Lunar Descent - Tapa dura

From Publishers Weekly Steele's (one title/pk Clarke County, Space) new tale glimpses the doingspk on an industrialized moon, circa 2024. Descartes Station is a lunar factory responsible for producing oxygen and other elements for parent company Skycorp's more lucrative projects. Lester Riddell, former administrator of the base and a recovering alcoholic, has been recalled to boost the station's morale as well as its output. Unfortunately, the base's staffers--known as "moondogs"--are a recalcitrant bunch. Steele fills his hard SF novel with a rogue's gallery of caricatures and stereotypes, including a humorless head of security, a scientist who worked as a high-fashion model and a crooked hacker with a heart of gold. Though most of the novel is devoted to mood pieces about life on the moon and frat-boy high jinks, Steele sketches a slim plot line concerning the attempts of Uchu-Hiko, an evil Japanese space corporation, to buy control of the station. Despite their differences, the moondogs rally together, organizing a strike and standing up to their management. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. Product Description A tale of subversion and riot on a moon-based mining operation. The author also wrote "Orbital Decay", "Clarke County" and "Space".