With the Earth ruled by a vast, Japanese-dominated empire, So Pak, son of the Earth's finest historian, puts together a probe expedition and heads for the distant world of Zeta Reticuli to rescue two mining expeditiions. Original.
Only two stars ... I'd wanted dearly to like this book, but the writing is of such poor quality, it actually gets in the way of the story. I finished it; it was just-barely okay, but alas, I won't be reading it again -- and I do regret saying this, because from the blurb and cover, I'd really wanted to get into it. :/