The Reapers, a kind of shape-shifting vampire, were greatly feared. Leader of the six Elite Reaper warriors on the Frontier Station Khamsin-14, Kamerone Cree was unjustly called before a tribunal of the Court of Military Inquiry and condemned to "reinforcement,Ó followed by a month of punishment on Helios Twelve. Reinforcement was held at the Behavioral Modification unit, and only the fact that the Behaviorist team was led by Kamerone Cree's father's consort saved his life.

The Rysalian Empire had once created a biological weapon intended to sterilize its enemies, but it had backfired and killed all of their own women. Before the men died out, they lucked onto Terra (Earth) and found that the women of earth could produce children with Rysalian men, though the children could not reproduce. Terran women were "harvestedÓ for the purpose of reproducing male children; and two of these originally Terran women were on the Behavior Mod team assigned to Kamerone Cree. Defying the orders of the Tribunal, Dr. Beryla Dean, consort of Cree's father, reduced the (extremely graphic) cruel treatments from five daily to three to one per day. For the sake of saving his life, she risked arguing with her superiors in the open theater in front of the official witnesses. The second Terran, Dr. Bridget Dunne stood by Cree during his treatments. He came to focus on her sympathetic green eyes as his lifeline, even though Reapers were conditioned not to show weakness, caring or humanity.

But there's another thread interwoven into the complex plot. Kamerone Cree's punishment had been initiated because of a movement called "the resistance.Ó What the Tribunal did not know was that a secondary effect of the torturous behavior mod treatments--which were intended to be punishing him--was also to effectively reprogram him. For the Resistance.

After the behavior mod, Cree, known as Iceman for his coldness, found his behavior changing--found he had feelings where there were none before. And one of the most important feelings was an attachment to Dr. Bridget Dunn--an attachment induced in him by subliminal messages. And Bridget had an attachment of her own. But how could she be attracted to a shape-shifting assassin? Was it part of a plan to fight for the Resistance, or was it love? Because Bridget would become the mirror in which the Iceman sees himself--where could it lead?

As always, Charlotte Boyett-Compo has written an amazing tangle of well-drawn believable characters, a tormented hero and heroine in situations where no happy solution could be possible. Through her pen, the magic of this alien world comes to life. Every character is so realistic and full of life that BLOODWIND is intensely moving. Superlative.

Reviewed By: Allie B
© July 2004

The review is of a previously published version of this title.