Dream Dancer is a 1980 novel by Janet Morris

Janet Morris

Janet Ellen Morris is an American author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for her fantasy and science fiction and her authorship of a nonlethal weapons concept for the U.S. military.-Writing:...

, the first in her Kerrion Space trilogy.

Plot outline

Chaeron, renegade second son of the most powerful family in space, the Kerrions, both a corporation and a political entity, finds 16-year old Shebat on a primitive Earth. He persuades her to accompany him into his high-tech world, marrying her, initially for political reasons. The Kerrions rule their merchant empire from their headquarters on Draconis. Shebat becomes a Dream Dancer (a practice not necessarily approved by all as it can become addictive to its users) and acquires the ability to read the future. She and Chaeron work together sometimes but against each other and the family interests at others. Shebat must learn to deal with those who control the destiny of millions of people – and to whom treachery, betrayal and murder are part of doing business.

The Kerrion Empire’s semi-sentient Cruisers fly through “sponge” space and give the Kerrions vast control over the majority of the civilizations encompassed by the Kerrion Empire. Against considerable odds, Shebat qualifies as a cruiser pilot, which involves interacting with the cruiser’s intelligence. In the midst of a family political crisis, certain members of the Kerrion Family see Chaeron’s new bride as a threat to their power and arrange for her to be sent back to earth and stranded there.