Worlds Apart

Second in the trilogy begun with Worlds (1981): the further adventures of uninhibited genius-polymath Marianne O'Hara aboard the orbiting asteroid New New York, the sole surviving healthy world after the nuclear war of 2081. On crowded New New, opinion is divided on whether to expand through the solar system, or build an interstellar ship that will take them to a known Earthlike planet. Meanwhile, back on Earth, O'Hara's lover Jeff, spared by the bombs and a plague, watches while the planet devolves into a kind of post-holocaust Lord of the Flies. . . and becomes a Healer to the savage children who've survived the plague. (All adults except Jeff are dead.) Along the way, then, O'Hara makes two trips to Earth, one to defuse a nuclear warhead, another to deliver plague serum and help a semi-civilized band of kids. . . but on neither occasion does she manage to meet Jeff. And the divided, uneven plot here (the Jeff segments are gripping, the O'Hara segments are creaky and conventional) offers only half-satisfying sf, with lots of longwinded Heinlein flavor - though it's a large improvement over the preachy doomsday tedium of the first installment. (Kirkus Reviews)