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On some level, I love big space operas -- the loud, interstellar kind, blasting through space and populated by strange beings from other planets. This is what I loved when I was a kid and a good one can still make my heart race.

But I'm older now. I have more trouble believing in these stories. Faster than light travel begins to seem more like fantasy and less like science fiction. Not that I don't read and enjoy fantasy; I just expect science fiction to be realistic in ways I don't with fantasy.

So when a book can really work on a vast interstellar stage, and seem scientifically plausible, well, that's something.

Most of the story in Wheelers takes place on Earth or on Jupiter or points between. And a vast, epic story it is. Equal emphasis is given to the character development of twin sisters and the son of one of the sisters on earth, and the fascinating details of the exceedingly alien civilization in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Earth is menaced by an impact by a comet, which seems to have been somehow hurled at Earth by an incredible manipulation of Jupiter's moons.

I couldn't bear to give away too much of this great book, rich with scientific and philosophic speculation, but the extrapolation which puts life on Jupiter is used to create a sort of unified field theory of interstellar life. This is great fun, with huge ideas and believable, well developed -- if sometimes larger than life -- characters.

The fellows who wrote this book have a long background writing popular science, not to mention the recent book on Terry Pratchett's books, The Science of Discworld. If this book is any indication, they have a promising future writing rewarding science fiction.

Hank Luttrell has reviewed science fiction for newspapers, magazines and web sites. He was nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo Award and is currently a bookseller in Madison, Wisconsin.