From Publishers Weekly
Two SF powerhouses collaborate on an exuberant kickoff to the publisher's Jupiter series, which is dedicated to novels patterned after Robert A. Heinlein's classic inspirational tales for young adults and adults. In the 21st century, American public education is foundering under the weight of bureaucracy. But when Rick Luban, 16, is expelled for a school prank that gets out of hand, he's recruited by the asteroid-mining corporation Vantage Mining and Refining, which has its own system of "higher education." Through the company's screenings and schools on Earth and in space, Rick acquires not only formal learning but a mature sense of responsibility. Ultimately, he plays a vital role in uncovering a lethal sabotage attempt by one of Vantage's corporate rivals. As might be expected from Sheffield (whose novelette "Georgia on My Mind" won both a 1994 Hugo and a 1993 Nebula) and Pournelle (Footfall, etc.), the scientific and technological background is outstanding. The portrait of society tends toward the didactic, and credibility is stretched when Vantage bets its future on new talent like Rick and his cohorts. But in response to that bet, Rick matures, and in a believable way?an essential element in any SF coming-of-age novel, including this high-spirited exemplar.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In a politically correct world where the school system fails to educate for fear of lawsuits, illiterate, ignorant students face a bleak future of unemployment. When Rick Luban is expelled for a minor prank, he joins Vanguard Mining and finds asteroid mining training to be more rigorous and demanding than school. This fast-paced adventure begins the new "Jupiter novels" series with danger and intrigue in space. Recommended for most sf collections.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sheffield and Pournelle's latest collaboration expands their 1995 novella of the same title into a rousing boy-grows-up-in-space adventure that echoes Robert Heinlein's best coming-of-age novels. Rick Luban's perilous journey to manhood begins after he is expelled from school for a malicious practical joke and given a rare, redeeming opportunity to train for a job with an asteroid mining company. Facing stiff competition from other young scofflaws aboard an orbiting training center, Rick endures disorienting weightlessness, a disciplinarian chief instructor, grueling study, and a bullying fellow student before qualifying for the mining team. His biggest test, however, comes when the team's asteroid-bound space cruiser is called upon to rescue the survivors of a devastating mining accident. Fans of hard sf will revel in this absorbing adventure's abundant technical detail, which includes a progressive series of problem-solving challenges for Rick. Carl Hays


From Kirkus Reviews
The trajectory of Rick Luban, 16, from high school washout to interplanetary space miner. In the near future, rampant unemployment and an impotent education system produce millions of punks like Rick, who are barely literate. Expulsion from school could mean the skids for Rick, but a kindly teacher tips him off to the advantages of employment with Vanguard Mining, and soon Rick is sweating hard, grateful for corporate redemption. Although the novel opens as a dead-on satire on public education, it time-warps into a kind of 1950s B-movie sensibility once Rick's training shifts to outer space: The male cadets are nose-to-the-grindstone types while the female cadets are either girlfriend material (Deedee Mao), corporate saboteurs (Alice Klein), or space sluts (Monkey Cruse, ``rumored to have run a professional sex service''). Those stereotypical characterizations, the melodramatic plot, and the dialogue turn the adventure into a space soap opera. To their credit, Sheffield (for adults, The Ganymede Club, 1995, etc.) and Pournelle (also for adults, King David's Spaceship, 1981, etc.) slip in copious doses of science facts among the apprentices' lessons, and the depiction of daily life in cramped, zero-gee environments seems accurate. Fans of the authors' previous works will be glad to know of this first entry in the Jupiter series, but those readers searching for a more expansive role for female space cadets will have to enroll elsewhere. (Fiction. 13+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"A very exciting story....the first in a sure-to-be-spellbinding sries"--Seventeen

"Adventure that echoes Robert Heinlein's best coming-of-age novels."--Booklist

"Far and away the most believeable and interesting near-space milieu I've seen in years."--Orson Scott card



Book Description
When a misfired practical joke gets him kicked out of school, Rick Luban thinks he has nowhere to go but down. Instead, he gets a second chance--and a whole new life--when he signs up for a career in asteroid mining.

But life in space proves more challenging than Rick expected. Competition is intense and the harsh realties of space allow no room for error. On his way to a brighter future, Rick faces ever more demanding tests, as well as the very real dangers of sabotage and murder.



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.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When a misfired practical joke gets him kicked out of school, Rick Luban thinks he has nowhere to go but down. Instead, he gets a second chance - and a whole new life - when he signs up for a career in asteroid mining. Life in space proves more challenging than Rick expected. Competition is heated between the new recruits of Vanguard Mining, and the harsh realities of space allow absolutely no room for error. On his way to a brighter future, Rick faces ever more demanding tests, as well as the very real dangers of sabotage and murder.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kirkus Reviews

The trajectory of Rick Luban, 16, from high school washout to interplanetary space miner. In the near future, rampant unemployment and an impotent education system produce millions of punks like Rick, who are barely literate. Expulsion from school could mean the skids for Rick, but a kindly teacher tips him off to the advantages of employment with Vanguard Mining, and soon Rick is sweating hard, grateful for corporate redemption.

Although the novel opens as a dead-on satire on public education, it time-warps into a kind of 1950s B-movie sensibility once Rick's training shifts to outer space: The male cadets are nose-to-the-grindstone types while the female cadets are either girlfriend material (Deedee Mao), corporate saboteurs (Alice Klein), or space sluts (Monkey Cruse, "rumored to have run a professional sex service"). Those stereotypical characterizations, the melodramatic plot, and the dialogue turn the adventure into a space soap opera. To their credit, Sheffield (for adults, The Ganymede Club, 1995, etc.) and Pournelle (also for adults, King David's Spaceship, 1981, etc.) slip in copious doses of science facts among the apprentices' lessons, and the depiction of daily life in cramped, zero-gee environments seems accurate. Fans of the authors' previous works will be glad to know of this first entry in the Jupiter series, but those readers searching for a more expansive role for female space cadets will have to enroll elsewhere.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING