Leaping To The Stars: Book Three in the Starsiders Trilogy - Hardcover

Gerrold, David

4.03

173 ratings by Goodreads

9780312890674: Leaping To The Stars: Book Three in the Starsiders Trilogy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312890672 ISBN 13: 9780312890674

Publisher: Tor Books, 2002

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Having barely escaped death at the hands of ruthless corporations who have pursued him across the harsh lunar wasteland, teenager Charles Dingillian faces yet another fateful decision: no longer able to return to his home on Earth, Charles and his two brothers must choose a new planet to call home. But which one?

Charles has come into possession of a prototype HARLIE unit so revolutionary and state-of-the-art that corporations will stop at nothing - including murder - to control it. Earth is in a state of social and economic meltdown. The battle for domination between rival corporations has gone interplanetary. Charles and the HARLIE unit escape capture on Earth, but the hunt for them intensifies when they are discovered to be on the moon. The stakes have escalated to full-scale war. For Charles, everyone is his enemy. No one can be trusted.

Charles has been at war before: only that was a personal civil war waged between him and his parents. In an effort to end the strife once and for all thirteen-year-old Charles took the drastic step of "divorcing" his parents. When against all odds he succeeded, he won his freedom. He and his brothers are now free to do what they choose. To go where they want.

Freedom for Charles and his brothers means passage on a starship to a colony Outbeyond. There they will use HARLIE to help build a better world. But freedom also means exile. From his home. From his friends. From everything he has ever known. And even his chance for a new life on a remote planet is put in jeopardy when a critical malfunction with the HARLIE unit seemingly threatens the integrity of the voyage. However, a faction of passengers on board the Brightliner Cascade may pose an even greater risk.

A risk not even an intelligence as powerful as a HARLIE unit can avert.

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Review:

This satisfying conclusion to David Gerrold's Dingillian series continues the story of 13-year-old Charles, his idiosyncratic family, and the artificial intelligence HARLIE as they seek a new home in the stars. Before Charles can even board the ship for his new colony world, he finds himself again swept up in adventure and political turmoil. With the voyage finally underway, the focus turns to social conflict as Charles must find answers to disturbing questions about HARLIE--and himself--while a faction of passengers disrupts the voyage with potentially fatal consequences for everyone on board.

This is a young adult novel that older adults will also find appealing. Charles is an engaging and sympathetic adolescent science fiction hero--smart, prickly, wrestling with hard lessons in adult responsibility. Readers new to the series should be patient: backstory is revealed gradually, so as not to interrupt the smooth mix of action and the scientific, philosophical, and religious questions that propel this thoughtful coming-of-age story. --Roz Genessee

From the Back Cover:

“Fans of Heinlein’s trademark blend of space-bound high adventure and serous political philosophy will feel right at home in the third and final book of Gerrold’s series detailing the adventure of Charles “Chigger” Dingillian.”—Publishers Weekly

“Gerrold has a fresh voice and the skill to realize such things as a magnetic star drive and colonies built from mud. Charlie’s coming-of-age debates with the relativistic HARLIE are also intriguing—even rather touching.”—Booklist

Having divorced his parents and escaped to the moon, Charles and his brothers find themselves faced with most difficult decision. Unable to return to Earth, where do they go? One option is the distant Earth colony Outbeyond. Complicating matters, he and HARLIE—a state of the art intelligence unit—have become valuable commodities in a Free Luna movement. A hijacking aboard ship, however, and suspicion’s of HARLIE’S true motives could doom the brothers’ bid for freedom . . . forever.

“Gerrold’s conclusion to the story begun in Jumping Off the Planet and continued in Bouncing Off the Moon features more derring-do in the style of early Heinlein. A good choice for adult sf collections.”—Library Journal

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