Scheming to get rid of obstacles, Josh Kerrigan’s step-aunt ships him and her autistic step-daughter to Solferino to work for Foodlines. Josh and Dawn join a small training group that is ostensibly doing scientific research and exploration under the watchful eye of the company.
But as the days go by and strange occurrences and mysterious happenings continue, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong and that someone has very different plans for the planet.
Even more importantly, Josh and the other members of the training team realize that they are being lied to about intelligent life existing on the planet and then it becomes a race against time to save those creatures as well as themselves.
**
From Library Journal
This third book of the Jupiter novels (following Higher Education, LJ 4/15/96 and The Billion Dollar Boy, LJ 12/96, both with Jerry Pournell) finds teenagers at odds with Earth society shipped off to a distant planet. On Solferino, Josh Kerrigan and other trainees search for usable plant life for the Foodlines conglomerate. Supposedly uninhabited by intelligent life, Solferino holds many surprises for and raises questions from the trainees. Sheffield expertly condemns corporate greed in a story that parallels the destruction of the rainforests and dehumanization of the natives. Recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The third of Sheffield's Jupiter novels (after Higher Education [1995] and The Billion Dollar Boy ) starts with teenager Josh Kerrigan being deserted by his mother, then, along with a number of other unwanted children, fobbed off by his uncle on an interstellar exploration team. The team stops on the planet Solferino, which looks like a farming paradise but is actually the object of a deadly duel between two gigantic corporations. Thanks to the street smarts of the youngsters plus the unsuspected presence of an undercover cop, the bad guys are somewhat messily foiled. In the process, it is discovered that Solferino has intelligent native life, which puts it permanently off-limits for the dueling corporations. Once again the plot of a Jupiter novel includes some serious implausibilities; yet its pace is brisk, its technical detail is flawless, and its protagonists, Josh and his autistic cousin, Dawn, are the best drawn of any in the series so far. Roland Green
Description:
Scheming to get rid of obstacles, Josh Kerrigan’s step-aunt ships him and her autistic step-daughter to Solferino to work for Foodlines. Josh and Dawn join a small training group that is ostensibly doing scientific research and exploration under the watchful eye of the company.
But as the days go by and strange occurrences and mysterious happenings continue, it becomes apparent that something is very wrong and that someone has very different plans for the planet.
Even more importantly, Josh and the other members of the training team realize that they are being lied to about intelligent life existing on the planet and then it becomes a race against time to save those creatures as well as themselves.
**
From Library Journal
This third book of the Jupiter novels (following Higher Education, LJ 4/15/96 and The Billion Dollar Boy, LJ 12/96, both with Jerry Pournell) finds teenagers at odds with Earth society shipped off to a distant planet. On Solferino, Josh Kerrigan and other trainees search for usable plant life for the Foodlines conglomerate. Supposedly uninhabited by intelligent life, Solferino holds many surprises for and raises questions from the trainees. Sheffield expertly condemns corporate greed in a story that parallels the destruction of the rainforests and dehumanization of the natives. Recommended.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The third of Sheffield's Jupiter novels (after Higher Education [1995] and The Billion Dollar Boy ) starts with teenager Josh Kerrigan being deserted by his mother, then, along with a number of other unwanted children, fobbed off by his uncle on an interstellar exploration team. The team stops on the planet Solferino, which looks like a farming paradise but is actually the object of a deadly duel between two gigantic corporations. Thanks to the street smarts of the youngsters plus the unsuspected presence of an undercover cop, the bad guys are somewhat messily foiled. In the process, it is discovered that Solferino has intelligent native life, which puts it permanently off-limits for the dueling corporations. Once again the plot of a Jupiter novel includes some serious implausibilities; yet its pace is brisk, its technical detail is flawless, and its protagonists, Josh and his autistic cousin, Dawn, are the best drawn of any in the series so far. Roland Green