The second book of the Apollo Quartet is starting to come together. Much of the research has been completed and the plot has been nailed down in its more or less final form. So I thought I'd tease a little by posting the blurb...

"The Soviets were first to the Moon, so the US responded by putting a man on Mars. They've not been back since. They didn't need to - what they found there gave them the stars. But the universe has proven to be inhospitable and far too dangerous to colonise or exploit. Fifteen years after the first flight to another star, the US has only a research station on one exoplanet. At least, it had. Phaeton Base seems to have disappeared. As the twentieth century draws to a close, the US sends Bradley Elliott, the only man to land on the surface on Mars, to discover what happened to the missing research station. What he discovers not only explains the Fermi Paradox but has profound implications for humanity's future among the stars..."

Apollo Quartet Book 2: The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself... coming late September 2012.