This was a very good story. It is very science fiction and not much military stuff to it, but the story is still one of the better science fiction stories I have read. It’s too bad the writing wasn’t a great as it usually is.
Now, I’ve read and reviewed more books (18) by Raymond Weil than just about any author I have read. His writing is usually very smooth and easy to read. This book was very perplexing in that the author seems to have filled about a quarter of the book with repeated statements. It really got kind of annoying towards the end. It’s kind of annoying when statements in the book were repeated over and over again. I don’t recall the author doing this in the previous 18 books of his I have read and reviewed. Oh, darn, I did it myself! Still, and I want to emphasis, this story was very interesting. I’ll also say, I don’t believe some of the actions would have happened the way he says it did, but he’s a science fiction writer so he can write it anyway he wants to, right!
This is the future with Earth firmly established in space. We have been to Mars or attempted to go to Mars three times with one of those missions failing when the spaceship had mechanical problems and had to turn back. We have a large colony, Tyco City, on the moon, or rather in the moon and it is producing raw materials for the Earth and Star One.
Star One is a large space habitat located a the Earth-Moon Lagrange point (L1) or between the Earth and the Moon where the gravitational pull of both bodies is about equal. This point is also much farther from the Earth than are normal low-earth orbits. Star One is huge with about 2,000 people on-board and it is almost self-sustaining. It does receive raw material from the Moon which it can convert into other materials usable by Star One. You’ll read a lot about Star One since this book is mostly focused on that space habitat. There are shuttles going back and froth from Star One, the Moon and Earth almost daily.
You’ll also meet a lot of different characters in the book. Currently, Star One is preparing to launch the Jupiter Probe which will be commanded by Commander Ty (Tyler) Erin. He is a long time friend of Commander Steve Larson, who commands Star One. The Jupiter Probe mission has been in the works a long time. It is also a very expensive mission which has raised the ire of a US Senator named Harlen Farley. He is of the opinion that all this space stuff is truly unnecessary and the funding must be cut to conduct Earth based explorations of the seas. He also doesn’t approve of nuclear devices in space, but did allow the installation of a fusion reactor on Star One. As you’ll read, Senator Farley is trouble all the way through the book; more so than he should have ever been. In fact, he should have been shot early on! Then you’ll meet Teela, Star One’s remarkable AI (artificial intelligence). She is one of a kind by accident. Unfortunately, early on, her mentality is that of a very young teenaged girl, again, caused by the accident that created her. So, you can see already that this story has a lot of different characters which you’ll grow to like or despise!
Now, just when everything seems to be going rather well for humanity, something is discovered in deep, deep space. The futures of Earth and all humanity are going to be substantially changed or possibly eliminated by this object. What can be done or is this the end of everything? Read this exciting book to find out the rest.