Libertarians in Low Orbit, Cyborgs Come of Age

Jim Hopper, in the March 11, 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune, reviews two Pyr titles in an article entitled, "ECCENTRIC ORBITS: If you're 'Counting' on the government, count again."

Jim describes Adam Robert's Gradisilthusly, minus a medium-sized spoiler in the middle:

"Ahh, governments! How about Libertarians in Low Earth Orbit? When Gradisil's grandfather develops a way to use old aircraft, instead of huge rockets, to get into orbit, Things Change. With 'Elemag' technology, a suitably sealed and adapted airplane can become a spaceplane, climbing the branches of the Earth's magnetic field, like Yggdrasil out of old Norse mythology. ...and there's more than one betrayal. It seems, as the story closes, that the blood of patriots must water even Yggdrasil, as well as the tree of liberty."

Of Justina Robson's Keeping It Real, he says:

"Robson's cyborg heroine, Lila Black, is hired as bodyguard for an Elven rock star, which is a much bigger job than it seems. This is not YA material, but, yeah, even an embittered cyborg can grow up."

Also reviewed are titles by Kim Stanley Robinson, Hal Duncan, China Miéville, and Eliot Fintushel.