Putting Up Roots

Sheffield's second solo Jupiter novel (the series was launched with Higher Education, coauthored with Jerry Pournelle) uses the same future as his first, Billion Dollar Boy. Abandoned by his mother, then by his uncle, Josh Kerrigan and his autistic cousin, Dawn, join a ragtag band of other abandoned adolescents sent to the planet Solferino. Said to be a farmers' paradise, the planet actually holds extraordinary mineral wealth, as well as a native species called ruperts who, predictably, turn out to be intelligent. There are corporate predators, too, but arrayed against them are not only the ingenious youths but an undercover cop. The characterization is the richest of the Jupiter series so far, and the technical detail is up to the usual high standard. The pacing is brisk, but the narrative is marred by numerous implausibilities in plotting. Aimed at a young adult as well as an adult audience, the book reads like a condensed version of a full-fledged adult novel about twice as long and probably twice as good. It will, however, do as much as its predecessors to achieve the series' aim of creating a new generation of scientifically rigorous action-SF novels for a readership that's young, or young in spirit. (Sept.)