Badly defended by her two-headed lawyer (one of whose heads happened to be asleep), wealthy and beautiful Siobhan Mallory, falsely accused of heinous crimes against "humanoidanity and the galaxy" had been sentenced to be hanged. Despite the irrefutable DNA evidence, she was innocent. In the not-so-charming accommodations where she was to be held until her execution, she met wickedly engaging Jeremy Kincaid, pirate. When his appeal came through--i.e., his personal cavalry--Caid bypassed her offering of riches and suggested to trade her sexual favors for his taking her with him. Then his partner Vizzy, a green-furred orange/black-eyed reptilian-headed Shellik blasted in, and swooped them off to Caid's ship. Not that it started.

So they borrowed a second ship and swooped off to parts unknown. The escape left Siobhan scarred and woozy, but not as woozy as when Caid plied her with liquor to get her drunk enough to sew up the slash on her face. Then they were off on a race across the galaxy first to evade their pursuers, and second to figure out the mystery of who actually was guilty of the crime of which Siobhan had been accused.

CARBON COPY is not exactly a Carbon Copy of Star Wars, but some of the elements sure are there. We have the irascible hero, the captured damsel, the hairy side-kick, the magical mentor, the stolen space ship, the race across the galaxy, not to mention the Star Trek similarities as well. (A transporter by another name is a transporter still.) However, to give Ashley Ladd her due, almost every hero has a sidekick, and rescues fair maidens and . . . in fact, Star Wars is practically a template for the basic quest story, so I would guess it is fair to call CARBON COPY a quest. The story is action-oriented rather than romantic, and sensual rather than erotic. There are sex scenes which use realistic language, but they are relatively brief. If you really like Star Warss, or Space Pirate-type stories, if you like a touch of humor and if you don't want pages of scalding sex, then you'll enjoy this book.

Reviewed By: Allie B
© Sept 2004