THE CYBORG FROM EARTH - 图书城.COM

From Publishers Weekly
The Messina Dust Cloud is home to a flourishing human population seeking independence from Earth and rumored to be illegally experimenting with nanotechnology to create warrior cyborgs. The misfit heir to a transportation empire, Jefferson Kopal, is sent out to the Cloud in spite of nearly failing his qualification tests for the Space Navy. Once there, he undergoes a classic process of coming of age and of learning that things are not what they seem?things including his family, the Space Navy, the Cloud and, above all, the Cloud's technologies. Young Jeff is an appealing protagonist, embodying a plausible mixture of virtues and vices. Perhaps he's too appealing: Sheffield focuses so closely on him that other interesting and even essential aspects of the story (such as the climactic space battle and the confrontation over control of the Kopal transportation empire) are undeveloped, even somewhat jumbled by comparison. In any case, the novel?the most ambitious yet of the Jupiter series (Putting Up Roots, etc.)?succeeds as the edifying entertainment it, and the series, is meant to be.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
Despite his demonstrated unfitness for military duty, Jefferson Kopal, scion of one of Earth's ruling dynasties, finds himself assigned to the Space Navy's Border Command, where he becomes a pawn in a conspiracy that brings the solar system to the brink of civil war. Sheffield's fourth entry in his Jupiter novels (e.g., The Billion-Dollar Boy, LJ 12/96) delivers a classic coming- of-age story that features a genuinely appealing hero caught in a conflict between duty and integrity. Following in the tradition of early Heinlein, this title should appeal to YA as well as adult fans of sf action-adventure. A good purchase for large libraries.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
The latest in Sheffield's Jupiter series takes place in the Messina Cloud about a century after The Billion-Dollar Boy. The cloud now has a flourishing civilization, with some advanced technologies that Earth both fears and covets. Jefferson Kopal, scion of a transportation and space-navy dynasty, comes to the cloud for what is really an attempt to provoke war between it and Earth. Despite nearly failing his navy tests, Kopal is shrewd enough and competent enough to come of age in the cloud and watch its technology prove more valuable to the human race in general and more dangerous to the cloud dwellers' enemies than he had expected. The book recalls Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy (1957)--not at all a bad model--but may frustrate some because so much of it is devoted to making Kopal a fully rounded protagonist that other aspects of the book seem to be scanted. Perhaps the most complex and ambitious Jupiter book; despite its shortcomings, certainly not the worst. Roland Green --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
"Recalls Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy--not at all a bad model." --Booklist
-- Review

Review

"Recalls Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy--not at all a bad model." --Booklist

书摘：

CHAPTER ONE

Jefferson Kopal is a coward. He knows it, and if he doesn’t do something about it soon, so “will everyone else. Jeff wrote the words on the yellowing sheet of paper that he had found folded in the back of one of the old books. He read the note aloud, three times. Finally he crumpled the sheet into a ball and looked around for a good way to dispose of it.
Logically, the end of an exorcism ought to be by fire. He should burn the page. But how? The library fireplace was wide and deep, but it was too early in the year for anyone to think of lighting a fire there. No one would anyway, since Jeff seemed to be the only person who ever came to browse through the shelves of old books, with their leather and cloth covers and their look of having been here forever. Everyone else preferred the new library, with its instant and flexible services. It was centrally heated, and the regular array of terminals would never see a naked flame.
What about his rooms, or one of the never-used upper suites?
There were matches in his bedside table; but with fire monitors scattered everywhere through the vast old house, it was difficult to know where something might be burned without setting off alarms.
Outside, then.
Jeff walked over to the library window. The weather was clear and calm, with distant trees showing the first tinge of a fall change of color. He looked across the broad lawn toward die pasture and felt a twinge of nervousness, like a sudden cramp in die belly. It was ideal conditions. There was not the slightest chance that die competition would be postponed.
He put die ball of paper into his trouser pocket and left the old library that occupied part of the second floor’s west wing. It was Jeff’s favorite haunt and hideaway. His private suite of rooms was one floor higher. To reach them he had to head over to the house’s central atrium, then ascend the wide, curving staircase.
……

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