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Dingilliad / Starsiders #3
Leaping to the Stars
Having barely escaped death at the hands of ruthless corporations who have pursued him across the harsh lunar wasteland, teenager Charles Dingillian faces yet another fateful no longer able to return to his home on Earth, Charles and his two brothers must choose a new planet to call home. But which one?
Charles has come into possession of a prototype HARLIE unit so revolutionary and state-of-the-art that corporations will stop at nothing - including murder - to control it. Earth is in a state of social and economic meltdown. The battle for domination between rival corporations has gone interplanetary. Charles and the HARLIE unit escape capture on Earth, but the hunt for them intensifies when they are discovered to be on the moon. The stakes have escalated to full-scale war. For Charles, everyone is his enemy. No one can be trusted.
Charles has been at war only that was a personal civil war waged between him and his parents. In an effort to end the strife once and for all thirteen-year-old Charles took the drastic step of "divorcing" his parents. When against all odds he succeeded, he won his freedom. He and his brothers are now free to do what they choose. To go where they want.
Freedom for Charles and his brothers means passage on a starship to a colony Outbeyond. There they will use HARLIE to help build a better world. But freedom also means exile. From his home. From his friends. From everything he has ever known. And even his chance for a new life on a remote planet is put in jeopardy when a critical malfunction with the HARLIE unit seemingly threatens the integrity of the voyage. However, a faction of passengers on board the Brightliner Cascade may pose an even greater risk.
A risk not even an intelligence as powerful as a HARLIE unit can avert.
Charles has come into possession of a prototype HARLIE unit so revolutionary and state-of-the-art that corporations will stop at nothing - including murder - to control it. Earth is in a state of social and economic meltdown. The battle for domination between rival corporations has gone interplanetary. Charles and the HARLIE unit escape capture on Earth, but the hunt for them intensifies when they are discovered to be on the moon. The stakes have escalated to full-scale war. For Charles, everyone is his enemy. No one can be trusted.
Charles has been at war only that was a personal civil war waged between him and his parents. In an effort to end the strife once and for all thirteen-year-old Charles took the drastic step of "divorcing" his parents. When against all odds he succeeded, he won his freedom. He and his brothers are now free to do what they choose. To go where they want.
Freedom for Charles and his brothers means passage on a starship to a colony Outbeyond. There they will use HARLIE to help build a better world. But freedom also means exile. From his home. From his friends. From everything he has ever known. And even his chance for a new life on a remote planet is put in jeopardy when a critical malfunction with the HARLIE unit seemingly threatens the integrity of the voyage. However, a faction of passengers on board the Brightliner Cascade may pose an even greater risk.
A risk not even an intelligence as powerful as a HARLIE unit can avert.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 6, 2002
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99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 4, 2012
Whether Leaping, Bouncing or Jumping , Gerrold’s three book coming of age story told through the eyes of a teenager is exciting, touching and hilarious! Who wouldn’t find a robot monkey with a propensity for farting at just the right time for kids, and the wrong time for serious adults funny? The science, form the space elevator to surviving on the moon is sound and the story compelling. A nice book!
February 25, 2016
The last book in the trilogy, this one is quite a bit more didactic than the previous two. Which probably makes it more Heinleinian, but kills the action. I like the message of this book. I will always have a fondness for "Chigger".
February 12, 2023
Charles "Chigger" Dingillad and his brothers Douglas and Bobby go with their dad on a Clarke beanstalk to the Moon. The boys get embroiled in intrigue. Their father acted as a courier for something extremely valuable to pay for the trip. This leads to several groups and individuals after them. The eventually make it to Moon after the boys divorce their parents. The eventually find safe harbor on the Moon where the boys are reunited with their parents and discover what they have been carrying. A HARLIE unit inside Bobby's robot monkey. They boys eventually reconcile with their parents and decided to head out to settle Outbeyond, a distant colony, with the HARLIE unit. The series currently ends with the family halfway to Outbeyond. Gerrold has created a great work of juvenile fiction which can be read by adults. The science is well detailed. Gerrold explorers classic themes of personal responsibility. Gerrold also takes an interesting look in family and personal relationships.
June 17, 2019
Nice conclusion to the story. Earth is falling apart, and as a result Luna and possibly all of human civilization. But the family is going to the stars - or rather to another planet that sounds quite hazardous but that has a (we hope) thriving colony. If they can get through all the disputes about resources and ideologu on Luna, Earth, and the starship.
You can really tell that David Gerrold is into personal growth seminars/theories. I am not, though I agree with him about pretty much all his views otherwise. If I didn't, I think the book would come across (as another reviewer said) as far too pedantic.
You can really tell that David Gerrold is into personal growth seminars/theories. I am not, though I agree with him about pretty much all his views otherwise. If I didn't, I think the book would come across (as another reviewer said) as far too pedantic.
February 21, 2026
Whether Leaping, Bouncing or Jumping , Gerrold’s three book coming of age story told through the eyes of a teenager is exciting, touching and hilarious! Who wouldn’t find a robot monkey with a propensity for farting at just the right time for kids, and the wrong time for serious adults funny? The science, form the space elevator to surviving on the moon is sound and the story compelling. A nice book!
