Burster

As I understand it, this is Mr. Capobianco's first published work. If so, hes got a lot to live up to as this is an excellent work! The author begins as Earth's first manned interstellar craft "Asia" is about to reach its target star system. Shortly after reaching orbit, "Asia" suddenly looses contact with Earth. After a little research the crew discover they are stranded. It appears a test of a spacecraft engine similar to theirs blew up in Earth orbit. At this time, the story breaks into two segments. One is the "Asia" commander's efforts to figure out exactly what happened back home by sending the young slacker Peter Zolotin back in an exploration satellite called "Traveller". While Zolotin flys home, civil war breaks out between the long term inhabitants of "Asia" and a scientific team that were pulled out of suspended animation upon entry into the new star system. Although the story is short, the author does an excellent job of developing the characters. At times one of the segments of the stroy line will slow down but the other one more than takes up the slack when this happens. All in all a good first showing. I read this book many years ago and it appears the book is out of print. Take it from me, its worth it to search hard for this gem!