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Near Space #5
A King of Infinite Space
For William Alec Tucker III, the son of rich, guilt-ridden parents, life after death--and cryogenics--provides a gateway to the future, but he soon discovers that he has become a pawn in a vast struggle for power that takes him on an odyssey of discovery that reaches into the vastness of outer space
424 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
3 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Allen M. Steele
235 books416 followersBefore becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place.
Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.
Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.
Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.
Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.
Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.
Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 18, 2014
Nostalgic 90's sci-fi loaded with pop culture references that anyone who lived through the 90's will get (and which will seem totally incomprehensible to Millenials). A rich trust fund kid goes to Lollapalooza and gets himself killed in a car wreck, only to wake up in the year 2099. A 'deadhead', his head and brain were frozen until being revived a hundred and four years later. Cloned into a brand new body, he regains his memories, escapes from his initial slavery and sets out to find his girlfriend, who was also put into cryogenic sleep. But as in the 20th century, there's always the Man pulling the strings ...
January 28, 2015
A King of Infinite Space is the last book in Allen Steele's Near-Space series. It's a stand-alone novel that does not require reading any of the previous stories, though Working for Mister Chicago and The Death of Captain Future introduce several characters who reappear here.
William Alec Tucker III is, to put it bluntly, a douchebag. He's the son of a status-seeking, desperately-clinging-to-her-dessicating-youth mother and a rich CEO daddy, neither of whom actually want to have much to do with him, so he grows up like most such young men: rich, spoiled, aimless, and self-centered. In 1995, he and his girlfriend, Erin, are riding home from a concert in a car driven by Alec's best friend, Shemp. Shemp is tripping the light fantastic on three hits of LSD, and they meet a truck.
About a hundred years later, Alec wakes up in a white room, with no memory of who he is. In fact, at first he can't even remember how to eat or use the toilet.
Gradually, his memories come back, and he discovers that his father had signed him up for one of those cryogenic suspension schemes back in the 90s. When he died, his head was surgically removed, frozen, and kept in storage for some future date when the technology would exist to revive him. To the surprise of those who are revived, that date actually comes.
Unfortunately, Alec soon finds that in the intervening century, during which mankind has expanded throughout the solar system, and the politics and economics of 20th century Earth have faded into history, a sinister, wealthy and powerful individual known as "Mister Chicago" acquired the "deadheads" once cared for by the Immortality Partnership, and for reasons of his own, had them brought to his lair to be revived. And upon revival, he puts them all to work - cleaning floors, scrubbing toilets, dusting shelves, changing sheets. These wealthy, elite optimists of the 20th century, hoping to be brought back to life to experience the wonders of the future, find themselves enslaved as house-servants.
It turns out that Alec's friend Shemp also died in that accident and was brought back to life with him. As Alec begins trying to scope out his new surroundings, the world in which he finds himself, and the goals of their mysterious "benefactor," Mister Chicago, he discovers that he and Shemp have changed, and not for the better. Alec wants to find out what happened to Erin, and this, and the betrayal of his friend and the increasingly sinister behavior of Mister Chicago, convinces him to plot an escape.
The rest of the book is a space adventure worthy of Heinlein: Alec has to reach the Clarke County space station parked at a Lagrange point, and eventually, the moon, all while trying to dodge Mister Chicago's minions and the dangerous intelligence service of the Pax Astra.
As a space adventure, this book was great. I really enjoyed Steele's other Near-Space stories, and this novel-length coda to those stories presents a daring, heroic protagonist who survives with a combination of cleverness, courage, and stupid blind luck.
The daring, heroic, protagonist is, however, still a douchebag. Which is a complaint that comes up in a lot of other reviews: Alec grows up a bit over the course of the novel, gradually realizing what a shitty little spoiled brat he was and how badly he treated everyone from the hired help to his own friends, but right up until the very end he's still kind of a dick. It's hard to outgrow an upbringing like his.
Since I thought this was the point of the novel - the former trust-fund kiddie has to man up and figure out how to survive in a universe that no longer cares about his daddy's money - I found it entertaining, especially when Alec got a number of well-deserved ass-kickings.
The twists at the very end, however, threw me a bit, as several characters who've been built up as sadistic villains do a heel-face turn, and I wasn't entirely satisfied by the way everything wraps up in the last few chapters (even if I did guess early on what Mister Chicago was really up to).
That wasn't enough to diminish my enjoyment of the book, though, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Heinleinesque space adventures.
