Moonrise

Ben Bova

Big Business expands into space. Masterson Enterprises has space stations and a small moonbase in the late 21st century. Its main money maker is its line of Clipper Ships, a cross between an airplane and rocket that lifts straight up and lands the same way. The ships can span half the Earth in less than an hour. At the beginning of the novel the CEO of Masterson Enterprises, Greg Masterson II, dies, an apparent suicide.

Paul Stavinger is an ex-astronaut now on the board of directors of Masterson Enterprises. He is also sleeping with the CEO's wife. This book takes the twists and turns of any corporate business novel. There is the deceit, back stabbing, positioning, and politics expected in a corporate novel.

Then the futuristic twist is added. Paul wants to have Masterson Enterprises create a money making enterprise on the Moon, rather than the small research facility that is loosing money for the company. Greg Masterson III, next in line to run the company, wants to pursue the developments in nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is a procedure that uses tiny machines to work with molecules. This technology is feasible, and has current research going on it. All the science fiction in this novel is very plausible. It predicts the future of man, of our spread to the newest frontier, of the moral policy shifts of people in general, and the future of technology.

This book is well written and very feasible. I very quickly was pulled into Paul Stavinger's life and thoughts. His vision for the future is very possible. I wanted to watch his dreams come to fruition. The action takes place both on Earth and at Moonbase. After I finished this novel I noticed the cover mentioned there were more to come in this series. I will enjoy watching Moonbase struggle to make its own way into the future.

Empire Builders
Mars
Moonrise
Moon War
Return to Mars
The Precipice
Jupiter
The Rock Rats
Saturn
The Silent War
Venus
Tales of the Grand Tour