Rating: 
Summary: Mostly a sociological study
Review: This book is "science" fiction in the sense that it its setting is an interstellar voyage to start a colony on the moon Coyote, in a planetary system 230 light-years from the Sun.
However, I found it to be mostly a study of the social workings of the new colony. The problems inherent to starting a colony in a new ecosystem were not dwelt upon. The moon was different from Earth, but not very much different.
From the social point of view, I thought the book was OK. There's a large cast of characters, and a few of them are singled out for development. I found Carlos Montero's story to be interesting in its ups and downs.
I also enjoyed the episode with one of the colonists being woken up during the voyage, and being forced to live out his life alone on the starship with everyone else asleep. A neat storyline.
I also must point out that I've just come from an author signing, and Mr. Steele said that when he was writing, he wrote not as Ch. 1, Ch. 2, etc., but rather as a series of short stories. This may be why some other reviews thought the book was a little disconnected.
Rating: 
Summary: So what happens next?
Review: This is a great book, an exciting adventure, and very political. However, it is not finished. It is easy to get caught up in the story of a small group of space pioneers trying to build a new life on Coyote, but because it is told in vignettes there is little cohesion. Characters appear, tell a bit of their story in journal format, and disappear. It is like a game, who will survive? Not that they all die, their storyline is simply dropped. At some point I no longer tried to remember their names or roles in the society. Time crawls by, and then it jumps in years. But I kept reading and enjoying the adventure. The book is a circle. When I got to the end I realized I was back at the beginning. These people want to be free from any political structure but their own. So I need to read the second book, the continuation of the story. So far there is none. I am left without answers to my questions. Was there another civilization on Coyote? Are those other creatures primitive man or Ewoks? Do they have a governement? What happens when the medicine runs out? What happened to the other spaceships? What is the legacy of the next generation? If Coyote gets crowded will they flee to yet another planet? Or will they want to become part of the larger group their parents chose to shun? I need more!
Rating:
Summary: Strange roller coaster mixture of great and horrible
Review: While the book has many interesting and redeeming factors; there were also enough annoying mistakes to render the good factors neutral.
On the good side, the intersteller travel technology was well done, as well as the political intrigue. Character development was also top notch.
However, the book flops on at least three points - 1) The map of the world... while this could have been a great point, it falls flat on its face - how could there be so many rivers bisecting/trisecting entire continents? - ludicrous, really, as almost all of the many continents have this idiotic impossible feature, including the main river that the explorers venture out on. 2) The author evidently never heard of tacking a boat into the wind - unbelievable and annoying misunderstanding of a simple basic technological premise of exploration by sea... he has the explorers needing to cross the equator multiple times just to catch winds in a given direction. 3) Odd typographical and grammatical errors appear out of nowhere - did the author and editor's grammer checker go on the blink on random paragraphs?
Yet, despite these huge flaws, the book has so many good points, it makes the book worth reading... indeed it is a fairly fun and quick read, if you just ignore the mistakes. In fact, I'm moving on to the second book, and hope there aren't more annoying huge mistakes that I'll be forced to overlook.
Rating:
Summary: could have been better
Review: why is it always right wing goverment who is oppressive and totalitarian? Very irritating to hear such nonsense when the most oppressive goverments have always been communist(author seems rather confused about which one is which) However, if you are willing to ignore that little piece of information, you can actually enjoy first half of the book. After that it gets pretty boring. Allen Steele doesn't have the ability to hold the reader's attention. A shame because it could have been a good story.
Rating: 
Summary: The best of everything, but in moderation.
Review: With the advent of one-party rule comes certain destruction. But with the fall of that party comes something even worse. And sometimes, what you intend to change for the better sometimes changes into something much, much worse.In 2070, America is three nations -- The United Republic, New England, and Pacifica. The Liberty Party runs the Republic, but some citizens are unhappy. And there just happens to be a huge starship awaiting hijacking. The best parts of this book are the glimpses into the government (in the first part), the building of the world (in the next part), and what happened on Earth afterward (the third part). The only thing I'm not happy about is that Steele never printed the charter from the new planet. You've got intrigue. You've got sci-fi action. You've got conspiracies. You've got one-hundred-odd humans on a planet 230 years away from earth. You've got a whole new calendar system. You've got teenagers rebelling. You've got really interesting aliens. What more do you need? Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A bit disjointed, but worth reading
Review: You don't have to guess much where Allen Steele comes down in current politics. In his Coyote future, the Dixiecrats of the 2000's have won complete control at last, and set up a totalitarian regime that names its ships after Jessie Helms and George Wallace. Although the Northeast and the West have broken away from what was the United States what remains is totally contemptible. If you are a straight Republican voter you won't like any of this. The male hero, Robert E. Lee, rejects for reasons never fully explained his position of status and privilege to lead a rebellion that steals a starship. This story is told as a series of somewhat unconnected vignettes, each well written and from varying points of view. The female central character, Wendy, starts out interesting but never somehow develops. Her ultimate mate, Carlos, never seems that likable but again his development seems obscure. There's another character that seems to have utterly nothing to do with the story. He wakes up on the interstellar voyage and incredibly has no way to go back into hibernation. So he spends the first part of the 230 year voyage wandering the ship and writing a novel until he dies. Nobody else in the story has any interaction with him other than to read his legacy. I would have preferred the 5,000 or so words to be devoted to after the exodus and it would have been a better story. There are other loose ends, other unexplained motivations, but those aren't important. You will have to read this for yourself to see if you end up caring about the characters or not.
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