Jumping off the Planet FROM THE CRITICS
Science Fiction Weekly
The crisp, breezy writing makes Planet a quick read, but Gerrold packs a great deal of information into a small space.
Publishers Weekly
Nebula- and Hugo-winner Gerrold, who scripted the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles," gives an engaging new twist to the "growing up novel"--growing right off the planet Earth. Costarring with Gerrold's precocious 13-year-old hero, Charles "Chigger" Dingillian, is the Beanstalk, a dizzying orbital elevator system running on magnetic induction that lifts humanity from the exhausted Earth it is devouring to the Moon, the planets and, eventually, the stars. In this first volume of the projected Starsiders Trilogy, Chigger, the always overlooked middle sibling and neither child nor adult, is the human battleground for his divorced parents: a wimpy musician father who kidnaps his boys to give them a chance at a better life off Earth and a newly lesbian mother who venomously chases them into space. Chigger bridges the gap separating his older brother, Weird, and his younger, Stinky, as they ride the Beanstalk between the festering Earth, teeming with crazies and plagues, and the burgeoning new off-world societies. With the boys caught up in the smuggling and big-business intrigue that simmers in a world where international corporatism has made all borders irrelevant, Gerrold pulls off Chigger's choices with just the right mix of preteen braggadocio and heartbreak. The science here is every bit as convincing as the fiction, adding a satisfying intellectual dimension to the start of a classy take on an old, old tale: an everyboy climbs a beanstalk to discover who he will be as a man. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
KLIATT
Set in the near enough future to be only a slight exaggeration of current events, this tale is told by Charles (Chigger), a 13-year-old embittered victim of an ongoing custody battle by parents who, like the overcrowded, overstressed populations of Earth surrounding them, just keep notching up the pressure. Chigger's father is taking him and his two brothers, 17-year-old Douglas (Weird) and 6-year-old Robert (Stinky), for a month's vacation to see the Line, a multi-cabled structure anchored by an asteroid in geo— synchronous orbit, built to elevator up loads and people for commercial space launches to the outer colonies. The father describes Earth as being eaten down to the bone, and people are still chewing on it. Despite government policies, countries' populations have continued to multiply, along with a steady consumption that has resulted in energy and food shortages, and outbreaks of plague. Those with money and influence have moved onto the Line, which to all intents and purposes has become another nation, providing high-quality jobs and a means for money manipulation. The Line residents have become contemptuous of downsiders. Rather than passing benefits down, the upsiders keep prices artificially inflated and products scarce. Chigger is not interested in what has brought his parents to this point—he just wants them to stop. Indeed, he's desperate for them to just once mean what they say and keep their promises. It all culminates before a Line judge in a deftly articulate and sadly compelling court scene, wherein an attorney attempts to make Chigger feel guilty for abandoning his mother. Chigger points out the people assembled in the courtroom are contemplating cuttingloose the Line and asteroid from the planet, despite the deva-station it would cause the Earth physically and economically, if the desperate people left behind become a threat. A condemnation of human beings' increasing failure to care for their own is laid out in diamond-hard prose. In a metaphorical mirror of the blighted planet, Chigger's parents and the authorities have missed the fact that while they were struggling with each other for possession, the objects being fought over have become warped, drained and now independent. An important and thoughtful story for all levels. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Tor, 281p. 18cm., $5.99. Ages 13 to adult. Reviewer: Liz LaValley; Mattapoisett, MA , July 2001 (Vol. 35, No. 4)
Internet Book Watch
In the near future three siblings are caught on different levels, between warring parents and a collapsing society. When their father devises a vacation for them, they don't suspect they're really being kidnapped and that an offplanet goal is the ultimate destination when they do find out, danger and difficult decisions evolve in this fastpaced science fiction story which is especially strong on building the characters of three very different brothers.
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