In the introduction to this Audible.com audiobook, author Allen Steele states that he wanted to write a space colonization story as he imagined it would really take place. Rather than arriving with technology and terraforming, the colonists would travel much as the Pilgrims journeyed to America. They would be under-equipped, under-trained, and under-prepared for an unknown environment. For the most part, Steele has succeeded in writing that story, and it’s pretty enjoyable. It brought back to me the feel of science fiction that I loved as a youth.
It’s also written as a series of short stories, most of which were published in Asimov’s. The first Stealing Alabama
tells how Robert E. Lee, the captain of the first interstellar colony ship, the U.R.S.S. Alabama, conspired with dissidents to steal
the ship. Steal is a bit of a misnomer. The ship still goes to it’s intended destination, the planet code-named Coyote in the Ursae Majoris 47 system. But instead of United Republic of America Liberty Party loyalists, half the crew are dissidents snuck aboard the ship. And the new colony will no longer consider itself an extension of the right-wing semi-fascist state.
As part of a novel, the first story was anti-climactic. If the ship didn’t make it to Coyote, the seven stories that followed would have had to consist of blank pages. Normally I don’t worry about spoilers for a story. A book has to survive whether I know where it goes or not. However in this story, the whole story was the thriller-esque question of whether they would launch and get away to Coyote.
Most of the subsequent stories deal with the lives and adventures of the colonists after they arrive on the habitable but not very inviting world of Coyote. The parallels to the Pilgrims and other American colonists seem to be intentional. Steele goes so far as to have the colonists rename the shuttles the Plymouth and Mayflower. They have to struggle with getting crops planted in time for the first winter. They have quarrels. They have feuds. They struggle against the elements and wild life. Some colonists leave. All pretty good.
But the standout story for me was actually the second part of the book, published originally as The Days Between
in Asimov’s. To travel the 40-odd light years to Coyote, the Alabama moves at 20% the speed of light with its colonists in biostasis
, or asleep. The trip will take about 240 years overall. However, one crew member is accidentally woken early. Lesley Gillis has no human contact, little possible activity, and no hope of living long enough to see Coyote. It’s very bleak and depressing, but very good.
Other blogged reviews:
Title: Coyote
Author: Allen Steele
Series: Coyote; 1
Imprint / publisher: Audible Frontiers
Format: Audiobook
Length: 16 hours, 36 minutes
Publication date: August 2008 (originally November 2002)
Subject: Space colonies — Fiction
Subject: Dissenters — Fiction
Subject: Outer space — Exploration — Fiction
LC classification: PS3569.T338425 C69 2002
