"[An] epic novel of lunar conquest" from the New York Times –bestselling and six-time Hugo Award–winning author of Mars ( Orlando Sentinel ). In the twenty-first century, the world is on the brink of a scientific renaissance, about to birth a future where space has become privatized and the moon transforms into a fertile commercial ground. As former astronaut Paul Stavenger works to turn a handful of abandoned government moon shelters into a full-fledged moonbase, powerful corporate lobbies align against him. Against the neo-Luddites is Masterson Aerospace, a company funding and creating major scientific breakthroughs. But Masterson is nearly crippled when its CEO commits suicide and his wife, Joanna, backs her lover Paul Stavenger, the former astronaut, over her mentally unbalanced son Greg in the board election that follows her husband's death. So begins a power struggle that leads to murder and the ultimate conflict over Moonbase. "Ben Bova is trying to make us grow up . . . There's certainly enough techie ornamentation, both in theory and in plausible practice, to satisfy the pocket-protector crowd, but there's also more, and better developed, conflict among characters than many folks would expect." — The San Diego Union-Tribune