Published by Tor, 1991, 231 pages
ISBN 0-812-53238-4
$4.99

When Valley-girl speak meets sci-fi, the result is Orbital Resonance. Melpomene Murray is a 13-year-old student on the asteroid/spaceship Flying Dutchman. She's caught in the equivalent of a NASA publicity stunt--write an essay on what it's like to be in space. As she does, you learn what it's like for a 13-year old to live on an asteroid.

Barnes tackles the viewpoint well enough and introduces us to a variety of high school sports like toggle (zero-G rapelling race) and aerocrosse, as well as competitive academic exercises and complex social interactions (dating, high school cliques, and parental intrusions). And if this was all there was, I'd call it a pale derivative of Card's Ender's Game and quit at that.

But like Ender's Game, there's a dark purpose behind all this training. Although the Earth and its asteroid colonies are at peace, psychological forces are at work. In some ways, it's a culture clash between space enthusiasts and groundpounders. At another level, Melpomene represents a fresh start to a people plagued by pollution, war, and pestilence. In a third view, start the manipulation of a generation early...and often.

If Barnes' prose may grate using 13-year-old speak, then consider yourself absorbed into Mel's world. If the tale spins out of control when the new kid on the block shows up, consider the dark designs that creep into the narrative. If there's a happy ending, consider yourself fortunate to have been along for the ride.