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Biased and superficial Science Fiction reviews

           
     
Orbital Resonance

Copyright 1991 by John Barnes

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SOJALS rating:     
one SOJALS point one SOJALS point one SOJALS point no SOJALS point no SOJALS point    Good (3/5)

I first read this on the 7th April 2003.

The Flying Dutchman is one of mankind's first starships. It is a vast craft constructed from an asteroid. It is bearing 72,000 people h heading out from Earth to the stars.

Melpomene is a thirteen-year-old girl living on the spacecraft. She is a very clever child in a superb educational system. She's the privileged product of the best that civilisation can offer.

Of course things are never quite that simple and Melpomene's innocent childhood quickly comes to an upsetting end. She must reappraise everyone she trusted, and everything in which she believed.

John Barnes does a Heinlein for the '90s in this coming-of-age novel. This is a superbly written novel, exhilarating in its ideas and in the childrens' characters. Melpomene is quite exceptional but other children also are believable if exceptionally talented. Fab stuff.

Loaded on the 1st June 2003.
    
Cover of Orbital Resonance
Cover art by Bob Eggleton

Reviews of other works by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes:
The Return

Reviews of other works by John Barnes:
Mother Of Storms
Kaleidoscope Century
Earth Made Of Glass
Finity
Candle
The Sky So Big And Black



Reviews of other works with covers by Bob Eggleton:
The Spheres Of Heaven
Year's Best SF (1996)
Heads
The Engines Of God
Araminta Station
Kaleidoscope Century
Saturn's Race
Probability Sun
Prador Moon
The Prometheus Project

Reviews of other works with covers by Bob Eggleton and Carol Russo Design:
Saturn Rukh