Coyote Books In Order

Publication Order of Coyote Books

Publication Order of Coyote Short Stories/Novellas

Coyote Series by Allen M. Steele

The Coyote is a series of science fiction books by Allen M. Steele. The series is set forty-six light years from the Earth in one of the six moons that can sustain life, Coyote. Setting out on one of the greatest human adventures, the expedition team success of this space mission will depend on how they adapt to their new home because there’s no going back.

Allen Steele’s Coyote series is a wonderful tale of the human colonization of a not so far world (moon). Each of the books in the series is thoughtful, intelligent and well written.

Coyote

Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov were once considered the giants of science fiction books. The gurus of the Silver Age, their stories were amongst the widely read science fiction books of the time and remain popular to the modern day. Predominant in obvious and unobvious ways, their bright vision of advanced human technology and space travels is something that lives today. Written fully in the spirit of these powerful authors, Allen Steele’s Coyote series is an accepted confirmation of the culture that tells it’s a tale of space adventure.

The first novel in the series is Coyote interestingly published in Asimov’s in one year is broken into novella sized chunks, and each moves linearly to the next. The stories detail the adventures of the people of USS Alabama traveling to 47 Ursae Majoris, a moon nicknamed Coyote that revolves around one of its biggest planets. The story also details their settlement as well. The story is full of tricks, its part adventure, drama, and colonization efforts cheered by Allen’s clean and practiced prose.

We are first introduced to Robert E. Lee the captain of the USS Alabama, a spacecraft that took the biggest budget cut of the fragmented version of the US known as the United Republic of America, a country trying to revive its former glory by sending a man to another planet.

Lee and some of the crew members are part of a conspiracy to hijack the spacecraft once it’s out of the orbit and declare it free of the regime. The author patiently and nicely introduces the other crew members involved. They include, Dana, a first officer woman who must use her intelligence to forestall the government’s knowledge of this conspiracy until everything is underway; a scientist and his family whose lives take a twisted turn after the Secret Police visits their house; Lee’s ex-wife, and Ensign Gunther , a man true to the Republic regardless of what happens to the spaceship.

The story is narrated in a true balance of light humanism and imagination. The author doesn’t go overboard with descriptions of new animals, plants and land formations in the new planet. All these descriptions are kept to a plausible minimum. The imagination that exists on the pages is easily recognizable as originating from the Silver Age of sci-fi.

The boids, the space ship diagrams, the presentation of the main character and the approach to the story all have a strong Arthur C. Clarke feel. It’s nice to see a character equaling plot. There’s a nice touch in Leslie waking from biostasis, as is the relationship between Carlos and Wendy. Overall, the narrative doesn’t get caught up in interrelationships, something that gets everything rolling forward.

That being said, Allen Steele’s work shares plenty of similarities with the works of the three sci-fi giants. But in a way or the other, the story is told in the form in the history of sci-fi. However, Steele has a unique way of writing. Understanding in detail how to motivate a narrative, he keeps the pace smooth, the background knowledge fills the narrative and dialogue between, and the plot drives the story. Steele isn’t just an artistic author; rather he is an author who’s aware of his craft and how to maintain the flow of the story through elucidation scenes.

Putting the book into context, Coyote occupies the literary region above The Last Colony by John Scalzi’s and a territory below Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley. While the book lacks the human interested that Stanley heavily invested in his trilogy, Allen has a better grasp on realism and plot than Scalzi. It’s evident that Allen’s profession as a journalist greatly contributed to writing flow and proficiency.

Coyote is an elaborate work of Silver Age sci-fi written in the 21st century. The author openly acknowledges that his work bestows science as a shiny metal and is positive that humans will colonize other planets someday.

Coyote Rising

Coyote Rising is the second novel in Coyote trilogy by Allen Steele. In this second book, Allegra DiSilvio makes his entry in Coyote. She is a composer blocked by the dictatorial government from her creativity and has come to this planet in search of sources of inspiration.

After a long and tedious search for a place to erect her tent, she finally sets it up near a swamp. Her neighbors are Cecelia. She gains her trust and makes a flute for her and soon she is teaching Cece how to play the flute.

Benjamin is fascinated by the religious cult that travels to Coyote. Their leader Reverend Zoltan claims to be a Universal Transformation prophet. He resembles a bat with an animalistic face. But, Ben has his eyes glued on Greer, a charming woman who seems to have mutual feelings.

James Alonzo was a renowned architect before his draft for the Coyote. He arrives together with other religious cult member and is immediately put to work- help in designing a township. He is subsequently given the task to design a bridge. Then there’s Clark Thompson, a retired colonel. After arriving in this new planet, he founds the hamlet of Thompson’s Ferry. The second in the series is a story about the revolution of the Alabama colony against the WHU and the Matriarch. The book is based on the eight different short stories published in Isaac Asimov Science Fiction Magazine in 2003 and 2004. The different stories are synchronized in chronological order with each of the story depicting a scenario of the transformation of the Coyote Federation.