Perhaps
best known for his creation of a near future inhabited by the space
jockeys building space stations and lunar bases as well as his more
recent series focusing on the settlers of the planet Coyote, Allen
Steele has now turned his attention and skill to writing a young adult
novel which owes a debt not only to Heinlein’s juveniles, but also
Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress. Apollo’s
Outcasts focuses on Jamey Barlowe, a young man born on the Moon, but
raised on Earth and confined to a wheel chair.
Following
the sudden death of the President, Jamey finds himself on the run as his
father is implicated in the President’s assassination.
Jamey and his sister Melissa find themselves en route to the moon
to avoid being arrested and held hostage for their father’s good
behavior. On the ship with
them are Jamey’s good friend, Logan and three other kids who are also
fleeing a possibly vengeful US government. Once they’ve arrived on the
moon, Jamey and his six friends set about learning on to live in the
alien environment and culture.
Although
fraught with political intrigue, Apollo’s
Outcasts is really a coming-of-age story, as Jamey learns to be
self-sufficient, figures out his changing relationships with his sister,
best friend, and the strangers he is thrown into contact with on the
spaceship and once he arrives at the moon, and perhaps most importantly,
discovers how he fits into society at a larger level.
For Jamey, the wonders of the moon are combined with the wonders
of his ability to walk without crutches. Placed in a situation none of
them really wishes to be in, all six of the kids, even Jamey’s
self-centered older sister, Melissa, accepts the need to do public
service.
The
set up of Apollo, the city on the moon, seems like it could be taken
straight from one of Heinlein’s juveniles, with the presence and
guidance of adults who don’t interfere with the children’s voyage of
discovery, the need to education and public service, and, eventually,
the introduction of the Lunar Search and Rescue team, or Rangers, that
Jamey and Logan join to fulfill their public service.
Steele guides us through their training, making it clear that it
isn’t a walk in the park and allows his character to have a sense of
accomplishment as they progress through their training even as a
political crisis which could have been ripped straight from Heinlein’s
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
begins to unfold with Jamey and one of his fellow refugees at its
center.
The
only times Steele asks his readers to fully suspend their disbelief is
in his portrayal of the federal government, which asks the reader to buy
into the most paranoid conspiracy theories, and the first contact
between the Rangers and the invading Earth forces, in which Jamey
demonstrates an ability which seems almost superhuman in contrast to the
rest of the novel where Jamey is clearly a sixteen year-old coming to
terms with the strange situation he finds himself in and rising to the
occasion.
Apollo’s
Outcasts
presents life on the moon as full of the sense of wonder which so much
science fiction seems to be lacking.
Rather than presenting some high-concept big idea, Steele
presents a story which clearly has some aspects of wish fulfillment for
the author, and that feeling that walking and living on the moon is
something the author wants to do comes across clearly to the reader. His
characters are real and their relationships and decisions are all based
on the characterizations Steele provides, none of them made for simply
the exigencies of plot. Apollo’s
Outcasts is not just a great book to give the teenager you know, but
is a great book to read and enjoy as an adult.
