The January Dancer, by Easton, Pa. native Michael Flynn tells the story of an alien artifact chased across the galaxy by an assortment of heroes and villains, it’s a slow, rambling sort of space opera that was strongest in its opening chapters, but managed to keep me engaged from chapter to chapter. The most curious thing about this book was that I’d already read the opening chapter — in which Capt. January finds the relic in ancient “prehuman” ruins — somewhere else.
It’s always an odd feeling to read a book and slowly realize … “hey, I read this before … but where?” I still don’t know the answer to that question — it wasn’t in The New Space Opera or The Space Opera Renaissance, though thinking back it’s likely it could have been an old issue of Analog or Asimov’s.