Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Coyote

By Allen Steele

     When a moon of a distant gas giant is discovered to probably be capable of sustaining human life, a spaceship is constructed to fly a crew and settlers out there. The journey will take over 200 years, and the people will spend the time on the ship in stasis; it is mankind's greatest adventure. But this is the late 21st century, and the United States as we know it has long since been replaced by the draconian United Republic of America. The project has all but bankrupted the country, many people live in abject poverty, but something unexpected is about to happen. A group of "intellectual dissidents" bound for incarceration in a camp hijack the ship, and a very different group of people are soon setting out for the world of Coyote.

     The first in a trilogy, this very engrossing novel combines classic SF's uplifting "sense of wonder" with a modern grittiness. There is a unique world to explore on one hand, and political machinations on the other. I kept expecting clichés to spoil an imaginative story, but somehow most of them fail to materialize - the author is too inventive for that. Add a cliff-hanging ending and a real page-turning atmosphere as the settlers struggle with their new home, and you have a winner. On the other hand, I never got used to the fact that most of the book is told in the present tense (always, in my opinion, an odd and jarring choice for a novel's voice) but I did applaud the excerpts of diaries that told the tale through some of the settlers' eyes. This would have been even better if more viewpoints had been employed a la Wilkie Collins, but even this did not truly alloy my pleasure in this delightful book. Highly recommended.

The Book

Orbit (Time Warner)
February 2005
Paperback
1841493678
Science Fiction
More at Amazon.com US || UK

Excerpt

NOTE:

The Reviewer

Rachel A Hyde
Reviewed 2005
NOTE:
© 2005 MyShelf.com