Firedance

Firedance is the last book in a trilogy (the others being Streetlethal and then Gorgon Child), and boy does it go out with a bang! The whole series is jam-packed with action and intrigue, which in itself is perceptive commentary on human nature. This book completes the story of Aubry Knight, a born and bred warrior, who throughout the series reluctantly finds himself at the forefront of persecuted humanitarian organizations. This particular book tells the story of Aubry Knight seeking revenge for someone assassinating his friend. The story takes him across continents where he finds himself as an assassin of a head-of-state, in a zero-gravity fighting championship and finally finding out the identity and whereabouts of his birth family (he was orphaned at a young age).

Just like the old axiom...this book gathered dust on my shelf until I was in the mood to read it...the lurid cover was a turn off. Particularly, the martial-arts-fighter-hero main character really seemed typical. I was wrong. This book is a deeply textured morality tale about power, politics and technology. The action, superb, is just part of the story. This has all the trademarks of cyberpunk with a solid story. The fact that I read the third book in the trilogy was not a problem, in fact, it just made me determined to track down the other two. Greg Davies/Toronto

This book combines excellent action writing with fascinating, deeply researched information on the body and mind typical of all of Barnes' work. This is one of his best.

Firedance is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. Its notion of reality is so far off our own that it is a very difficult read. I am therefore not surprised it is no longer available. Such fantasies can be accepted on their own terms, however, as long as they are internally consistent. This one is, remarkably so, for a book that must have extraordinarily difficult to write. If I can ever get a copy to replace my beat-up one, preferably in hardback, I would would be most pleased. Rafti lives

This is the third in the Aubry Knight trilogy and all three are excellent. The fight scenes are so well described and choregraphed that you can practically see them