THOKAR@LL (12/28/82)
``The Pirates of Rosinante'', the third book of the Rosinante series by Alexis Gilliland, continues in the same superb style of the previous two. The author's only novel length works to date tell the story of an O'Neil Colony, Mundito(small world) Rosinante, circa 2040 and its struggle for survival against budget cutbacks, ecological crisis, and multi-national-corporate and international politics. Rosinante is a world populated by its constuction crew plus several thousand deported, mostly male, Texan collage-student rioters; an equal number of Korean female immigrants that Japan was getting rid of, and several sentient computers, the most intriguing members of the community. The computers have achieved "person" statis by the legal fiction of incorpating themselves. Truly unique characters. In book one, ``The Revolution from Rosinante'', the mundito and its two sister colonies are being built by a construction firm owned by Charles Cantrell for a multi-corporation venture. Due to world recession, the corporations plan to default on the projects to minimize losses. One mundito, in mid-construction, is destroyed by rioting, unpaid construction workers. Another has barely been started. Only Rosinante is habitable. Thus, burdened with the outcast Texans and Koreans, Rosinante decides its only hope to recoup its losses is to go it alone. Book two deals with Rosinante's break from earth. It adds new players to the game and focuses on the problems of creating a new national culture. The lead computer, Corporate Skaskash, in its personification of Bogart from ``Casablanca'', is the "brains" of outfit. In the latest book Cantrell, governor of the new nation, works to defend his coloney from the Japanese Space Navy, who have been pirating industrial production. The most straight-foreward action book of the three, it offers a host of technical solutions to Rosinante's political problems. A fast-paced read and richly enjoyable. -------