Nebula Award winner Gerrold doesn't disappoint in this follow-up to 2000's Jumping Off the Planet. Charles "Chigger" Dingillian and his brothers believe they can get along well enough without their recently divorced parents, if they just stick together. They move off Earth and discover that a robot monkey given to the youngest of them possesses a computer far more advanced than might be required of a toy. In fact the computer is of a power that could make trillions of dollars for the owner. The youth of the protagonists automatically reminds one of Heinlein's juveniles. Though it is doubtful that the convoluted science here could be followed by Heinlein's targeted 12- to 14-year-olds, it really doesn't matter, because the real story is that of being thrust into a world that is adult indeed. After Chigger and his brothers leave Earth just in time to escape a plague that results in social and economic collapse, new friends lead them aboard an automated cargo pod bound for the moon. The moon is an unforgiving and potentially deadly environment, but the brothers soon wonder whether several mishaps are just that or deliberate attempts at murder. As the story continues, the line that divides friend from foe becomes more and more indistinct in this engaging, believable and eventually riveting book from the author revered for his immensely popular Star Trek
teleplay, "The Trouble with Tribbles." (Apr. 12)
