I love Varley. His Titan trilogy stands as one of the finest works in all SF. That's why this is --so-- disappointing. As others have pointed out, this is vaguely reminiscent of Heinlein's juvenile SF, but it is not nearly as good. This isn't appropriate for juveniles and I don't even think they would find it interesting. The first half of the book is about the variously messed up lives of some uninteresting teenagers. The character development is poor, the dialog is wooden. The "washed up ex-astronaut" and the events that led to his disgrace are implausible and the "character" is very poorly developed. The novel is supposed to be filled with coon-ass cajuns from south Lousiana. Well, I grew up in New Orleans, and these characters are completely hollow, with no authenticity.I can't recommend this book at all. Read Titan/Wizard/Demon or the short fiction by this author, but this book is one to avoid.