SFF: The Young Astronauts by Rick North
One of the aspects of Defying Gravity that I really enjoyed was the astronaut training. That sort of thing always sorts of pings with me and makes me giddy (I wanted to be an astronaut, once upon a time), and it reminded me that I'd managed to haul home the six-book teen series from my parents'.
(I'm mostly posting this for my own amusement, as I don't think these books are in print or available anywhere)
Set in the not-too-distant future (as seen from 1990), it details the adventures of a bunch of kids who compete to see who's going to go to Mars and start a colony, and then some of their adventures in space and on Mars.
If one can get past the premise (seriously. THE UN WANTS TO SEND SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS WITH FOUR MONTHS OF TRAINING TO START A COLONY ON MARS), it's not half-bad schlocky ridiculousness. The cast is a generous mix of multi-cultural (HOWEVER, HELLO STEREOTYPES), and each of the initial seven kids who formed the POV team get their own stories. There's Genshiru the Japanese heavy metal fanboy who spends most of his time playing guitar and doing bio/higher maths (he also has a photographic memory). Noemi, the Venezualan rich girl who's also into higher maths, shopping, painting her nails (even in zero gravity) and complaining about how she wants a hot bath. Alice is our New Zealand sheepfarmer daughter who is steady and practical and obviously the candidate for head farmer on Mars. Lanie is the juvenile delinquent white girl from the Projects in Chicago (she faked her computer records to get into the program). Karl is the uptight German boy with a Tragic Past who likes to drive fast cars on the Autobahn. Sergei is the girl-crazy Russian geologist. And Nathan is the steady, all-American Midwesterner who runs herd over them all.
There are other characters, some of them even adults. But the two other stand-outs are Ian McShane who was almost an explosives expert for the IRA; and Tara White an African-American girl from Harlem (she and Lanie, of course, hate each other on sight! But eventually make up. Amusingly, the same goes for Ian and Karl).
I did like that the girls all bond pretty fast, and there's more than one moment where they're like "Sorry, we're not here to cook for you, boys. Stop being assholes."
There is a mustache-twirling villainess for the first two books, and then she sort of disappears except for the occasional mention until the sixth book where she suddenly becomes three-dimensional and not-evil. And the real villain sits around going "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, AND YOUR CUTE DOGGIE, TOO. YOU CAN'T KEEP THE DISAFFECTED YOUTH DOWN." but with more internal smugness.
The books are hilariously out-dated at times (like the bit in one of the books where they have to haul all of their music on CDs. And they can't copy them.) And there is no way a program like this would EVER fly. But they're quick reads and sometimes amusing.
(I'm mostly posting this for my own amusement, as I don't think these books are in print or available anywhere)
Set in the not-too-distant future (as seen from 1990), it details the adventures of a bunch of kids who compete to see who's going to go to Mars and start a colony, and then some of their adventures in space and on Mars.
If one can get past the premise (seriously. THE UN WANTS TO SEND SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS WITH FOUR MONTHS OF TRAINING TO START A COLONY ON MARS), it's not half-bad schlocky ridiculousness. The cast is a generous mix of multi-cultural (HOWEVER, HELLO STEREOTYPES), and each of the initial seven kids who formed the POV team get their own stories. There's Genshiru the Japanese heavy metal fanboy who spends most of his time playing guitar and doing bio/higher maths (he also has a photographic memory). Noemi, the Venezualan rich girl who's also into higher maths, shopping, painting her nails (even in zero gravity) and complaining about how she wants a hot bath. Alice is our New Zealand sheepfarmer daughter who is steady and practical and obviously the candidate for head farmer on Mars. Lanie is the juvenile delinquent white girl from the Projects in Chicago (she faked her computer records to get into the program). Karl is the uptight German boy with a Tragic Past who likes to drive fast cars on the Autobahn. Sergei is the girl-crazy Russian geologist. And Nathan is the steady, all-American Midwesterner who runs herd over them all.
There are other characters, some of them even adults. But the two other stand-outs are Ian McShane who was almost an explosives expert for the IRA; and Tara White an African-American girl from Harlem (she and Lanie, of course, hate each other on sight! But eventually make up. Amusingly, the same goes for Ian and Karl).
I did like that the girls all bond pretty fast, and there's more than one moment where they're like "Sorry, we're not here to cook for you, boys. Stop being assholes."
There is a mustache-twirling villainess for the first two books, and then she sort of disappears except for the occasional mention until the sixth book where she suddenly becomes three-dimensional and not-evil. And the real villain sits around going "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, AND YOUR CUTE DOGGIE, TOO. YOU CAN'T KEEP THE DISAFFECTED YOUTH DOWN." but with more internal smugness.
The books are hilariously out-dated at times (like the bit in one of the books where they have to haul all of their music on CDs. And they can't copy them.) And there is no way a program like this would EVER fly. But they're quick reads and sometimes amusing.