THE CLASSIC OF ROMANTIC SCIENCE FICTION
"The Aleta story was worth the price of the issue," -1956 letter Madge Saunders to Other Worlds magazine, where the novel first appeared.
"I will eradicate the disease of war from the minds of men forever." –Aleta's Vow.
Trapped in the midst of endless galactic war, a frightened woman vowa to do everything in her power to bring peace to the planets. Why, then, was her every act destined to bring more bloodshed and betrayal to those she had loved best? A refugee from a war-torn Earth aboard a ship of refugees, Aleta longed for the peace a new word promised and the arms of her fiancée who would follow two weeks later. But fear and dread filled her heart when a warship of Earth's enemies, the relentless Novakkans who had conquered half a galaxy, appeared. A moment later the refugee ship was destroyed and Aleta, along with a handful of others, was castaway on a lifeship, a tiny speck floating alone in infinite space – with no hope of rescue. Yet, Aleta was rescued; by Rahn Buskner, one of the most savage warriors of the savage Novakkans, who would fight his fellow soldiers for the right to her body and win it with his blade. But, before he could claim her, she would escape with a fellow Earthman, and as they raced from world to work seeking refuge, would fall in love with him, and find herself carrying his child. Aleta would meet the peoples the Novakkans had targeted for conquest and slavery – Golgons, Magians, Unorian, and the peaceful, knowledge seeking Eg – and would discover a repository of ancient scientific knowledge where the ultimate secret of cause and effect, the power of ending war forever was said to lay lost and forgotten.
But before she could find that secret, Rahn Buskner followed, slaying everyone and every planet that offered Aleta refuge. Until she had to make a devil's bargain and surrender her body to appease his blood madness. Aleta manages to bring about a cease-fire, but she knows it is only temporary, for the seeds of future battle are already sown. What she does not know is that the only possible fulfillment of her oath will lay with her own children – if they can live long enough!
Here is the first volume of a classic science fiction family saga, and of humanity caught up in the endless dream of war and power. And of the three women who swore to end that dream and wake humanity to a higher state of consciousness – not knowing they were players in a greater game and the objects of a prophecy which spoke of three stars.
"The yellow star is a woman, Aleta, tall, stately, fair, a queen ... because of her the galaxy will be divided. Planets will burn. Mighty warships will spread death and destruction. "The red star is a girl, Aline, daughter of the Yellow Star, slender, sensitive, auburn of hair, blue of eyes. From another era she will coax life and weapons of unlimited power. She will cast her lot with that of a man accepted as a god, whose power is greater than an armada. She will bring peace, but it is only a lull. "The dark star, Evela is the spirit of life and mystery in a dark and sultry girl. Her net is spread over the galaxy, and the spell that she will cast will unleash all the furies of hell. It will be she who opens the gate to another era and all the terrors of mortal and immortal creation ... from infinity to infinity."
"I am not exaggerating when I say it is the best adventure story I've ever read in a science fiction magazine. The characters were not the least bit stereotyped. Each was as real as they could possibly have been." –1956 letter Joseph Casey to Other Worlds magazine. .
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II. Aline – The Red Star
III. Evela – The Dark Star
