I'd like to love Coyote Rising more; Allen Steele has created a very original tale of interstellar colonization. Unfortunately, I found the plot and the characters lacking the substance required to truly distinguish a novel, no matter how original its premise.The first book in the series, Coyote, depicted a fantastic new world, Earth-like in so many ways yet also devastatingly alien. Even as the original colonists began to settle the planet, more ships from Earth arrived, bringing with them a social collectivist philosophy that threatened to undermine the existing colony's stability. Thus, Steele sets the stage for Coyote Rising, tagged as "a novel of interstellar revolution."Therein lies the problem: Coyote was interesting by virtue of the world the colonists were exploring and the challenges they had to face; Coyote Rising is almost purely driven by plot, and I enjoyed that far less. There are still some environmental elements to the conflicts faced by our protagonists, most notably a volcanic eruption that cools Coyote's climate, but they seem secondary to Steele's need for the original colonists to revolt against the tyrannical administration of the "Western Hemisphere Union," personified by the irrational Luisa Hernandez.In the first book, we meet Hernandez only briefly toward the end. As the leader of the second wave of colonists, she seems to honestly believe that social collectivism is the best form of government, and Robert Lee's decision to abandon the original colony and take the original colonists into hiding is prudent. Yet in Coyote Rising, any hint of depth in Hernandez's character is gone. She's a scheming, shallow antagonist whose only desire is total oppression and control. Where's my complex villain who agonizes over her actions, questions whether her morals are correct, then decides her course of action is the only just one?The antagonists also suffer from an unfortunate tendency to go rogue. Over the course of Coyote Rising, a significant number of people in positions of power with the WHU colony switch sides and join the original colonists (this doesn't count the droves of people fleeing to the original colony because the new colony is a slum). On the surface, this makes sense. Steele's emphasizing how collectivism has failed the colony in the face of the challenges of settling Coyote. Yet the very fact that the collectivist stance seems so indefensible has two unfortunate consequences: firstly, it makes the actions of die-hard antagonists, like Hernandez, even more unconvincing; secondly, it undermines the threat of the antagonists. Steele's trying to make a big point about how humans will fight for freedom, even if it means death, but his protagonist's easy philosophical success undermines his efforts to advance this theme.If I seem overly negative, it's only because Coyote Rising was so good that it could have been so much better. The book isn't beyond redemption: it has great action scenes, as well as truly moving ones. My favourite scene, the most touching one, occurs near the end of the book, as Robert Lee confronts Luisa Hernandez. I read it as if it were in slow motion, knowing what would happen, and it still moved me. That's why I'm critical of this book: it had potential. Here's hoping Coyote Frontier improves my opinion of this series' literary merits.
Coyote Rising (2004) 408 pages by Allen Steele.Coyote is the fourth moon of Bear, which is the third planet orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris--Uma. In Coyote the United Republic of America (URA) sent a 100 member colony ship to Coyote. The URA wanted to make another little URA in the stars, but Captain Robert Lee and others managed to swap the colonists, and most of the crew were no longer loyal to the URA. They struggle to survive and only four years after they arrive more ships start arriving. These from the Western Hemisphere Union, a nation founded on social collectivism. The WHU ships were from 180 years later than the Alabama, they traveled much faster.Before I go on about the story, which is great, I have to make a couple statements about the premise. Steele says there is no axial tilt, that the seasons are caused by the eccentricity of Bear's (and therefore Coyote's) orbit around Uma. So I have a little problem with the terminology of the LeMarean calendar. Instead of Summer and Winter Solstice, it should be Periuma and Apuma, and without an axial tilt the term equinox is moot -- every day is equal amounts of day and night. Plus it's an eccentric orbit, right? Earth has a slight eccentric orbit, perihelion is January 4th. As a planet is closer to the sun it moves faster, and it doesn't have as far to go. What's this mean? March 21 to Sept 21 is 184 days, back to March 21 is 181 or 182. It means that there should be many more days (weeks? months?) in the Coyote fall/winter than spring/summer.Second point. You've got a moon going around a big gas giant, where are all the eclipses? There is not one mention of the phase of Bear. Part of the premise was that Coyote was outside of what we would think of as the habitable zone around a star, but it was getting extra light reflected from Bear. That makes me think, hey, full bear must be quite a bit warmer than new bear.OK, I got that off my chest, I can put that aside and focus on the story, which is really good. The original colonists flee Earth to gain their freedom, only to have these successive ships come just as they are learning how to live on this frontier. Those ships each ten times as many people, would overwhelm them and force them once again into a loss of liberty.There are a couple of side stories in the book. Reverend Shirow and his 30 member cult/congregation.Very good pace to the book, good characters, character growth. And it's his book, he can build the planet any way he wants.
Do You like book Coyote Rising (2005)?
Review of Coyote Rising, by Allen Steele.Normally, I wouldn't read a sequel before the original, but I had read some of Steele's work before, specifically Clarke County, Space and Labyrinth of Night and found them interesting, if excessively snarky in the Larry Niven and worst of Robert Heinlein (The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) tradition. Coyote Rising, the sequel to Coyote, fortunately has virtually none of his previous smartassery as it tells the story of the inevitable conflict between the r
—Patrick
The second book of the Coyote series continues the meditations begun in the first on freedom, responsibility, and community life. The "free" people aren't all nobility and hard work; they are scarred, sometimes violent, and must cope with the ramifications of the actions they take in order to secure the liberty they prize so highly. The story thread of Zoltan Shirow adds thrills and poignancy, a touch of the bizarre, and a hint of the possibilities of religion that might develop in a new world. I particularly look forward to the reappearance of the native people in future installments of the series.
—Elizabeth
