Books

Short works

Books : reviews

Allen M. Steele.
Rude Astronauts.
Legend. 1992

(read but not reviewed)

With his novels Orbital Decay, Clarke County, Space, Lunar Descent and Labyrinth of Night, Allen Steele has built an ever growing reputation for the reality of his near future history of Man in space. The beamjacks, moondogs, shuttle pilots all reek of the Right Stuff.

Now in Rude Astronauts, his first short story collection, Steele fills in some of the gaps. In this collection you will find old friends from the novels and make new ones. You will also find half-a-dozen non-fiction pieces, which will make you think as much as any of the fictions. But above all, you’ll find the true sense-of-wonder which makes Allen Steele a writer to read and be astounded by, now and into the next century.

Contents

Weird Scenes from the Beach Party. 1992
Eulogy. == In Reaching for the Stars, We Found Ourselves. 1986
Walking on the Moon. 1992
Free Beer and the William Casey Society. 1989
The Return of Weird Frank. 1991
Sugar's Blues. 1992
Live from the Mars Hotel. 1988
Pakachoag Hill. == In Auburn, the Space Age is Born. 1985
Goddard's People. 1991
John Harper Wilson. 1989
L.G.M.. == E.T., Phone Here. 1988
Hapgood's Hoax. 1990
Waiting for the End of the World. == Preparing for the Worst of All Possible Worlds. 1985
Winter Scenes of the Cold War. 1989
Can You Count the Angels Dancing on a Pin?. == How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?. 1986
Tremblin Earth. 1990

Allen M. Steele.
All-American Alien Boy.
Ace. 1996

Contents

Introduction: Dispacthes from America. 1996
Lost in the Shopping Mall. 1993
Mudzilla's Last Stand. 1993
Hunting Wabbit. 1993
Riders in the Sky. 1994
Whinin' Boy Blues. 1994
See Rock City. 1994
2,437 UFOs over New Hampshire. 1994
Jonathan Livingstone Seaslug. 1995
Doblin's Lecture. 1996
A Letter from St Loius. 1996
The Good Rat. 1995

Allen M. Steele.
Chronospace.
Ace. 2001

Allen M. Steele.
Apollo's Outcasts.
Pyr. 2012

Jamey Barlowe has been crippled since childhood, the result of being born on the Moon. He lives his life in a wheelchair, only truly free when he is in the water. But then Jamey’s father sends him, along with five other kids, back to the Moon to escape a political coup d’état that has occurred overnight in the United States. Moreover, one of the other five refugees is more than she appears.

Their destination is the mining colony Apollo. Jamey will have to learn a whole new way to live, one that entails walking for the first time in his life. It won’t be easy and it won’t be safe. But Jamey is determined to make it as a member of Lunar Search and Rescue, also known as the Rangers. This job is always risky but could be even more dangerous if the new US president makes good on her threat to launch a military invasion. Soon Jamey is front and center in a political and military struggle stretching from the Earth to the Moon.

Allen M. Steele.
V-S Day.
Ace. 2014

What if the race to space had occurred in the early days of World War II?

It’s 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Führer to abandon the V-2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the United States. When the top secret plan is leaked to Franklin Roosevelt, the president determines that there is only one logical response: The United States must build their own spacecraft to destroy the Germans’. Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuel rocket, agrees to head the classified project.

So begins a race against time between two secret military programs and two brilliant scientists whose high-stakes competition will spiral into a deadly game of political intrigue and unforeseen catastrophes played to the death in the brutal skies above America.

Allen M. Steele.
Arkwright.
Tor. 2016

Contemporary of science fiction masters Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke, Nathan Arkwright was a seminal science fiction author of the twentieth century. At the end of his life, he became reclusive and cantankerous, refusing to appear before or interact with his legion of fans. Little did anyone know, Nathan was putting into motion his true legacy—to save humanity.

Now, after his death, the Arkwright Foundation dedicates itself to the exploration of space and to creating space colonies with the ultimate goal of finding and colonizing an Earth-like planet several light-years distant. Fueled by Nathan’s legacy, three successive generations of Arkwrights are drawn together, and pulled apart, by the enormity of the task and the weight of their name as they try to ensure the continuance of humanity in the galaxy.

Allen M. Steele.
Coyote.
Ace. 2002

Allen M. Steele.
Coyote Rising.
Orbit. 2004

Allen M. Steele.
Coyote Frontier.
Orbit. 2005

Allen M. Steele.
Coyote Horizon.
Orbit. 2009

Allen M. Steele.
Coyote Destiny.
Orbit. 2010

Allen M. Steele.
Spindrift.
Orbit. 2007

Allen M. Steele.
Galaxy Blues.
Orbit. 2008

Allen M. Steele.
Hex.
Orbit. 2011