Publisher's Weekly
Barnes's engaging debut is one of the first novels in the new Isaac Asimov Presents series published by Congdon & Weed with the cooperation of Davis Publications. The Orbital Republics may be the dominant power in the solar system but political and social forces are moving them toward a war on the Breakaway Confederation of moons and asteroids that barely maintains its independence. The Confederation sees its one slim chance against the OR's overwhelming military might in a diversionary tactic. It therefore sends several agents, including political historian Saul Pareto, down to the backwater colony that Earth has become. Among the harassed farmers of New York's Finger Lakes, Saul quickly foments a revolt but finds himself getting more involved with the people and their cause than he had anticipated. Patterned on the American Revolutioncomplete with Swamp Fox tacticsthis is a clever novel of ideas in action and their dire consequences.