THE ROCK RATS

A direct sequel to The Precipice (2001) and addition to Bova’s near/medium-future series about humanity’s expansion through the solar system. Megalomaniac industrialist Martin Humphries intends to control the entire solar system, and key to his plan is the asteroid belt with its virtually limitless resources of metals (for ailing Earth’s industries) and volatiles (for the fledgling communities on the Moon and elsewhere in space). “Rock rat” (space miner) Lars Fuchs makes his home inside Ceres, one of the largest asteroids, and, like other rock rats, hopes to get rich by prospecting and mining. Unfortunately for him, Martin Humphries is obsessed by Lars’s stunning and intelligent wife, Amanda, and will spare no effort to destroy Lars and win Amanda for himself. In business, Humphries has only one serious rival: Astro Corporation’s Pancho Lane, heir to Astro’s founder, Dan Randolph, murdered by Humphries in the previous book. Astro helps Lars set up a company to sell supplies to the rock rats, but Humphries sabotages the warehouse, then sends a ship to kill rock rats and claim whatever they’ve prospected—and, incidentally, to assassinate Lars Fuchs also. The belt’s nominal authority, Earth-based IAA, refuses to act against Humphries, citing lack of evidence. Poor Lars, driven to the end of his tether, acknowledges that he can’t protect Amanda, his only option being to divorce her (in effect leaving her to Humphries) and turn to piracy himself, preying on Humphries’s ships and bases—and risk an all-out war in the asteroid belt.

Another attention-grabbing entry in a series that continues to grow in stature, scope, and complexity. Once again, Bova in top form.