March 4, 2020
I was surprised that this book meant for young readers was so appealing to someone like me in his sixties. I didn't read the first 2 books in the series, but don't necessarily think that they're necessary. :-) A good story with some common sense philosophy thrown in. Gerrold is an excellent writer of science fiction.
February 6, 2020
I don't know if David Gerrold reads these or not. If he does here's a message. Mr. David Gerrold. I've read all three books for this series 4 time. I think the series isn't finished. A few questions left un answered. Did they make it safely to Out Beyond? & What were their lives like?
September 16, 2016
This is a 14-year-old book, aimed at a teen/young adult audience but not bad for older readers if youi make allowances.
The list of books inside the cover suggested that this was #1 of 3, but in fact it is #3. I think I'm fine with having read only the one (plus, of course "When HARLIE Was One," long ago). Previous stuff isa explained concisely and effectively.
HARLIE is a little over the top with its capabilities (hint: Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes combined are drooling babies by comparison), and Charles is about three standard deviations to the right of even the average musical prodigy. But both are tempered by being quite normal in several other ways.
I felt throughout that I had read this plot before, not once but many times. But were any of them pre-2002? Colony-ship stories seem to converge on the same plot points: the drive doesn't work as expected, we don't have enough of this or that, there are nutters on board, and we are going to spend a lot of time in a young person's point of view.
One speech as they left Earth was interesting. Charles summarizes why Earth society is collapsing, and there's very little in the speech that isn't credible today. And this book, copyrighted 2002, may have been written before 9/11.
Anyway, Gerrold always tells a good story. Don't expect a Hugo-winning genre-buster and you'll do fine. Decide for yourself whether to read the other two volumes first.
The list of books inside the cover suggested that this was #1 of 3, but in fact it is #3. I think I'm fine with having read only the one (plus, of course "When HARLIE Was One," long ago). Previous stuff isa explained concisely and effectively.
HARLIE is a little over the top with its capabilities (hint: Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes combined are drooling babies by comparison), and Charles is about three standard deviations to the right of even the average musical prodigy. But both are tempered by being quite normal in several other ways.
I felt throughout that I had read this plot before, not once but many times. But were any of them pre-2002? Colony-ship stories seem to converge on the same plot points: the drive doesn't work as expected, we don't have enough of this or that, there are nutters on board, and we are going to spend a lot of time in a young person's point of view.
One speech as they left Earth was interesting. Charles summarizes why Earth society is collapsing, and there's very little in the speech that isn't credible today. And this book, copyrighted 2002, may have been written before 9/11.
Anyway, Gerrold always tells a good story. Don't expect a Hugo-winning genre-buster and you'll do fine. Decide for yourself whether to read the other two volumes first.
December 24, 2025
Gerrold, David. Leaping to the Stars. Dingilliad No. 3. Tor, 2002.
Charles and his dysfunctional family get chased off the moon and board a starship with their quantum-computing toy monkey. Charles faces one adult-initiation experience after another, as he struggles to resolve for himself the vexing relationships between community and individual responsibility and expression. Along the way, there is some intriguing speculation about the nature of computer sentience and its relation to human sentience. There is lively YAF action and even more social messaging than there was in the previous volumes. If the previous novel owed much to Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones, this one owes a big debt to Starman Jones.
Charles and his dysfunctional family get chased off the moon and board a starship with their quantum-computing toy monkey. Charles faces one adult-initiation experience after another, as he struggles to resolve for himself the vexing relationships between community and individual responsibility and expression. Along the way, there is some intriguing speculation about the nature of computer sentience and its relation to human sentience. There is lively YAF action and even more social messaging than there was in the previous volumes. If the previous novel owed much to Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones, this one owes a big debt to Starman Jones.
August 26, 2016
When I first started the series there were things I didn't like about the first book, but after reading all three, it all comes together quite well.
Not only does it provide the adventure of going to the stars, but it also digs deep into the philosophy of man and souls. I won't spoil it for you, but I think it gives us a pretty good grasp on where the world is headed right now.
For my clean readers:
Some language and violence. Be prepared for discussions about souls and God with your teen. It definitely makes one think.
Not only does it provide the adventure of going to the stars, but it also digs deep into the philosophy of man and souls. I won't spoil it for you, but I think it gives us a pretty good grasp on where the world is headed right now.
For my clean readers:
Some language and violence. Be prepared for discussions about souls and God with your teen. It definitely makes one think.
October 9, 2008
I loved this one! If you can only read one of the books in this trilogy, read this one. I loved the discussions on "what does it mean to be human?" "how do you know the difference between good and evil?"
December 17, 2014
book 3. young adults haeaded for the stars.
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January 9, 2010ereader ebook
December 24, 2012
Kind of bland and dry but it did start to get more interesting toward the end. =)
August 28, 2018
included in
The Far Side Of The Sky
November 8, 2016
One of the best science fiction trilogies I've read in a very long time.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews