he invention of a cheap, easy-to-build hyperdrive, which allows anyone access to space, has led the United States government, overzealous in its antiterrorism, to ban its use by Americans, declare its inventors traitors, and banish them to space among an eclectic coalition of alien races. Trent and Donna Stinson, Americans who managed to avoid such banishment despite the help they gave to the inventors of the hyperdrive, are spending a typical Saturday night in Rock Springs, Wyo., at the local tavern, reading illegal semizdat promotions of homesteading opportunities on other planets, trying to decide whether to reassemble their hyperdrive, install it in their customized pickup truck and leave. Trent has been jobless for months, and Donna will soon lose her job as well.
Their decision is soon made when Trent barely avoids injury from being too close when another friend's pickup hyperjumps, bringing suspicion upon them from the authorities. Trent prepares the pickup while Donna downloads the illegal software that runs it, and they leave for Alpha Centauri. Several jumps later, they are in the upper atmosphere of Alpha Centauri's primary inhabited planet, Onnescu, where they deploy their parachute and land outside Bigtown. They rescue an alien family that parachutes in after them, rushing their injured child to the hospital. In a local tavern, they meet the friendly locals, including first settler Onnescu himself, a brilliant individualist who plans to find a remote deserted planet for him and his even more brilliant wife to homestead alone for the rest of their lives.
Trent and Donna quickly decide to move on, and offer to make a mail run to a planet of French settlers. During dinner in their French contact's isolated tree-home, U.S. authorities—who treat all French as terrorists—bomb them from orbit, and they barely escape back into space. They decide to go to tell their friends at Galactic Federation headquarters that the U.S. government is bombing civilians, but their hyperjump goes wrong and they arrive in unknown space. Batteries and air running out, they make an emergency landing on a deserted planet. Marooned on the planet with no obvious way to charge their batteries, and no idea where in the galaxy they are, Trent and Donna must use all of their wits and ingenuity to survive hostile (and inedible) local fauna and determine how to escape to warn their friends in the Galactic Federation.
Likable everyday people
Anywhere But Here is a worthy sequel to Jerry Oltion's excellent first novel in this series, The Getaway Special, which told the story of space scientist Allan Meisner and shuttle pilot Judy Gallagher, who invent the simple hyperdrive and give it away to the world, to the consternation of government authorities, especially the United States. Trent and Donna had supporting roles in the first novel, and step forward here as likable and believable protagonists. They are intelligent, sensible, Western Libertarian individualists, which means they drive a customized pickup truck with gun rack, can fix or learn anything, strongly distrust any governmental authorities and will drop everything to help anyone in distress. In science-fiction terms, think Steven Gould mixed with Spider Robinson.
Oltion's story occasionally echoes American tall-tale and silly SF madcap romp traditions, but despite his fanciful setup, he tells his story in earnest adventure-fiction style, and the likability and sensibleness of his characters makes the whole thing believable and engaging. You can't help but care about these good people, whose innate ingenuity and goodheartedness forces the reader to care what happens to them. The planet on which they are stranded is also an interesting creation, with living rocks that move like snails, trees that grow arrows, birds that pluck and drop the arrows on their prey, and other dangerous and inedible flora and fauna. The aliens in the Galactic Federation are fascinatingly diverse, while sharing the common-sense attitudes of the human protagonists.
Jerry Oltion shows significant skills as a writer as he manages to treat gonzo ideas with a straight face, and makes it easy for the reader to do so as well. Anywhere But Here is a pleasant return to the type of classic science-fiction story we all remember, where competent and resourceful individuals can make a difference and maybe even change the world. I look forward to more stories of Trent and Donna, Allan and Judy, and their alien friends.
