Coyote

Coyote is the first in a series by Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele.

The story begins in 2070. The US has had two revolutions and has split into three countries - the New England states, Pacifica and the United Republic of America. The URA is controlled by the Liberty party. Anyone who is not a member is suspect.

When the URA government spends all of its budget on a spaceship - to the point where the economic bottom third of the country is made of people living in shacks - its only goal is to be the first nation to create an interstellar transport to the distant (and likely habitable) planet of Coyote.

When the crew hijacks the ship and replaces the passengers with political dissidents, it changes the goal of the mission. They are escaping to create a free society elsewhere.

Now 103 people are on the new planet of Coyote. It is habitable, but a far cry from Earth. The settlers will have to build shelter and grow food before the 9 month winter sets in.

Coyote is the story of the founding of the new planet. In the second book, Coyote Rising, settlers will have to deal with the second ship that was sent from Earth.

Steele, Allen. (2002). Coyote. New York: Ace Books.