Anywhere But Here [Hardcover]

Jerry Oltion (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2005

In a world dominated by America's heavy hand, an independent scientist reveals the secret of fast, cheap interstellar travel, sparking an exodus like none in history. When anyone with a few hundred dollars and a little ingenuity can build their own spaceship, even American citizens can't wait to get out from under the United States's domineering thumb.

Trent and Donna Stinson, of Rock Springs, Wyoming, seal up their pickup for vacuum and go looking for a better life among the stars, but they soon learn that you can't outrun your problems. America's belligerent foreign policy is expanding just as fast as the world's refugees, threatening to destroy humanity's last chance for peaceful coexistence. When their own government tries to kill them for exercising the freedoms that people once took for granted, Trent and Donna reluctantly admit that America must be stopped. But how can patriotic citizens fight their own country? And how can they succeed where the rest of the world has failed?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nebula-winner Oltion's 2001 novel, The Getaway Special, explored how the near-future discovery of a cheap, simple interstellar drive prompted anyone on Earth with enough nerve to take off for the stars, leaving terrestrial governments fuming at the loss of their renegade citizens. In this meandering but satisfying sequel, things have gotten worse, especially in an increasingly paranoid America. Trent and Donna Stinson, of Rock Springs, Wyo., decide to climb into their pickup truck and head for Alpha Centauri. They're a laid-back couple, perfectly willing to share new planets with aliens as long as they can earn enough to live and then relax with a few beers. When the U.S. government interferes and they wind up lost in space, Trent and Donna start working hard to find their way home and clean up the mess back on Earth. There's not much glamour in this space opera, as shown by a weightless Trent struggling to take off lug nuts so he can remove truck tires in interplanetary space. Oltion has carefully thought out the mechanics of such situations, which serve to support the book's upbeat message: If you keep cool, you probably can get out of whatever trouble you've gotten yourself into.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Oltion's Getaway Special (2001) explored the far-fetched scenario of ordinary citizens outfitting pickup trucks and SUVs with cheap interstellar hyperdrives and emigrating to other planets. In this somewhat meandering sequel, things have gotten so bad, what with unemployment and the increasingly fascistic American government, that working-class couple Trent and Donna Stinson, of Rock Springs, Wyoming, decide to head for nearby Alpha Centauri. On the orbiting planet Onnescu, they begin to find a semblance of greener pastures, making friends with the original settlers and even picking up a little work. But the dream ends abruptly when, during a side trip to another planet, Trent and Donna are nearly killed by agents of their own government. All too quickly, they find themselves stranded on a remote planet, struggling to survive and praying for a miracle to return them to Earth. While Oltion spends perhaps too many pages detailing the perils and mechanics of hyperdrive jumps, he includes enough colorful aliens and action to satisfy Getaway Special fans, at least. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (February 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765306190
• ISBN-13: 978-0765306197
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,429,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great treat for armchair science fiction travelers, February 27, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anywhere But Here (Hardcover)

In an unspecified time in the future, the global conquering United States is ready to go to war at anytime with countries that don't bow down to America's superiority. Meanwhile the hyperdrive engine makes it cheap to travel to other planets. Those people who value freedom and resent the heavy-handedness of the United States colonized planets all over the galaxy.

It is now illegal to build a hyperdrive vehicle and leave the planet because much of America's most precious resources, the people, are gone. After Trent and Judy Stinson lose their jobs they decide to visit the colonized worlds but while on the French planet of Mirabeau, the United States attacks using asteroid rocks as bombs. When they leave, they become lost in space and end up in an unexplored part of the galaxy. They find a habitable planet so they can fix their damaged hyperdrive but must depart quickly though there are no direct life forms dangerous to humans, the game and water is inimical to Earthlings.

Freedom is a powerful motivator for people to leave their homeland and go to the stars but the Stinsons really want to find a way to change how government operates so it could once again be the land of the free. Homeland security has become a dictatorial giant imagining enemies when none exist and drive people to do the very things they outlaw. Jerry Oltion is a master storyteller who takes readers on a spaceship ride that is exciting, dangerous and fun. Visiting inhabited colonized worlds and orbs where no sentient life exist makes this work of science fiction a great treat for armchair travelers who want to go stellar from their home.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-so sequel -- has moments. 3.4 stars, February 20, 2006

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anywhere But Here (Hardcover)

_____________________________________________
This is a weaker sequel to his lively and entertaining The Getaway Special (2002, recommended), which, you may recall, was cheap star travel in septic-tank spaceships. Here they've advanced to sealed-cab electric pickups, with the Secret Stardrive™ module hidden inside. Which is illegal in a cartoonishly-obtuse USA. Does have a nice Heinleinian wild-planet romance/problem-solving story nested within. C+, has moments.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

3.0 out of 5 stars White trash in space?, September 18, 2008

By 

Monkey "Monkey Moniker" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Anywhere But Here (Hardcover)

What if you could save the planet, but you had to do things that you might not agree too? The idea of cheap space exploration is nothing new, but what happens when the people who do leave the planet cause problems to the planet that they leave. This is one of those issues that have been explored in many other books, but Oltion does it in a surprisingly refreshing way. Equipping your pickup truck with an interstellar drive, is a unique way of doing things, but what if you really didn't want to save the earth? If you liked the Getaway Special, you will probably like this book as well. In some cases the writing could focus a bit less on detail and more on plot or characters, and something about a pickup truck, interstellar drives, and the need for beer evokes the idea of interstellar white trash, but then you can't have it all.