Novels written in tandem can often be somewhat faceless but this is assuredly not the case in Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen"s" admirable SF epic Wheelers, an ambitious and galaxy-spanning piece that is crammed full of character. In the 23rd century, civilization is recovering from a massive freeze that has decimated the population of the earth. The Moon and the asteroids are under the control of a Tibetan Zen Buddhist sect, and the task of exploring the planets is the province of a motley group of outcasts. This is the background for Stewart and Cohen"s high-concept thriller. The authors are scientists, and (as so often when this is the case) they"re best at the technology--but, nevertheless, the characters here have infinitely more solidity than is customary. And how confidently the concepts are delivered here! This is high-flying stuff. The best aspects of the book are the monstrously powerful (and truly grotesque) aliens that somehow survive in Jupiter"s inhospitable atmosphere and appear bent on conflict with the inhabitants of our planet; Stewart and Cohen"s heroine Prudence Odingo is forced to discover why they have declared war on the earth--and her determination leads to some terrifying physical challenges. Despite some flaws, this is vigorous, richly imagined stuff, with passages of genuine wonder:Outside the control complex the world had gone mad. Pele"s normal fountainlike jets had quadrupled in volume, now subject to wild bursts of activity as millions of tons of liquid silicates spurted into space ... Jupiter was growing a new ring, a ring of sulfur-silca dust... --Barry Forshaw