From Library Journal
In The Billion Dollar Boy, rich, spoiled, overweight 15-year-old Shelby Cheever is bored, so he convinces his mother to take him on a space cruise. Without proper preparation, and drunk besides, he accesses the node network alone to visit the Kuiper asteroid belt and finds himself hurtled 27 light years out to the Messina Dust Cloud, where he is rescued by a mining family. On the three-month journey home, Shelby must learn how to do for himself in an environment where his wealth and pampered status mean nothing. Another well-written coming-of-age adventure story in the new Jupiter series. For large sf collections. In the hard-science Tomorrow & Tomorrow, Sheffield explores changes in the solar system and the theory of a closed vs. open system wrapped around a tale of a musician's fanatical love for his wife. Drake Merlin has his dying wife Ana and himself cryonically frozen so they can be together once a cure for her disease is found. Several times over 15 billion years he is awakened only to find no cure and, one time, he accidentally causes Ana's death. But if the theory of a closed system is true and the universe shrinks, he and Ana can return to a point when she is alive. This fascinating story is recommended for most sf collections.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The second Jupiter novel apparently takes place in the same future as Sheffield and Pournelle's Higher Education (1995), one and a half centuries later and much farther from Earth. A spoiled, very rich teenage boy, Shelby Cheever V, accidentally passes through the interstellar travel nodes and ends up aboard a starship that mines interstellar gas clouds for rare elements. He quickly develops the skills to be a useful member of the crew, survives the perils of space and would-be kidnappers, and is thinner, smarter, and much more of a mensch by the time he is reunited with his father. Any resemblance between this plot and Kipling's Captains Courageous is almost certainly intentional. Sheffield skillfully puts his own stamp on the familiar elements, providing first-rate scientific and technical extrapolation, brisk pacing, and a more plausible depiction of his young hero's maturation than is typical of this sort of coming-of-age adventure. Roland Green


Review
"A teenage protagonist, a speed-of-light plot and a clever narration equal accessible, entertaining reading. Sheffield skillfully put his own stamp on familiar elements providing first-rate scientific and technical extrapolation, brisk pacing, and more plausible depiction of his young hero's maturation than is typical of this sort of coming-of-age adventure." -Booklist



Book Description
New York Public Library "Best Books for the Teen Age" selection

Shelby Cheever V is a spoiled brat. He is also the richest kid in the country. Actually, make that the universe. Bored with his all-the-amusements-money-can-buy life, he decides on a bit of interstellar action, Shelby-style. But it turns out life on a starship is not all fun and games. As part of a crew, Shelby has a few things to learn. Like, how to follow orders instead of simply giving orders. Can Shelby learn how to cooperate with his crewmates?

He may not have a choice. When Shelby becomes the target of a hostage-for-ransom scheme, he'll need all the help he can get.



About the Author
Charles Sheffield is a mathematician and theoretical physicist by training. His doctoral work was on Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. Currently Dr. Sheffield works as chief scientist for the Earth Satellite Corporation, a Washington, D.C.–based firm that specializes in the analysis of data gathered from space.

The author of thirty previous science fiction novels, including Cold as Ice and The Ganymede Club from Tor, Sheffield lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, author Nancy Kress.

ANNOTATION

Jupiter books presents an ambitious new line of original novels featuring all the virtues of classic science fiction--fast adventure, colorful characters, rigorous scientific accuracy, and thought-provoking ideas. Shelby Cheever V is "The Billion Dollar Boy, " one of the richest men of the 22nd century when a careless mistake finds himself on a mining ship 27 light years from Earth. 256 pp. Targeted ads. On-line publicity. 20,000 print.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Shelby Crawford Jerome Prescott Cheever V is one of the richest young men of the twenty-second century. His life on Earth has been spent in idle luxury, until a careless mistake strands him on a mining colony in the Messina Dust Cloud, twenty-seven light years from Earth. Stuck among the miners for at least six months, far from his fortune and hordes of servants, Shelby must learn to survive in space - and to fend for himself. His new life is full of dangers and surprises, but it may also reveal the true shape of his destiny.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

For the second novel (after Higher Education) of the Jupiter series (which the publisher modestly states is aimed at reviving "all the virtues of classic science fiction"), Sheffield departs from Jerry Pournelle to go his usual solo (The Ganymede Club, etc.). The story centers in a simplistic way on a spoiled rich kid who works his way to moral rectitude. During a luxury excursion into space, Shelby Cheever charges off into a "node" and winds up on a remote mining vessel where nobody knows him. The setup and the travel adventure parts are fun to read (harvesting transuranics in deep space, encountering mysterious "space sounders," etc.), and the structure is workmanlike, with neatly dovetailing plots and scientific extrapolations that are engagingly envisioned: machines harvest minerals, heal, clothe, jump light-years and converse. Sheffield can wax lyrical about the wonders of space, but he summarizes feelings rather than allowing readers to feel them. The ending is a sudden apology for the virtues of competition, with a hint of social Darwinism (Shelby was a quick study in space because he is his dad's son-a winner). Interesting is the insight that, to the space dwellers, Earth would seem a place of misery since nearly all mankind, then as now, are poor. Juxtapositions of human and machine intelligence come up in varied ways, but Sheffield never brings closure to this theme; perhaps he will in the series' next entry.

Children's Literature - Judy Silverman

A spoiled brat of the future gets his comeuppance. Shelby Cheever V, richest kid in the universe, heir to a billion-dollar-plus fortune, has never heard the word "no." His mother is the manager of the estate; his father is simply not available. Of course, he is terminally bored, and he is sure a space adventure will cure him. What could go wrong? He will just go for a little ride, and he will come back refreshed and renewed. But the trip does not meet his expectations, so he decides that what he really needs is a little walk in space￯﾿ﾽquite against regulations, of course, but what can they do to him? What can anyone do to him, that can not be fixed with a little extra cash? He will just put on this space suit, secure it, open this door, and￯﾿ﾽ"WHAT?? WHERE'S THE TETHER?? I'M FLOATING!! SPACE IS REALLY BIG!!" And that might have been the end of the story. Here is something Shelby did not know, although he might have learned if he had been paying attention. Space ships, harvesting heavy metals, are all around him. He is been picked up as space flotsam, and taken to a ship that is run by a woman and her two teenaged children. If Shelby can be a part of the crew, he can return home when they leave space. Of course he will have to pull his own weight, learn new skills (like bed making, using the food synthesizer, getting along with an intelligent robot), cooperate with his crewmates, obey orders(!), and basically turn his life around. He almost can not do it at first, but, being an intelligent young man, he will make the effort. Oh yes, one other thing. Spaceship culture has one basic misunderstanding of Terran culture￯﾿ﾽthey are convinced that everyone on Earth is starving! Shelby's "fortune"?Lies told by an unhappy child, they say. Well, I guess everyone has something to learn. Fast moving, decent characters, but a little heavy-handed in spots. 2003, Starscape/Tom Dogherty Associates, Ages 10 up.

Star Tribune Minneapolis

Sheffield's writing is literate and clean.

Denver Post The