William Alec Tucker III is, to put it bluntly, a douchebag. He's the son of a status-seeking, desperately-clinging-to-her-dessicating-youth mother and a rich CEO daddy, neither of whom actually want to have much to do with him, so he grows up like most such young men: rich, spoiled, aimless, and self-centered. In 1995, he and his girlfriend, Erin, are riding home from a concert in a car driven by Alec's best friend, Shemp. Shemp is tripping the light fantastic on three hits of LSD, and they meet a truck.
About a hundred years later, Alec wakes up in a white room, with no memory of who he is. In fact, at first he can't even remember how to eat or use the toilet.
Gradually, his memories come back, and he discovers that his father had signed him up for one of those cryogenic suspension schemes back in the 90s. When he died, his head was surgically removed, frozen, and kept in storage for some future date when the technology would exist to revive him. To the surprise of those who are revived, that date actually comes.
Unfortunately, Alec soon finds that in the intervening century, during which mankind has expanded throughout the solar system, and the politics and economics of 20th century Earth have faded into history, a sinister, wealthy and powerful individual known as "Mister Chicago" acquired the "deadheads" once cared for by the Immortality Partnership, and for reasons of his own, had them brought to his lair to be revived. And upon revival, he puts them all to work - cleaning floors, scrubbing toilets, dusting shelves, changing sheets. These wealthy, elite optimists of the 20th century, hoping to be brought back to life to experience the wonders of the future, find themselves enslaved as house-servants.
It turns out that Alec's friend Shemp also died in that accident and was brought back to life with him. As Alec begins trying to scope out his new surroundings, the world in which he finds himself, and the goals of their mysterious "benefactor," Mister Chicago, he discovers that he and Shemp have changed, and not for the better. Alec wants to find out what happened to Erin, and this, and the betrayal of his friend and the increasingly sinister behavior of Mister Chicago, convinces him to plot an escape.
The rest of the book is a space adventure worthy of Heinlein: Alec has to reach the Clarke County space station parked at a Lagrange point, and eventually, the moon, all while trying to dodge Mister Chicago's minions and the dangerous intelligence service of the Pax Astra.
As a space adventure, this book was great. I really enjoyed Steele's other Near-Space stories, and this novel-length coda to those stories presents a daring, heroic protagonist who survives with a combination of cleverness, courage, and stupid blind luck.
The daring, heroic, protagonist is, however, still a douchebag. Which is a complaint that comes up in a lot of other reviews: Alec grows up a bit over the course of the novel, gradually realizing what a shitty little spoiled brat he was and how badly he treated everyone from the hired help to his own friends, but right up until the very end he's still kind of a dick. It's hard to outgrow an upbringing like his.
Since I thought this was the point of the novel - the former trust-fund kiddie has to man up and figure out how to survive in a universe that no longer cares about his daddy's money - I found it entertaining, especially when Alec got a number of well-deserved ass-kickings.
The twists at the very end, however, threw me a bit, as several characters who've been built up as sadistic villains do a heel-face turn, and I wasn't entirely satisfied by the way everything wraps up in the last few chapters (even if I did guess early on what Mister Chicago was really up to).
That wasn't enough to diminish my enjoyment of the book, though, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes Heinleinesque space adventures.
November 6, 2012
Allen Steele is from my hometown. How cool is that? Fun trip within our own solar system. Not "heavy" but not "light" either. Didn't realize this was related to a "series" of related novels, I just picked it from my Dad's shelf. It stood up well on its own. I'll be keeping Steele in mind when I need another "scifi fix".
February 19, 2019
My 1998 booklog: (Mr.Chicago.) reco by Locus/SFL(?, beats me): A/A-, clever, well-done, a little sappy @ end. I remember that classy(?) retro-pulp cover illo, Mr. Chicago is vaguely familiar & that's it. AM Steele: the Chinese food of SF stories?
April 21, 2024
This was a lot of fun. It is reminiscent of Heinlen but with less of a stick up it's butt. It also has a great fondness of music from the 90's. Thank you Greg from Divot's Brewery in Norfolk, Ne(shameless plug) for the recommendation.
August 10, 2017
The book, about a selfish trust fund kid that dies, is cryogenically frozen, only to be given a second chance at life a hundred years in the future, starts off good. Then, as you get into the meat of the novel, and he escapes his new life of servitude, it gets much better. Very tense, a race against time, with very little resources to achieve his goals. When re-captured, his former friends and captors go on to explain to him how he was used, why, and to explain that he was such a self-centered jerk in his former life, that he deserved it. Oh, but now, he can forgive, and live a life happily ever after.
