Coyote Frontier - Allen Steele

Coyote - Allen Steele

Around 46 light years from Earth is the star of 47 Ursae Majoris. A major discovery leads scientists to believe that one of the moons orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris B, a gas giant, in this star system could be capable of sustaining life. A new America, now a fascist state, pours all of its resources into creating an interstellar starship capable of traveling the huge distance to this new world, named Coyote, in the hopes that colonisation is possible. What's not planned, though, is for the ship's captain, Robert E. Lee, to steal the ship during launch with the help of his mostly loyal crew. Also onboard are a number of 'dissidents', rescued during the final hours of the ...

Orbital Decay - Allen Steele

I do have several of Allen Steele's novels, but I have to start somewhere. It is in fact rather galling to have to report that this is in fact one of his best. You have to wonder why that is. It is a noticeable phenomenon, a writer making a splash with the first few novels- something genuinely disturbing and thought provoking- and becoming just another hack by the fourth or fifth, all the distinctiveness gone in a stilted, formulaic, unremarkable read. I'd go so far as to suspect it happens more often than not. I don't think it's a jaded, saturated audience; considering some of the things that people are prepared to read and re- read, I don't think ...