Cherry Dare, beauty queen turned space engineer, thinks the intruder she runs across in the corridor outside the lab containing UMPH – the top-secret computer that could one day cast a protective halo around the Earth – looks more like a dancer from a male revue than a scientist onboard a space lab. His name is Rosik and he says he’s there to find out what kind of diabolical experiment they’re running on the skylab to siphon the power from his ship, the Miramid, and all the other ships passing through the quadrant that included Earth. He’s not about to tell her that the device has also stripped him of his telepathic powers. The one thing it hasn’t taken from him, it appears, is the raging lust that began coursing through him since he’d boarded the skylab and laid eyes on Cherry.

It’s 2031, and Cherry is finally living the life she’s strived so long to achieve. Or so she keeps telling herself, every time Dr. Uitti – otherwise known as Dim-Witty – used her beauty and past notoriety to drum up funds and notoriety for the project. Everything she was asked to do in the lab amounted to peanuts, not to mention that she had to fend off Dim-Witty’s inappropriate advances at every turn. Then Rosik managed to work his way into her good graces. He seemed so certain that UMPH was not the peaceful device she’d been led to believe it was, it was hard not to believe him, especially when the good doctor tries to kill him. Cherry, who isn’t about to have anything to do with a weapon designed to blow up, rather than protect planets, knows that it’s up to her to get them both off the station. She just hadn’t counted on having to leave her beloved China Cat Sunflower behind with her friend Sally, a circumstance that would lead to more danger from Dim-Witty and his savage Narcissian allies than she could ever have imagined.

Rosik is the third installment in Lil Gibson’s wonderful Feline Predators of Ganz series. Elements of treachery, deceit and death riddle Rosik, but like Zorroc and Sherem before it, a thread of amusing absurdity runs through Rosik, giving the intense, fast-paced and multi-faceted plot some comedic relief. Ms. Gibson’s characters are vibrant, three-dimensional, and in most cases, completely likeable. The villains are disgusting enough to dislike from the start. The heroines are scrappy women owned by some very opinionated & discerning house cats you’ll love even if you aren’t a cat fancier. And the heroes are yummy hunks with pretty kitty-cat eyes and a sexy purr. In fact, there are so many catmen and their mates running around in this series, you really need to read it in order, beginning with Zorroc, to keep track of everybody.

In Rosik, Cherry’s higher brain functions might not be in her boobs, but she is a bit of a flake, albeit in an appealing kind of way. Initially, Rosik is so caught up in past grief he’s content to love and leave every woman in two galaxies...that is, until he comes face-to-face with the lovely Cherry. Although she beguiles him, Hell will freeze over before he can bring himself to completely commit to her. At times, I grew so frustrated with his shilly-shallying, I wanted to leap into the story and bean him with a wake-up stick! On the other hand, he has the commendable patience of Job when it comes to Cherry. She gets into trouble so many times, requiring Rosik to rescue her, that it’s a wonder the man didn’t pull every hair out of his head...uh, mane. Granted, most of the calamities that befall her aren’t really her fault. She just always seems to be right where trouble can most easily find her. That isn’t in any way a flaw in the plot. It’s just Cherry.

Again, Ms. Gibson has thoroughly captivated me and left me hanging on for more of this tremendous series. She’s currently working on the next book. Finally, the intriguing and mysterious Bran will be getting his story, but it may not be a part of the Feline Predators of Ganz series. Dealing more with the world of metaphysics, it may be the first installment in Ms. Gibson’s upcoming Time of the Ozakkia series. According to her interview with TwoLips, running this month in our Featured Authors section, she hopes to see Bran published by the spring of 2011.