Orbital Decay (Near-Space) [Paperback]

Allen Steele (Author)

Book Description

Series: Near-Space | Publication Date: April 3, 2000

The award-winning, bestselling author's first novel.

The beamjacks work in zero-gravity constructing satellites in the vacuum of deepest space. And they're not going to let the military control them anymore.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The beamjacks are the builders of the future: the zero-G workers who are assembling satellites in the vacuum of space. Management and the military think they have the beamjacks under control -- but they're wrong.

From Publishers Weekly

Steele's debut is an ambitious science fiction thriller somewhat marred by amateurish technique. The central story is skillfully plotted and written with gusto: narrator Sam Sloane and a group of 21st-century hard hats called "beamjacks" foil an Orwellian venture into global wiretapping by the U.S. National Security Agency. The author uses a familiar device effectively by setting his story in the near future, 2016, with the culture of the 1980s serving as a believable past. But his straightforward adventure tale is encumbered by two unconvincing and poorly integrated complications: a clumsy narrative framework consisting of memoirs dictated by Sloane, stranded in space without the likelihood of rescue; and a series of flashbacks recounting a crime of passion committed by Sloane's buddy, who eventually becomes part of the space-station work crew. In addition, the narration alternates confusingly between the first and third person.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ace; First Edition edition (April 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441498515
• ISBN-13: 978-0441498512
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #155,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Allen Steele is a science fiction writer with sixteen novels and five collections of short fiction to his credit. His works have received the Hugo, Locus, Seiun, and Science Fiction Weekly awards, and have been nominated for the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Sidewise Awards. His first published story, "Live from the Mars Hotel," was published in 1988, and his first novel, Orbital Decay, was published in 1989. His best-known work is the Coyote series -- Coyote, Coyote Rising, Coyote Frontier, Coyote Horizon, and Coyote Destiny -- and the associative novels set in the same universe: Spindrift, Galaxy Blues, and the forthcoming Hex. A graduate of New England College and the University of Missouri, he is a former journalist, and once spent a brief tenure as a Washington correspondent. He was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, and now lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and dogs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting High on the high frontier., September 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Orbital Decay (Near-Space) (Paperback)

"Reads like Golden Age Heinlein" my butt. It's a down-to-earth (eventually) yarn about a blue-collar construction crew in orbit, a pack of misfits as fascinating as they are bored. They happen to save the free world but, honestly, that's incidental to the drift. A treat for anyone who can't stand swords, sorcerors or space opera.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Golden-age Heinlein"? Well, sort of., March 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Orbital Decay (Near-Space) (Paperback)

No, he's not quite like Golden Age Heinlein. I doubt GA Heinlein would've had anything like a biker in his work. Nor would he have approved of weed in the hydroponics chamber. But he fits into the hard-SF groove, and y'know, he's just much less depressing than Gibson, too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Obital Decay, May 30, 2011

By 

Nathan C Shumway - See all my reviews

This review is from: Orbital Decay (Hardcover)

Hats off to Steele for writing what I refer to as "Realistic Science Fiction", in the sense that we have the technology now (or will soon once the technologies can be perfected and mass produced), what we lack is the willpower and motivation(to an extent, the financial backing in the private sector as well). While his use of some of the technologies is limited to what was available in the late 80's (such as computer diskettes as opposed to thumbdrives that are so common now, as well as the internet), such things can be easily overlooked for the story line, as well as his excellent use of earth geography and science of working in space. Considering this was published in the years between Skylab 3 coming down from orbit and the ISS being launched, it stands in my mind as one of the best pieces of sci-fi I have ever read. I am currently reading the Coyote series by this same author, and love how he has included those books into the same "universe" as the Near Earth stories that he has written. Two thumbs enthusiastically up!!!!!!!