I knew exactly how it was going to end, and I was mad. Here's the problem with the rationale at the end: he was a jerk, but didn't know any better. The torture and backstabbing of his friends and "employer" was malicious. Being a jerk and treating your best friend as more like a sidekick does not equal him getting with your girlfriend, and gloating about it. One is rude, the other is spiteful.
Do you get what I'm saying? They were malicious! I was hoping he would wake up in that last scene, wish them all good luck, and leave. I was hoping the last pages would see him as the Second Mate of the Comet, living a decent enough life in the Belt. Not having to smile every day at the people that thought you were a joke, a pawn, and easy prey.
I'm mad at this book, if you can't tell. I'd rate it lower, but I'm trying not to let the last chapter ruin what was otherwise a good book.
I knew exactly how it was going to end, and I was mad. Here's the problem with the rationale at the end: he was a jerk, but didn't know any better. The torture and backstabbing of his friends and "employer" was malicious. Being a jerk and treating your best friend as more like a sidekick does not equal him getting with your girlfriend, and gloating about it. One is rude, the other is spiteful.
Do you get what I'm saying? They were malicious! I was hoping he would wake up in that last scene, wish them all good luck, and leave. I was hoping the last pages would see him as the Second Mate of the Comet, living a decent enough life in the Belt. Not having to smile every day at the people that thought you were a joke, a pawn, and easy prey.
I'm mad at this book, if you can't tell. I'd rate it lower, but I'm trying not to let the last chapter ruin what was otherwise a good book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2014
The book does start a little slow---but I kept reading and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.
Alec is definitely not a very nice person when you first meet him---but the story was very well told and his character gradually changed. It has some really good scenes and good ideas--it is not as 'light' a book as I thought it was going to be.
I won't attempt to summarize all the schemes in the plot--and this will not be everyone's cup of tea. So, if you want a good SF tale that is just a little 'different', read this book.
Alec is definitely not a very nice person when you first meet him---but the story was very well told and his character gradually changed. It has some really good scenes and good ideas--it is not as 'light' a book as I thought it was going to be.
I won't attempt to summarize all the schemes in the plot--and this will not be everyone's cup of tea. So, if you want a good SF tale that is just a little 'different', read this book.
May 5, 2013
If you're expecting space opera don't pick up this book.
It was interesting enough to read through to the end but I was disappointed.
I thought the plot was contrived and didn't really make sense. The future technology was not well thought through.
It was a character driven story masquerading as a plot driven story. It's a coming of age story. It was supposed to be about the main character's coming of age, but was really about the supporting cast getting even with him for childhood name calling.
There was too much worship of the drug culture of the sixties.
It was interesting enough to read through to the end but I was disappointed.
I thought the plot was contrived and didn't really make sense. The future technology was not well thought through.
It was a character driven story masquerading as a plot driven story. It's a coming of age story. It was supposed to be about the main character's coming of age, but was really about the supporting cast getting even with him for childhood name calling.
There was too much worship of the drug culture of the sixties.
January 30, 2010
Regrettably forgettable. The plot is thin and disjoint. The charactorizations are inconsistent, and the main character is an annoying self-absorbed young man. The premise has been treated with much more sophistication elsewhere.
November 14, 2017
This is the 5th book in the Near Space series by Allen Steele. This one takes place in the year 2099. This is many years after the events in the previous books. Alec and his friend Shimp are both killed in a car crash in 1995. Both of their fathers have made arrangements to have them cryogenically preserved in the hopes they can one day be brought back to life. Alec wakes up in the year 2099 with no memory's but soon they start to come back. He finally recognizes that another perso in the ward with him is his friend Shimp but Shimp seems to have changed. He soon discovers that he and the other revived people seem to be slaves for a ruthless man who has them trapped on a space habitat. He decides he must escape and he also wants to find his girlfriend who he finds out has also been preserved but she is halfway across the solar system at another facility. He escapes but soon finds out that things are not quite what he believed they were. This a good read in this series and can be read as a stand alone book or as part of the series.
July 3, 2024
Really interesting concept that I haven't seen in science fiction before: waking up in a second life 100 years in the future unexpectedly, but reborn into slavery.
