Godspeed

I had read this (from the library) when it was originally published in 1993, and purchased it as an anniversary gift. We both read it and enjoyed it (me, for the second time). Sheffield dedicates the book to Heinlein and Robert Louis Stevenson, which should give you a broad hint as to how retro and enjoyable it's going to be. Not at all parodic or rollicking, it's a good solid first-person yarn about a boy on an ailing planet that falls in with a gang of rapscallion spacers in search of the Holy Grail of the "Godspeed drive," the sudden failure of which (centuries ago) has left his home system withering on the vine. Reading it in 2016, I realized that it actually works quite well as a post-peak-oil narrative, but don't let that deter you from having a good time, which you will -- so long as you enjoy a well-built tale of adventure in the deep eddies of a large and complex solar system.

It's been 20 years since I read a book by Mr. Sheffield. Honestly, I got this one because it was cheap and NOT part of a 32-book series. I wanted a stand-alone book and this one delivered! The characters are great and the storyline moves! I was hooked immediately and burned through it in record time... now, sadly I want more. Looks like I'm back on a Sheffield kick!

Solid story, readable but not very exciting.

A fast-paced, well-written coming of age story centered on a teenager growing up on an erstwhile colony planet in a system known as the Forty Worlds. The planet was cut off from interstellar commerce several hundred years earlier by the Isolation, when ships powered by the now-legendary Godspeed drive suddenly stopped coming, and the planet is approaching an ecological crisis unnoticed by most of the populace but marked by long delays in children reaching puberty and a marked imbalance in the gender ratio. When our protagonist, a 16-year-old boy who has not yet entered puberty obtains a map to a worldlet in the systems asteroid belt, he and two adults hire a ship to take them to what they hope will be the long-rumored Godspeed Base where they might find remnants of the interstellar technology lost so long ago.This retelling of Treasure Island contains a fair amount of violence (fist fights and shootings) and some indirect sexual references (including an implied rape).

It starts with a stranger in an inn who shares secrets with a young boy, and carries the reader through imaginary travels that could be real if the technology was available and the times were right. Seeking treasures beyond the wildest imaginings of every working crew on every ship that sailed, the crew and their mysterious leader take us to a wonderful adventure. Told by the boy who grows up as the story unfolds, he pulls us into his mind and we enjoy living there.