The novel “Orbital Resonance” by John Barnes was published for the first time in 1991. It’s the first book in the Century Next Door series.

Melpomene Murray is given the task of writing an account of her last year of life in order to allow the Earthlings to get to know the life of a thirteen-year-old in the colony established on the asteroid that was named the Flying Dutchman. 2025 was an important year for her and for the colony in general for several reasons.

For people born in space like Melpomene, understanding the behaviors of the Earthlings that led to the catastrophic situation on their planet is almost impossible. This also complicates the relationships with their parents, who are trying to create a new generation that is more empathetic and ready to cooperate.

Describing “Orbital Resonance” as Robert A. Heinlein’s “Podkayne of Mars” meets Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” would be limiting. John Barnes’ novel contains elements that recall both of them but the author develops them in his own way in what, at the time of its original publication, was a catastrophic future caused by humans.

In the early 1990s, John Barnes imagined an extremization of the problems of that time and what consequences they could cause in the following decades. AIDS was a cause for fear and the author imagined a much more lethal strain of the virus that ends up creating problems much more serious than the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time, there wasn’t much talk of climate change but certain ecological problems were already serious. Wars have never been lacking and in what is now an alternative future, they contribute to making the situation worse.

The only positive element that emerged in the future imagined by John Barnes is the beginning of a serious colonization of space, which includes a project to colonize Mars. Due to the collapse of civilization on Earth, those projects become a hope for the future of humanity.

The novel is written as an account by Melpomene Murray, who tells what happened to her during 2025 commenting on those events with reflections made in hindsight. The protagonist is a young girl but her comments also concern the sexual sphere and her experiences in the colony touch on important themes. The novel is labeled as young adult but for these contents, it can perhaps be appreciated even more by more mature readers.

The protagonist’s young age is evident in the parts that concern school, relationships with friends, and sports activities. These are parts that may be boring for much older readers but they’re useful to give a complete idea of ​​her life. These are also descriptions that show that in many ways Melpomene is a normal girl and stress the contrast with her somewhat alien way of seeing humanity in general and Earthlings in particular.

In the novel, Earthlings seem neurotic at best. It must be said that typically, the adults of the colony are survivors who have a baggage of very tough experiences and have done things they aren’t proud of to stay alive. Melpomene mentions several times the psychological and psychiatric treatments available in the colony.

The adults seem to be sincere in their attempt to create a generation that doesn’t have their flaws and can lead a new human civilization better than the one that devastated the Earth. However, in this attempt, they resort to manipulation of the youngsters, make big messes, and obtain results they don’t expect.

All this leads to the development of a plot that tells events that can be really mundane even from Melpomene’s point of view. It’s about her everyday life and only at the end are there events with a remarkable importance for humanity in general. The asteroid is far from Earth in every sense even if the Earthlings brought with them all the negative experiences accumulated on Earth.

For these reasons, “Orbital Resonance” is a novel in which the pace tends to be slow, also to give space to Melpomene’s reflections on the events and their consequences. The psychological element is important in the story of the growth of the young people born on the Flying Dutchman, also in contrast with the behavior of the Earthlings. You might like it if you’re interested in this type of speculation on the future of humanity. It’s the first novel in a series but the story is completely self-contained. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.