Customer Reviews

The Billion Dollar Boy (Jupiter Novel)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shelby Cheever is the kind of kid that everyone, at one point or another, has run into and wished they hadn't. Adapted from a story by Rudyard Kipling and now reprinted for a juvenile crowd by Starscape Books, "Billion-Dollar Boy" is solid if unamazing SF journey.

It's the future, when Earth is impoverished except for a tiny number of corporate big-shots. And Cheever heir Shelby has everything a boy could want and more: insane amounts of money, a staff to wait hand and foot on him, and a dimbulb mother who lacks the brains to tell him "no" sometimes. In short, he's spoiled rotten. And when he wants to take a space cruise, his mum says yes. Unfortunately, Shelby gets drunk on the voyage, and decides to take a small jaunt OUTSIDE the spaceship -- where he gets literally lost in space.

Fortunately, he's picked up by a mining vessel. Unfortunately (depending on your viewpoint) the family on board has never heard of the Cheevers, and they certainly don't believe that he's wealthier than all the miners put together. So for the first time, Shelby is forced to use his brain and his body, and pitch in on actual work. That would be fine -- until someone recognizes him, and plans a ransom demand to his father.

Like "Putting Up Roots," this book is not an amazing, groundbreaking piece of SF, but it's readable for both adults and kids. It has a pretty simple, straightforward plot: Go from A to B, where C will happen. And Sheffield does a good job of shifting Shelby from a bratty, overweight, obnoxious teenage boy to someone resourceful, skilled, and if not smart, then at least trying to be. The writing is fairly ordinary, with some good descriptions of life on a gritty mining ship.

This novel is far from flawless, though. One of the biggest problems is the technobabble that the characters launch into, or the idea that Shelby's smart "salt of the earth" dad would marry an idiot socialite and let his son run wild. Or, for that matter, how there could be a mere few hundred rich elite on Earth; why this is so is never explained, since that sort of scenario wouldn't last long.

Shelby is a pleasant oasis in a sea of kid characters who either know it all, or are just plain annoying. He's meant to be annoying, and the means by which he STOPS being annoying is what makes him interesting. Grace is a pretty good character, although I had trouble figuring out if she was a love interest or not. Most of the supporting characters are okay, not stellar, except for the dryly amusing Logan (a robot).

Despite the odd implausible points, "Billion-Dollar Boy" is a solid enough read, with a very flawed lead and a solid, action-filled story. Nice job.

One of the reasons I loved reading science fiction as a kid was the spirit of adventure and exploration that sci-fi offered. This book, with its fast-moving and clean plot (G rated, but more enjoyable because of this, not in spite of this), reminded me of the thrill of my youth when I discovered a new Asimov novel in the library. This book does not pretend to be 'literary'; instead, it sparks your imagination and leaves you with a bit of envy that you aren't able to join a deep space mining expedition

In the Jupiter Novels, Tor Books has good intentions and bold goals of presenting a new line of original novels featuring all the virtues of classic science fiction--fast adventure, colorful characters, rigorous scientific accuracy, and thought-provoking ideas. The first Jupiter Novel, HIGHER EDUCATION by Charles Sheffield and Jerry Pournelle, was a predictable and not very engaging novel for young readers (ie: no sex) that fell short of the series' goals. It read more like a piece of propaganda arts from the far right wing (ie: social welfare undermines personal initiative), and if the story is allegedly a satire on the Education process, I found no humor and the message was lost. Frankly, it left me cold.

Sheffield has much improved in sticking to the classic science fiction "feel" in THE BILLION DOLLAR BOY--which is a bit like a cross between Catcher in the Rye and an episode of the 60's TV classic "Lost in Space". Shelby Cheever V is one of the richest young men of the 22nd century when a careless mistake finds himself on a mining ship 27 light years from Earth. [Hoo boy, what a premise to start with] Cheever finds himself having to rely on his own wits, working his passage off while learning a lot about what it is to be human. His trials and tribulations are filled with action and emotion; knowledge is gained in both his character and mind. He even slims down from the fat, spoiled, rich kid to a muscled, brainy and appreciative young adult. [reserving a rude comment here--I'll let my own sarcasm remain silent]

