Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele
(the concluding novel in the Coyote saga), Ace, $25.95, 337pp, hc, 9780441018215. Science fiction.
Coyote Destiny concludes the interstellar tale of colonization, revolution, exploration, and interspecies contact begun nearly a decade ago with Allen Steele’s Coyote. In that time, we’ve followed the rebels who stole the United Republic of America’s sleeper sheep Alabama and landed on the world that came to be known as Coyote, more than 40 light years from Earth. We watched them survive the harsh first seasons, build a colony, and then have it all but taken away when the colonization ships of the Western Hemisphere Union arrived. We cheered the revolution that overthrew the matriarchs of the WHU and regained control of the planet for the colonists, and we grew with them as they explored their wondrous new planet. Along the way, we took a few side trips to investigate the artificial planetoid known as Spindrift, and journeyed to meet the interstellar civilization known as the hjadd. It was with the technological help of the hjadd that the starbridges were built, linking Earth and Coyote almost instantaneously over those light years.
In the previous book, Coyote Horizon, the people of Coyote were introduced to the alien philosophy known as Sa’Tong. Less than a religion, but more pervasive and persuasive, Sa’Tong teaches peace, compassion, and a higher way of living. It is a way of life well suited to Coyote, and we felt its spread around Coyote in that book. Sa’Tong, however, was not readily adopted by everyone, and Horizon ended with the bombing of the CFS Robert E. Lee, a ship traveling from Coyote to Earth. The bomb was detonated at the moment the ship was entering the starbridge. That explosion destroyed not only the Lee, and everyone aboard (or so we thought), but the starbridge itself. For the sake of justice, it was fortunate that the guilty party was aboard, and died in the explosion.
Now it’s six Coyote years later (nearly two decades, Earth time), and the hjadd have helped Coyote rebuild the starbridge, with one key proviso: no ships from Coyote will be permitted to travel to Earth, and vice versa. Coyote is accepted into the hjadd civilization, but the more violent parent-planet is not. In fact, Earth is to be quarantined, indefinitely (that is, apparently until such time as the people of Earth can live in peace with the rest of the galaxy).
Destiny opens at the moment Horizon ended—the only such quick connection in the series—but it’s just for a brief prologue. Thus, the reader learns that one person did escape the bombing of the Lee, the chaaz’maha, previously known as Hawk Thompson, and the first human to adopt Sa’Tong and teach it to others.
Ship ahead six C-years, and we meet Lieutenant Jorge Montero, an officer in Coyote’s Corps of Exploration, and grandson of the first two presidents of the Coyote Federation. One of those grandparents, founding president Carlos Montero, died on the Lee. The other, second president Wendy Gunther Montero, is in her declining years, retired from politics, but still paying attention, and at odds with the current president. Jorge is exploring in the northern arctic regions with a team that includes a very attractive young ensign named Inez. Jorge knows he can’t fraternize with a junior officer, but he’d sure like to.
While Jorge and Inez are out in the field, something Coyote-shattering happens back in civilization (which has been rebuilt and expanded through hjadd help): a ship arrives from Earth. The sole passenger, pilot Sergio Vargas, arrives with tales of global environmental disaster, a civilization falling apart, and interplanetary travel almost moribund, all because of a messiah calling himself the chaaz’maha. Plucked from Vargas’ mind (by Inez’s mind-reading mother) is even more information, including an apparent rebirth of the detested (and long-dead) United Republic of America. The news, though kept quiet, sets off a firestorm in the upper circles of Coyote. Jorge and Inez are recalled, informed of the news, and (for various reasons) ordered to Earth to recover the chaaz’maha.
Meanwhile, it’s been a long time coming, but Vargas also has information confirming that the bomber of the Lee did have help, that he didn’t build the bomb himself, and that the bomb-maker is someone still on Coyote. Corps of Exploration Commanding General Sawyer Lee teams with retired Chief Proctor Chris Levin to seek out the bomb maker and bring him to justice, one way or another.
Now we’ve got our parallel stories set. One voyage of exploration will take the younger explorers first to the hjadd for permission to return to Earth, there to find a long-lost relative, mentor, and icon. The other voyage, only slightly more covert, will track down a long-sought fugitive from justice. The stories run in alternating segments, giving us views of the worst of Earth and the best of Coyote, along with some of the hope for recovery on Earth, and the seedier side of the still-new planet Coyote.
Secrets will be revealed, relationships will be built, revealed, and renewed, missions will succeed and fail, people will die, and others will live. In the end, we’ll be given both closure and hope for the future. And though not everything ends happily, it all ends satisfyingly. The final segment, indeed, is a farewell to the only character who has been with us the whole time, and her send-off is appropriate both for the character and the series.
I’m going to miss these sojourns to Allen Steele’s wonderfully imagined colony world orbiting the gas giant around 47 Ursae Majoris, because, as he tells SFScope this is “the last Coyote novel I intend to write, at least for the conceivable future. I may write more short stories set on Coyote, but I think I’ve pretty much wrapped up everything with this book.” It’s not a complete break, however, because Steele says, “I’m now writing another novel, Hex, which is set in the universe (like Spindrift and Galaxy Blues).” So, while we’re saying goodbye to Coyote, we won’t have to leave Steele’s grand universe altogether. I’ve been taken by Sa’Tong, and we’ve only been afforded glimpses of the alien species and their meeting places, so there’s still a lot to explore. Steele’s is a fully realized universe, and as such, we’ve only explored small pieces of it, so there’s a lot of room for more, if he ever feels up to it.
I recommend Coyote Destiny. It’s a nostalgic goodbye to an engrossing tale of interstellar colonization, and a damn good book in and of itself.