ISBN 0-86553-185-4 (US hbk)

"Barnes is a sort of young, hip Heinlein, who's tale of warring space colonies -- the Confederation versus the Orbital Republics -- has as much sociological content as hard-SF extrapolation. Barnes is thinking about problems that Niven and pals haven't touched on. This suspenseful story of a struggle over resources has a kind of timeless quality, a sense of social-allegorical subtext that elevates it above technophilia." --John Shirley (in Science Fiction Eye , Volume 1, Number 3, March 1988).