Lunar Descent

This early novel of Allen Steele was responsible for me subsequently picking up and reading his novel, Coyote. IMO, Lunar Descent was both technically and behaviorally believable as well as much better than several of his other novels (Coyote is probably his best work to date). I especially enjoyed this story because of its realism, and have re-read it several times as a result. There wasn't much of a technological "stretch" in this novel as it's set in the near future; the real story was in how humans react to the situation, so that's what my judgment of the story is based upon. I did field work for a number of years and the "moondogs" 's behavior (and foul mouths) rang totally true to me as I've worked with people who acted just like that. Given the setting and stressful work conditions, I would anticipate fellow North Americans to behave like the characters in Lunar Descent did and Steele met my expectations. In short, the characters are based upon real people trying to solve difficult real-world problems. They don't always succeed, but they do it often enough and in a personably enough way, that you care for them. So go read the book and enjoy a couple hours of realistic fantasy.

Although I have already read the majority of Allen Steele's work this is one novel that had eluded me for the past couple of years and I can only say that I am very glad I finally found a copy as this book is a real treat. This book takes place in the very near future as Skycorp, the last American corporation with any holdings left on the moon is trying to decide the fate of Descartes station. When they have to remove the current administrator they turn to Lester Riddell, the former administrator of Descartes Station, who was previously released due to his problems with alcohol. What Riddell is not aware of is that Skycorp is setting him up for failure as they are planning to sell the station to Uchu-Hiko a Japanese conglomerate. What Skycorp is not aware of is the resourcefulness of Riddell and his rag-tag bunch of moondogs and the ends they will go to in order to preserve their jobs. Told in a very realistic down-to-earth fashion this novel is rife with humour and the juvenile hi-jinks you would expect from a rag-tag group that has been sold out by their bosses. Allen Steele is one of the authors I consistently recommend to people who do not ordinarily read Science Fiction as his novels are more about humanity and how it will adapt to the changes in society. His passion for space shines through in this novel and makes it a very enjoyable read, the type that John W. Campbell would have loved. Highly recommended.

I love this book. I couldn't put it down. The place, the time, the characters all come alive. Great hard SF.

I read a lot of Sci-Fi and but only Allen M. Steele seems to make me lose sleep. Whenever I read one of his books, I can count on getting very little sleep that night - because his books are very hard to put down. This one is no exception. So when I finished this one about 2AM, I was thoroughly satisfied. The characters are so real and three-dimensional (albeit a bit vulgar - lots of obscenities). The concept of setting up a mining operation on the Moon is plausible. The idea of company officials (Skycorp) who only care about the bottom dollar and not about their employees is a long-held notion about big business. The plot has one major theme with a series of little adventures intertwined into it. This was one of Steele's earliest books and it definitely exhibited the roots of a writing style that was yet to come (and is now here for our enjoyment). It was occassionally amusing. I also loved the way the book was put together. Major chapters were broken up by transcribed audio-video interviews with the cast, articles from newspaper articles, etc. Oh and Steele, in true Hitchcockian style, threw his own name into the mix once or twice as a reporter interviewing some of the characters. Clever, clever. 4-stars because I personally don't need all of the four-letter words. Not that that will bother you. It shows an affirmative reality in the characters.

You always wonder about the books you find in the bargain basement. Well, this one turned out to be great. An interesting look at our future and the perils of working on the moon