The plot is entertaining despite its predictability--and lack of characters of true depth. The hard science is delivered in a no nonsense manner--no bug eyed monsters, "rubber science" or anything without plausible basis in today's known sciences. However, there are a few social leaps that one must buy into (like Earth being overrun by starving hordes of the poor, and ruled by an extremely minute group of rich elite) that may be a bit hard to stomach. And don't get me wrong, I'd definitely rather have my kid reading this than some of the real trash out there. But I truly wonder whether there are any "young readers" out there that would fit the bill as to the intended audience--more likely it is oldsters like myself looking to recapture a bit of the "innocence" of our youth

Shelby J. P. Cheever is the only son to J. P. Cheever. On an Earth populated by a billion poor souls maybe ten thousand are rich. Of those ten thousand maybe one hundred have more wealth than is imaginable. And of those one hundred, maybe ten are in the same level of power and wealth as Shelby's father. Not unimaginably, Shelby is Rich, Fat, Spoiled, and Useless. And now he's adrift in space...

Neat. Reminds me of some of the early heinlein stories. Anyone read 'HAVE SPACE SUIT WILL TRAVEL' recently?

There was a note missing from the copyright page: "This book was previously published in slightly different form under the title _Captins Couragous_ by R Kipling" This is a retelling of the Kipling book with the most minor of changes to set it in space, even to the point of calling the smaller spaceships 'Dorys' and retaining many other terms and elements which made sense in their original setting and don't here. Changing one character from male to female introduced a mild romantic sub-plot, and moving the festival scene from the end to the middle of the voyage was interesting, as was the added cloak&dagger sub-plot, but the original is still better.

Where "Higher Education" failed, this book succeeded! "Higher Education" had a great story line, some great observations about society and our education system, and it had some great science. However, it failed in providing a good role model for the teens it was trying to reach. The characters were profane and sexually crude throughout "Higher Education". This book provided a good role model and included all of the good things "Higher Education" had to offer. A great read for all ages!

***High adventures, fast paced, and thoroughly enjoyable! Perfect for young readers, as well as, for adults. I highly recommend this one.***

Set more than century later in the same universe as *Higher Education*, the first Jupiter Novel, *The Billion Dollar Boy* is the second installment in this series of tales patterned after the coming of age stories of Heinlein and his generation.

In *Higher Education*, "rejects" from the failing education system and the itinerant labor force known as the "pool" were recruited by an off-world mining concern that gave them a proper education and trained them to work at mining operations in the Asteroid Belt. Now, more than a hundred years later, mining has expanded - with a little help of the instantaneous transportation network known as the node - to the Kuiper Belt and to the Messina Dust Cloud more than 27 light years from our solar system.

Shelby Cheever, an overweight, spoiled, rich brat and teenage son of one of the wealthiest men on the planet, is bored. He is waited on hand and foot by a core of servants that hate him, but are grateful for the steady work outside of the pool. His mother dotes on him and he has everything he wants. But, he is still bored. So, he convinces his mother to take him on a space cruise to the Asteroid Belt.

Drunk on alcohol and his own sense of self-importance, Shelby impatiently forgoes the services of a trained guide and ventures into the node network alone expecting to be delivered to the Kuiper Belt for a proper tour of this far off sector of the solar system. Instead, after a gut-wrenching transition through non-normal space, the node network drops him into open space in the Messina Dust Cloud. Fortunately for Shelby, the Harvest Moon, a mining ship extracting rare, stable transuranic elements from the cloud, is nearby and he is rescued before he could drift off into the cloud.

Shelby of course demands to be returned to his cruise and his mother at once, but the crew of the Harvest Moon - an extended family of adults and teenagers - has no time to go back to the node as they are working the currents of the dust cloud and won't return until the hold is full. Left with no options, Shelby grudgingly tries to make himself useful as he is expected to do by the captain (and mother of the clan); thus begins Shelby's transformation into manhood.

In the spirit of the now classic coming of age adventure science fiction tales of Heinlein and his generation, *The Billion Dollar Boy* continues to explore the themes related to what is becoming of the human species in these loosely related stories of our coming future.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.

2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.

3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.

4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.

5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

I liked "Higher Education", and I liked this one more. The plot of the story is rock solid, the science is impeccable, as usual for Mr. Sheffield, but what really makes the trip worthwhile is the characters. Fresh, intelligent, and unique, Sheffield rarely wastes a word creating characters so rich and vibrant that they stand from the page like a lion's roar. There's no falseness to what they do, no contrivances to what happens, (and what *has* happened)to them, and there's no fakery to how they react to it when it does. Even though they're 27 light years from Earth, the characters of this book are admirable, interesting, and utterly believable.