The concept and mysteries of the future scenario kept me intrigued through the first half, and then the plot picks up significantly for the main character in the second half. It's only briefly a bit of a slog in the middle when large portions of history are summarized in a way that departs from the main story, and there are some sexual themes that I would prefer to have been skipped.
Overall, interesting read for fans of SciFi.
The concept and mysteries of the future scenario kept me intrigued through the first half, and then the plot picks up significantly for the main character in the second half. It's only briefly a bit of a slog in the middle when large portions of history are summarized in a way that departs from the main story, and there are some sexual themes that I would prefer to have been skipped.
Overall, interesting read for fans of SciFi.
January 12, 2023
La storia è molto interessante, riesce a non essere banale sia nelle ambientazioni che nei personaggi.
Scritta bene, scivola nella parte iniziale su alcune parole ( capirete leggendolo) e non si capisce se abbia sbagliato l'autore o il traduttore.
Grosso problema è il finale. Ad una attenta analisi il protagonista non supera il suo difetto, essere figlio di papà, ma alla fine farà ancora la scelta più comoda per lui. E non si mette neppure il passato alle spalle per rifarsi una vita perché resta con le stesse persone. Diciamo che è un arco tragico mascherato.
Scritta bene, scivola nella parte iniziale su alcune parole ( capirete leggendolo) e non si capisce se abbia sbagliato l'autore o il traduttore.
Grosso problema è il finale. Ad una attenta analisi il protagonista non supera il suo difetto, essere figlio di papà, ma alla fine farà ancora la scelta più comoda per lui. E non si mette neppure il passato alle spalle per rifarsi una vita perché resta con le stesse persone. Diciamo che è un arco tragico mascherato.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2020
I am susceptible to Steele's combination of nostalgia-laced space futurism and rowdy pop-culture shenanigans. If you are also susceptible to same, this book will probably deliver the freight straight to your orbital complex. If you do not enjoy a fast-paced tale of adventure spanning the solar system, this is not the novel for you.
December 23, 2025
I almost quit because it's just so mean and unpleasant in the start, but it turned out to be worth staying. The ending ... well, I'll only say that it was worth getting through the "hero"'s unpleasant experiences.
March 17, 2025
With a title like that I had great expectations but the book is AWFUL. I got so far on it and gave up. A yawn on every page and it never got any better. Too many other books that I want to read.
February 9, 2025
A fascinating start, somewhat uneven but exciting middle, and an unpleasant faceplant of an ending. I was loving this book until I started to hate it.
January 25, 2014
This was a unique, enjoyable light sci fi novel. It starts with Alec Tucker, his girlfriend Erin, and his best friend Shemp going to Lollapalooza, getting wasted and dying in a car wreck. Next thing you know, Alec wakes in a white room, young, bald, naked, and with amnesia. There are others in the room too. He has to have basic things explained to him, such as how to eat, urinate properly, dress himself, etc. There's also a computer chip in his head explaining things to him. He later names this chip, "Chip." He's visited by a robed man named John and he discovers that memories gradually start to return. Eventually he becomes somewhat self sufficient, and is taken out of the white room into the "castle" where he is turned into a servant, made to mop floors all day long. This is ironic because he was a rich, spoiled brat who had servants of his own growing up and who lived off of his father's money his whole life.
Eventually, he remembers Erin and Shemp and to his surprise, finds Shemp, looking quite different, working alongside him. They find out they're "guests" of one Mister Chicago, and later they find out 104 years have passed since their deaths, and that they were given gifts of immortality through cryogenics by their families. Essentially their heads were cut off and frozen and Mister Chicago has gotten some of these "deadheads" from the now bankrupt company. The rest were shipped off to a research university.
Alec finds that while Mister Chicago confides some things in him, he also has an evil side to him, as he witnesses him killing his top deadhead. Alec then swears to escape what he has learned he is on -- an asteroid barreling through space millions of miles from Earth. He eventually escapes, with Chip's help, is taken on by a traveling freighter and is dropped off on a world where he hoped the other deadheads are located, because he's found out Erin was frozen too and he wants to reunite with her. Shemp, meanwhile, has taken over for John and has become a complete asshole. He, his girlfriend Anna, and a "Superior" wielding a sword track Alec down, but he escapes and makes his way to the moon, where the university is located. He gets a job as a custodian there, makes it down to a guarded level, accesses a computer with Chip's aid, and finds where the other deadheads are stored. Then something bad happens. He can't access Chip anymore and he hears Mister Chicago's voice. He makes a mad dash for the deadheads, finds Erin, but she isn't the same, and he's confused. Then, there are explosions and the others who have been chasing him close in on him and he's captured.
