Star Wartz

Freelance journalist Andrew Webber used to feel the same way about junk mail as the rest of us. you look, you recognise its complete irrelevance to your life, you bin it. But the offer to have his details included in the new Galactic Fax Directory seemed unusually irrelevant - not to say bizarre - and maybe worthy of further investigations.

To find out more, Andrew arranges a lunch appointment with the boss of the enterprise. But when he turns up at their offices in Soho, he is understandably perturbed to find the venue has changed. By several zillion miles.

Miraculously transported to the Rimworld on the edge of the galaxy, Andrew finds himself enjoying the hospitality of corporate raider Constantine Parnassus and his amazingly tall, incredibly beautiful assistant Shalimar, seven feet of exotic fantasy fodder.

And while Andrew recovers from shock, Parnassus fills him in on the reasons for this mindbending piece of cosmic kidnapping. For Connie has a plan, a plan promising wealth and excitement, and Andrew is just the chap to help him carry it out.