Allen Steele - Coyote

Four stars. Recommended.

In a repressive, totalitarian future America, a group of dissident scientists and astronauts plot to steal the first interstellar colony ship, and turn its mission into one of escape and liberty. Idealism only gets you so far, though, when you're setting up base on an alien planet light years from home.

I'd read most of the stories that make up Coyote when they were published in Asimov's a few years ago. Reading them again, fixed up as a novel, they're still very strong.