SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (1/5)

I first read this in May 2000.

In the future, the old custom of "transportation" is reinented. This time, however, convicts are not sent to Australia, but are imprisoned on asteroids with orbits redirected to the appropriate periodicity. However, thesystem is abused and it becomes easier to make small deliberate miscalculations in the redirection of the orbits that result in the astreoids never returning.

This book, although a novel, is largely a collection of the stories of some of these asteroids, and heart-breaking stories they are indeed.

It's a good book, with worthwhile discussion of the moral issues, but essentially it's so depressing.