Dave Stone (1) (1964–)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3064835.html

This novel is rooted in two earlier works - Stone’s original introduction of the character of Jason Kane in Death and Diplomacy, and Philip Purser-Hallard’s story “Sex Secrets of the Robot Replicants” from the anthology A Life Worth Living (which I read last year but don’t seem to have reviewed). The Death and Diplomacy sections are rewritten from Jason’s point of view, which is nice because they were already the best bits of a decent enough novel. The concept lifted from the short story is that there are a load of short-lived Jason clones out there, originally created to help him with his xenoporn career but now roaming the universe. I was not sure if the whole thing really hung together, but it fills in the gaps in our knowledge of one of the key characters of Bernice Summerfield’s career.… (meer)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2988211.html

The three stories concern the aftermath of the disappearance of Clarissa, the secretary of the Braxiatel collection, with Bernice’s young son. The strongest is Rebecca Levene’s opener, with Bernice herself travelling to a world where gender roles are strongly reinforced and needing to disguise herself as a man. The middle one by Stewart Shergold is a not terribly exciting piece with regular characters Bev and Adrian trapped in a strange seaside hotel. The third piece, by Dave Stone, is fun if you like pirates (not really my thing) and also moves that overall narrative along more satidfactorily than the others.… (meer)