Worlds (3)

In the last volume of the parable of Earth’s destruction and humanity’s doomed flight from it, Mariane O’Hara frantically records the lives of her family and contemporaries when most of the earth’s history and literature is wiped out from computer banks.

Written in the form of a diary, these are the reflections of a remarkable woman on the circumstances of her life aboard “New Home,” a traveling space station that represents the last remnants of humanity bound for an uncertain destination. This conclusion to the “Worlds” trilogy (, LJ 3/15/81; , LJ 9/15/83) demonstrates Haldeman at his peak, an accomplished envisioner of the distant future. Unlike many technologically oriented sf adventures, this one features memorable characters and a well-integrated plot. Purchase where the author has a following or where hard sf is popular.

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Earth was finished, devastated by nuclear and biological war. The inhabitants of the artificial asteroid colonies looked down on it and knew that humanity’s old home would soon be gone forever.

But Earth would not loose its ties so easily. And for Marianne O’Hara there was work that had to be done among the stricken ruins before she could at last look outwards to the stars.

In the year 2084, nearly a half million humans have escaped pollution and overcrowding to live in the hollowed-out asteroids miles above the Earth. For Maryanne O’Hara—born and raised on New New York, one of several orbiting Worlds—the prospect of attending college on the home planet is both frightening and exhilirating. But things are very different down below. Violence, unrest and political fanatacism run rampant. And mixing with the wrong crowd can have serious, sinister and Worlds-shattering consequences.