Ascendant Sun (The Saga of the Skolian Empire)

The adventures of super-sexy space-stud Kelric Garlin continue, as he comes back from the dead in Ascendant Sun, the fifth--and so far raciest--installment in Catherine Asaro's popular Saga of the Skolian Empire series (which kicked off with 1995's Primary Inversion). But Kelric needs to keep his miraculous resurrection hush-hush: presumed dead after crash-landing on Coba 18 years ago in Last Hawk, love-prisoner Kelric endured and finally escaped the lusty attentions of the planet's swoony ruling matriarchy. Back at last, the bronze-god telepath finds that his world has been turned upside down: The galaxy-uniting psiberweb has collapsed, the Allied Worlds of Earth control the Skolian Empire, and his family, the Ruby Dynasty, are all either dead or held hostage, leaving him as the sole and long-lost Imperial Heir, a man nearly everyone in power would see imprisoned or assassinated--if they knew he was alive.

Harvard-trained physicist Asaro continues to astound by straddling the SF and romance genres so adroitly, alternating between chin-rubbing speculations on quantum theory and blushingly steamy sex scenes with all the skill of an accomplished ballet dancer (which, coincidentally, she also is). Surely junior-high kids will get their paws on this title tout de suite (and quickly skip to the "good" parts), but Asaro's award-winning prose, her knack for high-adventure story-telling, and her equal expertise in both science and romance make this a worthy read for any fan of either genre. --Paul Hughes