Apollo’s Outcasts

Hugo-winning SF author Steele offers a fast-paced adventure set in the late 21st-century, sending a handful of kids to the Moon in the wake of a political coup in America. Jamey Barlowe, 16, was born on the Moon but raised on Earth; as a result of a low-gravity infancy, Jamey uses a multifunctional “mobil” chair to get around. En route, Jamey and his fellow refugees worry about the friends and family left behind in a now-hostile environment, where the new administration is imprisoning potential resistors and threatening to make war on the lunar colony of Apollo. Anxious to do something productive upon arriving in Apollo (and able to walk for the first time), Jamey joins the elite Lunar Search and Rescue, just in time to end up on the front lines. Steele adeptly mixes political intrigue, combat, and character development as he ushers Jamey through an action-packed trial by fire. Like the best Heinlein juveniles, the science is realistic and the concepts drawn from modern speculation, and there’s even some chaste romance. This is solid, space-faring fun. Ages 12–up. Agent: Martha Millard, Martha Millard Literary Agency. (Nov.)