From Publishers Weekly
This concluding novel in the Stardance trilogy, after Stardance (1977) and Starseed (1992), suffers from a problem common to later volumes in multibook sagas: competing demands between the plot and the series' backstory. The Starmind, a universal overmind engineered by benevolent aliens from telepathically linked human Stardancers, is the Robinsons' response to SF's usual presentation of human futures based on technological, rather than artistic, development. Here, though, the Starmind's final evolution seems too methodical and out of sync with the novel's human focus: the moving drama of 21st-century writer Rhea Paixao and the emotional rift that grows between her and composer husband Rand Porter when he moves the family from her beloved Earth to a luxury hotel in outer space. Subplots concerning an assassination attempt and a conspiracy to liberate humanity from the Starmind's control illustrate the parochial concerns the human race must overcome in order to achieve the apotheosis planned for it. Not surprisingly, the novel features the authors' usual well-drawn characters, but the euphoric optimism of its climax seems unearned and less believable than the concluding pathos of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End, to which this trilogy is clearly indebted. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Midwest Book Review
This final book of the Stardance trilogy will best be appreciated by readers of the prior books, which introduce the Starmind which has given humanity the ability to move beyond Earth. Composer Rand finds there's a conspiracy to destroy the Starmind, and finds himself embroiled in a social and political conflict which could ultimately destroy the Earth.

ANNOTATION

Hugo and Nebula Award-winning authors Jeanne and Spider Robinson offer a magnificent new novel in the Stardance trilogy. Thanks to the benevolent Starmind, Earth is in a utopian state of peace and prosperity. But just as humanity reaches the brink of final evolution, a terrorist sect threatens to destroy the Starmind.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

It is 2064. Earth is enjoying an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity, all due to the mysterious, benevolent Starmind, which has given humanity the resources to abolish war and exist in space. Art in all its forms flourishes, and Rand Porter finds his talent as a composer in great demand. So much so he is offered the prestigious title of Co-Artistic Director and Resident Shaper/Composer at the Shimizu Hotel - the finest, most luxurious hotel in High Earth Orbit. But prestige can have a price. And the Shimizu Hotel has suddenly become a hive of treachery and terrorism aimed at one purpose: the destruction of the Starmind. Now Rand must find a way to thwart the plot, or Earth will be destroyed. And humanity itself - so close to its final evolutionary stage - will cease to exist...

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly