(3.5 stars)

(originally reviewed on starmetal oak book blog)

I've come away from The Highest Frontier feeling very dichotomous about the book. Overall, I did enjoy this book very much but I alo had some reservations.

I'll start by saying that there are many awesome things Slonczewski did with this story. It follows Jenny Ramos Kennedy, a college student from a family of politicians and presidents, who loves plants and goes to study at Frontera College. Frontera is located in a spacehab ('space habitat') and is accessible by going up an anthrax lift. There we meet many interesting characters: Dylan, the college president and his partner, Father Clare, the college chaplain. Then there's the eccentric roomate, Mary Dryer, and Jenny's best frend, Anouk. One of the advertised benefits of Frontera is that there are no ultraphytes, alien organisms that have been populating on Earth. However, Frontera isn't as perfect as everyone's made it out to be and slowly, Jenny finds out there are issues going on in the spacehab.

Politics and religion is another large part of the book. Through Jenny we witness the presidental election on Earth, mostly between two parties: the religious Centrists who don't believe in outer space and Unity, the part of Jenny's ancestors. What I really enjoyed is the mix of politics and religion in a futuristic world where often times religion is replaced by science. That's not the case here. There are still many conflicts between church and state despite it being around a century in the future.

But the aspect I liked the most about this book is the science. Slonczewski injects this future world with so much interesting and fun concepts that it really kept me reading out of sheer fascination. Biology is a big part of this world, where ultraphytes are mixing DNA with Earth life and Jenny spends a lot of her time with her Life class professor learning about organisms. Everyone wears a diad on their head where they use their brain to navigate the Toyworld, a virtual place where you can chat with people, watch news and basically do anything you could think of.

The only downside that I found to The Highest Frontier is that we don't pass through too much time (about one semester of college) and the story moves at a slow pace. There wasn't a specific plotline. Instead we follow Jenny through school and through her political life, learning as much as we can about this world. I would have liked to see a bigger climax at the end, but I did feel the conclusion was satisfying enough.

Like I said earlier, I have mixed feelings. I thought this was one of the most interesting and unique science fiction books I ever read and I really appreciate it for that. There isn't always a lot of action or a clear direction in plot, but it's supplemented by grabbing your attention with a myriad of ideas and concepts that Slonczewski has thought up. I would recommend this book for people looking for more hard science fiction with a great side dish of poltics and religion. However, if you're looking for an easy, fast-paced action book with a clear storyline, then this isn't for you.

Review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.