The Reverend Thomas Gold is an evangelical preacher who's chosen the Vainmill Syndicate as his target, and the Velvet Comet as the major example of their immoral business practices. The owners of the Comet persuade him to visit (with a healthy donation to his church) for PR purposes, and to try to deflect his attack.

But following his meeting two Andricans, alien beings working as prostitues - and the subsequent delivery of a video recording, stolen from the Vainmill Syndicate, showing more of these beings undergoing training for the Comet - Gold steps up the the level of his attacking sermons using the corporation's use of these aliens as the main thrust of his vitriolic attack on the evils of the Velvet Comet and its parent company.

The current madam of the Comet (The Steel Butterfly) has to try to contend with him as well as with the newly appointed head of the Entertainment Division of Vainmill who might intend on closing the brothel if he sees it as more nuisance than it's worth.

Once again Mike Resnick has delivered a novel that drags you kicking and screaming through to its ending before you even notice. This is so easy to read. The characters include typical Resnick folk with the usual colourful names (the aforementioned Steel Butterfly, the head of security Attila, and Oberon and Titania - the Andricans), but as well as these we get two types of more sombre characters not found in earlier volumes of the series - the religious types and the business executives.

This does indicate a shift from the first two novels in this series, and that's by no means a bad thing. To do otherwise would have been retreading paths already taken and certainly would not have been as interesting as this book turned out to be.

It's not a book that was ever likely to win awards or be heralded as one of the books of the last century, but if you like a fast moving tale without high scientific content then this is a book for you.