing in front of live audiences; after all he is an
empath. DIAMOND STAR is one of those stories that start out slow
and then become amazingly complex. Catherine Asaro has
obviously done her research into the music-making business
before ever writing this story. That comes through.
However, the more I read of this story, the more I learned
about Del. The things he lived through, not only with his
family but from his government as well is amazing. He's
always been the black sheep of the family and only wanted
to live his life on his own terms but was never given the
chance. And I have to admit, tears did start to flow at the
ending. Excellent story and one I'm glad I did read.
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted October 15, 2009
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| SUMMARY |
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***PNR REVIEWER TOP PICK*** Del was a rock singer. He was also the renegade son of the Ruby Dynasty, which made his career choice less than respectable, and gave him more to worry about than getting gigs and not getting cheated by recording companies, club owners, or his agent. For one thing, the Ruby Dynasty ruled the Skolian Imperialate, an interstellar Empire, which had recently had a war with another empire, the Eubian Concord. For another, Del was singing on Earth, which was part of a third interstellar civilization, and one which had an uneasy relationship with the Imperialate. Del undeniably had talent, and was rapidly rising from an unknown fringe artist to stardom. But, with his life entangled in the politics of three interstellar civilizations, whether he wanted that or not, talent might not be enough. And that factor might have much more effect than his music on the lives of trillions of people on the thousands of inhabited worlds across the galaxy. Genre: Science Fiction
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