Candle Dancers (Hardcover)

The backdrop to this story is set many years in the past, before our world and universe was created. Planets in a galaxy far away are dying and disintegrating. Powerful, despotic rulers govern and control the inhabitants of these planets with extreme, repressive brutal measures. Everything, even down to what can be performed and who can work in theatres, is controlled. Candle Dancers is the name of a variety troupe who travels between the planets in their spaceship, the Auriga Lick, to entertain the inhabitants. They perform often in very gritty, squalid venues, with shows, prescribed by the rulers, of thinly veiled pornography. The troupe's life becomes complicated when their director is attacked, mortally wounded, and eventually pronounced dead. A group of his friends disbelieve the verdict and steal him away to restore him to life, which they successfully achieve. He decides to take revenge on his murderer, but unfortunately and accidentally, this revenge explodes, causing the despotic rulers to believe that they are under an attack from a terrorist organization. Their top female detective is brought out of retirement to investigate. She apprehends the perpetrator and then falls madly and irrevocably in love with him. A brutal response is exacted by the rulers, who believe they have been deceived. Will this beautiful, wonderful love survive the barbaric retaliation, or is it just an illusion?