Police Your Planet

You're probably used to sf with "clean violence," in which a billion people are killed with the push of a button. In this book, there's very little of that; rather, this novel should be the darling of the Mickey Spillane set. Every two or three pages, someone (usually the protagonist, Bruce Gordon) is attacked with fists, knives, clubs, or guns (not blasters, the old-fashioned type). But this isn't just a crime novel put into space; this is a hard sf novel, and the terraforming of Mars, while not dwelt upon, is central to the story. Give this to your mean, tough brother who beats up sf fans and steals their lunch money. He'll love it...