Okay. I'm going to stop there because I don't want to give away the ending. Sorry. Or you're welcome. Whichever. Suffice it to say that I've read some people thought the ending was weak, but it had what I like in endings -- total surprise for me. I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did, so that was cool. I think this is probably a four star book, but I'm giving it five because it's so original. I mean, the asteroid was named after Jerry Garcia! It's also a coming of age novel. We see Alec grow. That's got to count for something. Original book, good, quick read. Recommended.
Eventually, he remembers Erin and Shemp and to his surprise, finds Shemp, looking quite different, working alongside him. They find out they're "guests" of one Mister Chicago, and later they find out 104 years have passed since their deaths, and that they were given gifts of immortality through cryogenics by their families. Essentially their heads were cut off and frozen and Mister Chicago has gotten some of these "deadheads" from the now bankrupt company. The rest were shipped off to a research university.
Alec finds that while Mister Chicago confides some things in him, he also has an evil side to him, as he witnesses him killing his top deadhead. Alec then swears to escape what he has learned he is on -- an asteroid barreling through space millions of miles from Earth. He eventually escapes, with Chip's help, is taken on by a traveling freighter and is dropped off on a world where he hoped the other deadheads are located, because he's found out Erin was frozen too and he wants to reunite with her. Shemp, meanwhile, has taken over for John and has become a complete asshole. He, his girlfriend Anna, and a "Superior" wielding a sword track Alec down, but he escapes and makes his way to the moon, where the university is located. He gets a job as a custodian there, makes it down to a guarded level, accesses a computer with Chip's aid, and finds where the other deadheads are stored. Then something bad happens. He can't access Chip anymore and he hears Mister Chicago's voice. He makes a mad dash for the deadheads, finds Erin, but she isn't the same, and he's confused. Then, there are explosions and the others who have been chasing him close in on him and he's captured.
Okay. I'm going to stop there because I don't want to give away the ending. Sorry. Or you're welcome. Whichever. Suffice it to say that I've read some people thought the ending was weak, but it had what I like in endings -- total surprise for me. I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did, so that was cool. I think this is probably a four star book, but I'm giving it five because it's so original. I mean, the asteroid was named after Jerry Garcia! It's also a coming of age novel. We see Alec grow. That's got to count for something. Original book, good, quick read. Recommended.
May 31, 2015
This book is the latest (and perhaps last) novel in Steele's Near-Space universe. It has many of the elements from the previous books; the retro rock'n'roll space opera vibe, good depictions of what life in space might be like, interesting situations and problems, etc., etc., but I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous books in the series for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on. I've read nineteen of Steele's novels and thought eighteen of them were pretty terrific, but this one was just wasn't on the same level for me. I enjoyed reading it, but just not as much as the others.
September 24, 2007
I picked this book up because the first thing I read on the back cover was "Welcome to Heaven. Here's a mop." I expected humor, but it wasn't. It was entertaining, enjoyable, and gave me a few things to think about. With the way the plot unfolded, the "Here's a Mop." sentiment still fit.
November 1, 2011
A rich young man wakes up from cryogenic suspension. He has to work for a living now, by mopping floors.
This novel has it’s bright points, and is a pleasant read, but it doesn’t really grab the imagination. And the twist at the end left me a little annoyed.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1324
This novel has it’s bright points, and is a pleasant read, but it doesn’t really grab the imagination. And the twist at the end left me a little annoyed.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=1324
June 18, 2012
3.5 Fast and generally well-paced ride with a humorous bent that I wasn't aware Steele had in him. Quite a departure from his other works I've read. I suppose the ending was inevitable - how else to wind up what's essentially a romp? - but it did for me detract from the solid fun that preceded it.
August 24, 2008
Really great, if you like science fiction. Even better if you've read the author's short stories.
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June 21, 2009Science Fiction
April 5, 2011
He captures generation X perfectly, but the ending is a little weak. A fun read, but could have been better story.
May 23, 2012
The book was a real page turner after a slow start. The story is refreshing and has several nice twists.
July 16, 2015
Had me guessing until the end. fast read.
May 18, 2015
A great read very nice Dead Head style sci fi I loved it - recommend it highly
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July 24, 2011Good old fashioned space opera.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews