Rich Man's Sky

Rich Man's Sky #1

by Wil McCarthy

A NEW NOVEL OF REAL SF FROM WIL McCARTHY

When billionaires control the space program, where does that leave the rest of us?

a tycoon’s playground. From a space station full of women to a monastery on the Moon, from a Martian reality-TV contest to a solar shade large enough to cool the Earth, the dreams of a handful of trillionaires dictate the future of humanity. Outside the reach of Earthly law and with the vast resources of the inner solar system at their disposal, the “Four Horsemen” do exactly as they please.

The governments of Earth are not amused; an international team of elite military women, masquerading as space colonists, are set to infiltrate and neutralize the largest and most dangerous project in human history. But nothing is that simple when rich men control the sky, as everyone involved is about to discover.

About Rich Man's Sky :
“Action SF built on a hard foundation of cutting-edge science.”—Walter Jon Williams

“An action-crammed story that darts at hyper-speed from Burning Man, Nevada to Suriname to a convent on the Moon to an orbiting colony that’s clearly up to something. A jam-packed adventure fizzing with mind-blowing concepts, and a great read!”—Connie Willis

“A hard science fiction tour de force, populated by memorable characters in a tale of intrigue, adventure, and irresistible market forces.”—Linda Nagata

About
“. . . gripping and . . . grounded in archaeology.”— Publishers Weekly

“. . . plenty of verisimilitude . . . superbly intriguing and captivating . . . bravura historical recreations, full of conjectural material. . . . Presenting us with a colorful cast of characters from across the millennia who have thick and rich existences, and affirming that the cosmic stream of life flows forcefully despite all small blockades, McCarthy has written a novel that looks both forwards and backwards, thus making a stellar return to the field.”— Locus

About Wil
“McCarthy is an entertaining, intelligent, amusing writer, with Heinlein's knack for breakneck plotting and, at the same time, Clarke's thoughtfulness.”— Booklist

“Imagination really is the only limit.”— The New York Times

“The future as McCarthy sees it is a wondrous place.”— Publishers Weekly

“A bright light on the SF horizon.”—David Brin

“Wil McCarthy demonstrates that he has a sharp intelligence, a galaxy-spanning imagination, and the solid scientific background to make it all work.”—Connie Willis

“In nearly every passage, we get another slice of the science of McCarthy’s construction, and a deeper sense of danger and foreboding . . . McCarthy develops considerable tension.”— San Diego Union-Tribune

“An ingenious yarn with challenging ideas, well-handled technical details, and plenty of twists and turns.”— Kirkus

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

448 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 6, 2021

About the author

Science fiction author and Chief Technology Officer for Galileo Shipyards


Engineer/Novelist/Journalist/Entrepreneur Wil McCarthy is a former contributing editor for WIRED magazine and science columnist for the SyFy channel (previously SciFi channel), where his popular "Lab Notes" column ran from 1999 through 2009. A lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, he has been nominated for the Nebula, Locus, Seiun, AnLab, Colorado Book, Theodore Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick awards, and contributed to projects that won a Webbie, an Eppie, a Game Developers' Choice Award, and a General Excellence National Magazine Award. In addition, his imaginary world of "P2", from the novel LOST IN TRANSMISSION, was rated one of the 10 best science fiction planets of all time by Discover magazine. His short fiction has graced the pages of magazines like Analog, Asimov's, WIRED, and SF Age, and his novels include the New York Times Notable BLOOM, Amazon.com "Best of Y2K" THE COLLAPSIUM (a national bestseller) and, most recently, TO CRUSH THE MOON. He has also written for TV, appeared on The History Channel and The Science Channel, and published nonfiction in half a dozen magazines, including WIRED, Discover, GQ, Popular Mechanics, IEEE Spectrum, and the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. Previously a flight controller for Lockheed Martin Space Launch Systems and later an engineering manager for Omnitech Robotics, McCarthy is now the president and Chief Technology Officer of RavenBrick LLC in Denver, CO, a developer of smart window technologies. He lives in Colorado with his family

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Space Opera/Espionage crossover. Trillionaires, politicians, spies, terrorists, monks and working-stiff spacers jumbled together on The High Frontier as Rich Geniuses (and the Vatican) privately develop space resources and establish their own Cult Colonies . The space colonies wealth and technology starts to shift the earthly balance of power. Send in the agent(s) provocateur for a management change! First book in a series.

My audiobook version was 11 ½ hours long. A dead tree version would be a modest 320 pages. The book had a 2021 copyright.

Wil McCarthy is an American science fiction novelist, journo, and entrepreneur. He’s written more than 10 science fiction novels, in addition to numerous works of short fiction. The last book of his I read was Aggressor Six .

Catherine Ho was the narrator. She’s an experienced narrator with multiple voices and experience with science fiction and fantasy. She didn’t get tripped-up by the heavy tech emphasis of the story. She did really well with the multitude of female characters, including the Plot ‘A’ protagonist Alice, and several of the male characters. However, there were too many male characters for them to all sound differently.

TL;DR

McCarthy did a fine job with the story’s deep space and lunar world building. However, this story was grossly overloaded with narrative threads. These were mainly setting-up long-term plot lines for the series. However, the space tech was solid and credible as was the not-so-near future tech. Still stories aren’t all about world building and geeking-out. The story's “A” Plotline was taken to a weak conclusion, while the B thru G plotlines were left flapping in the solar wind to sell additional books.

Slightly Longer Review

The narrator did a good job, so I really can’t evaluate the caliber of the prose. Action sequences were very good. Dialog was also good. I'll admit to geeking-out on the space science and future-tech expositions. As in any spy novel there’s politics and sometimes economics. This book’s exposition had a Heinlein-esque flavor in that regard. It was very much old Libertarian wine in a new millennium, tech entrepreneur, bottle.

McCarthy had seven POVs all sucking-up the eye share of a paltry 300+ pages. The result was (mostly) Six Lines, All Waiting . The 'A' Plot was Super-soldierette Alice Gau rebadged as a Super-Medic. She had Mommy-issues. She's ordered to infiltrate the almost all female, cult colony of one of the all male, four POV-providing, Space Trillionaires. She's there to save the Earth and the USA from Death from Above . Nah… That wasn’t the real problem!

Four Space Trillionaires, make-up the mostly unresolved plotlines. One of which was clearly modeled on Elon Musk . Shudder. Another was on Richard Branson . One was the ruthless, scion of a Gazprom oligarch. The last was a brilliant, polygynist, stoner who was reaching Higher Understanding Through Drugs . They were all too much like Tom Swift ?

The most interesting characters (to me), but lost in the character scrum, were an MIT-educated, gay, but celibate, monk founding a Vatican sponsored lunar monastery along with his bros and a Direction générale de la Sécurité extérieure trained, Nigerian, Dark Action Girl . She was a very dark, action girl.

World building was solid. Both the space science, and future tech were near Andy Weir caliber. Maker tech was particularly well-handled. Asteroidal or regolith sourced molecules and solar energy in, finished products out.

Needless to say, there was (non-hetronormative) sex, drugs and unfortunately no rock’n roll. In space the Drug Printer can make you happy. Also in space, you better like vodka? Ethanol is easy to produce, whilst single malt scotch has to be boosted up the gravity well. The Maker printed, synthetic flavors were just not the same as the real thing to sophisticated pallets. "In space nobody can hear you lose weight."

There was also violence. Mostly physical, but some small arms. Body count was light for a spy novel. Folks talked about "dropping rocks" onto the Earth, but that didn't happen.

Summary

I thought the world building for this book was good, but the plotting was bad.

There was three books worth of character’s material here, but only 300-odd pages. The A Plot ended really weakly, with a HFN. The remaining B- G plots were just blatant seeds for additional books in the series. They barely came to rest at the end of this one. Serial Fiction sucks. Perhaps, if the book had been 1000-pages, like Neal Stephenson's Seveneves (my review), all the narrative threads could have been spun-out? (The author obviously read that book.)

As it was, it was a tangled, hot mess, hanging on Alice’s short story.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8⭐
Another highly imaginative, hard science fiction epic from McCarthy, who never seems to run out of ideas. This time he extrapolates the trend of high tech oligarchs investing in space industries to an extreme and has four
" trillionaires" (the Four Horseman) controlling all space industry and exploration. Naturally the governments of Earth are fearful of this and mount a clandestine mission to gain control of what they consider the most dangerous of the projects.

The private exploration and development of space is not a new theme (Heinlein's classic "The Man Who Sold The Moon" being the most obvious example). But it's a timely one as private contractors play an increasing role in space and when Trump's 'Artemis Accord' seeks to guarantee American primacy on the moon ( and which will last exactly as long as it takes a non signatory nation to start its own operations and stake their own "safety zones"). McCarthy's interest is understandable, he spent much of his professional life in the non government tech industry. His enthusiasm for the private sector, as reflected in the book, seems overly optimistic though. But who cares? It's a ripping good yarn and he tries to tell it from a largely female point of view ( I'll leave it to the properly qualified to determine if he succeeds). I did find it questionable that women space colonists would unhesitantly sign over their reproductive rights. A healthy suspension of disbelief is required, at some points.

The amount of exposition and unresolved plot points scream sequel ( if not series), and I eagerly await the next installment.

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first volume of a near-future SF series about billionaires who dream big about space exploration and governments wishing to stop them because of potential dangers. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for March 2025 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group. I was actually the group’s member, who nominated the novel, which I chose because I wanted to read what the winner of the Libertarian Prometheus Award reads like. TL;DR it is a rather weak SF, but with a potential.

The book starts on 16 March 2051 by introducing the main character - Alice Kyeong, who informs her mother that she plans to settle on the space station of one Igbal Renz, a tech billionaire and known drug user, who created a giant (and growing) space disk, which potentially can shadow parts of Earth’s surface, affecting weather that way. Alice is a field medic and a maroon beret, and while she is a woman, her descriptions often sound like wet dreams of a teen imagining himself a macho: because she was a goddamn Maroon Beret and they didn’t. Not an Army Maroon Beret, but a Pararescueman—elitest of the elite. or Even ignoring the Actual Mission and the months of zero-gee combat training, she was actually kind of perfect for the role of station security.

She and two other women (equally hard-ass) are selected by Earth's gov’ts to infiltrate the station and capture it just in case. The women were chosen because the abovementioned tech billionaire wants to build a space colony one day and needs wombs to build up the population. Yes, they solved problems of wasted muscles in zero-gee - zero-gee adaptation drugs had a long track record of preventing bone loss and muscle wasting for years at a time, and of course were widely abused by body builders here on Earth and of turning on/off deep hibernation of humans to lessen resource requirements, but artificial wombs – who can even think of such?!

As the three women come to the space station, one’s guise is off and she runs away to another billionaire, this time a Russian gangster, who wants to monopolize He3 supply to Earth. And there is a third tech bro, with an established Mars colony… finally, there is an IMHO more interesting side plotline given as letters of a monk to his (gay) lover on Earth gay, from a Vatican-sponsored lunar monastery. These letters dwell into how to set up agriculture on the Moon, up to theosophic questions of whether veggies grown w/o a single Earth molecule are purer/sin-free.

On the one hand, it isn’t pure Libertarian propaganda, there are different POVs, there is good hard science, often absent from a lot of modern SF, a potential of a good story. On the other, all characters (except maybe the monk) aren’t likable, so it is hard to care for them.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a strange book, a decent read. I liked what I consider the main character and the main story arc but there are other chapters devoted to other characters and places that didn't really have a story along with them, it's more like the author was exploring cool science ideas and fleshing them out a bit.

The main story is about Alice, a former maroon beret in the US Air Force--which I don't know is real or made up for the story--a medic who would parachute into enemy areas from way high up. She is given a secret mission to infiltrate the station that Igbal (what a name!) has created along with a large thin shield halfway between the sun and Earth, and kill him and take over the station for US control. Every major power on Earth fears what Igbal could do with the solar shield, that he could cause some area of the Earth to become colder or warmer or even cause an ice age. So Alice and two other ladies from other countries are ordered to take over the base to stop Igbal. Also, for some reason (that will be explained later) Igbal is recruiting only women scientists for his base and the rumor is he wants to impregnate all of them. Oh and he also takes a drug that he says lets him sort of communicate with aliens. So Earth see Igbal as a pervert druggie who must be stopped!

Igbal is one of the four Horsemean. Trillionaries who have gone to space and created industries out there. One of the other Horsemen is a Russian who runs a refueling station. Another is building a ship to go to Mars and there's a lottery for the 100 seats aboard the ship to go colonize Mars. The last Horseman has a business in space but he actually flies around Earth in his advanced tech version of the Hindenburg. We get a few chapters about these guys interspersed with chapters about Alice.

And then strangely we get chapters that feature letters from a gay monk on the Moon at the first "Moonastery" (Moon Monastery) to his love down on Earth telling him what life is like living on the Moon. This character seems to have nothing to do with anything else that's going on in the other chapters so I don't know why the author included this unless he's just showing his cool idea about living on the moon. Whatever, you can skip those chapters if you want though I found them kind of funny because the monk writes in this formal old-fashioned style but the one reply we get is written just normal like how you or I would write. I think that tells us something about the character of this monk.

tl;dr

The main story about Alice is interesting and worth reading.
The rest of the chapters are just the author exploring his cool ideas and he even has an afterword telling explaining where he got his ideas from and all kinds of sciencey explanations that went way over my head.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is full of scientific and technological explanations and brash characters. I think the interactions between characters is supposed to be humorous, but instead, I found most characters very unlikable and the explanations overly long and only relatively helpful in developing the plot. There was quite a bit of coarse language as well, which came off to me as avoiding intelligent conversation.
The story is about several extremely wealthy men who live in space, a group of smart, ambitious women, and a few side characters who all want to play a role in the expanding opportunities on space stations or on other planets. Igbal Renz has built a space station that sits in front of the sun and has invited a group of women up to, as we learn later, will have babies to populate a planet he's chosen. He is addicted to a drug that he says enables him to speak to aliens and has neglected to make his station secure. There's also Grigory Orlov, who is super wealthy too and has his own space station, as well as Dan Beseman, who has colonized parts of Mars. All are different from each other but often rather brusque or self-absorbed. Learning about them feels like reading a business bio.
Among the women who come to space are Alice Kyeong, sent by the US president to shut down Renz, Dona Obata, who steals a shuttle and joins Orlov, and Bethy Powell, who attempts to blow up Renz's station under orders from an enemy. There are also several letters written by Brother Jablonski, a monk living in a space monastery.
Much of the book is about the way the ships are powered, how space hibernation works, what they eat in space, how colonizing works in a broad manner, and other space tech. The characters are mostly self-interested and demand information, help, or dominance. There's little sense of altruism or discussion of the benefits of families in space. There is not much battling between the wealthy men but there is some animosity between various women. Also, there is one brief reference to an orgy.
The writing is informative but not especially well crafted. I can understand those who like space technology finding this interesting and humorous. It just wasn't for me.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another really interesting universe (4 rich oligarchs operating in planetary space with different goals, in very different ways, and how legacy nation states dealt with them), with some interesting references to law (ITAR restrictions weaponized), plausible extrapolations of failing legacy nations, etc. However, the main plot was pretty weak and feels like the author realized he had no idea where things were going and suddenly wrapped everything up in the last 10% of the book because he had to. Sort of mid-career Neal Stephenson style.

[Ric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Near-future SF

Four trillionaires take to space to further their various ambitions away from the controlling hands of Earth's governments. Two of them separately take aim at Mars and Proxima Centauri, testing out and building needed technology to complete their mission, including hibernation, interstellar propulsion and terraforming. Another is a gangster set to take over the new frontier of lunar colonies and near earth stations. The fourth "Horseman" is still on earth and his story is yet to unfold. Yes, it's probably the start of a series but hopefully one with a nice conclusion after 3 books like the New Moon series by Ian McDonald.

This novel could be neatly classified as "hard" SF as it draws from current leading edge science to extrapolate "new" science, engineering and technology. A good read for geeks, which it turns out, I am still one. There may be a bit much of "hey look at this interesting (fill in SF idea)" but the story finally gets going with some action. As noted, this is probably a series, so be ready for some loose ends.

An enjoyable read with just enough hook to want to read the next one. 4 stars.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced tour of what human habitation in outer space might look like in the near future. In McCarthy's vision, there are four major habitats in space, all of them privately owned. The main plot is about a team of covert operatives to take control of one of those habitats - a gigantic solar shield/power plant that is growing alarmingly large and could theoretically have an effect on Earth's climate - but all the other aspects of the nascent space-based economy is described in fascinating detail.

As always, McCarthy deftly weaves advanced scientific concepts seamlessly into the story. The characters, particularly the eccentric four trillionaires who control the space economy, are interesting, as is Alice Kyeong, the main POV character whose basic - but not extensive - knowledge of space technology is a nice way for us to learn more about it along with her.

[Daniel Bensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually give up on bad books quickly and don’t bother to write reviews of them. This book, however, wasted enough of my time that I feel it my duty to warn you off. It was very disappointing.

The premise is excellent, but I suspect McCarthy tried to stretch the first act of his story into the first novel of a trilogy. We end up with a book that is mostly filler: digressions, characters who have nothing to add, meaningless sex, and a protagonist who keeps not getting it. Because the author doesn’t allow her to see what’s in front of her face, she comes off as clueless and bitchy. Corcoran’s Aristillus series is much better, and so is McCarthy’s earlier work.

[Mia Payne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and can't wait for the next one!
I'm a big fan of hard sci-fi. This is a good example of the genera but it could have spent more time on the science and economics. The set up was background for the story the author wanted to tell which is fine. I found the main character Alice relatable but unlikeable.
The climax felt a bit anti climatic

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book since it's the first scifi book I've found in a long time that has a future world remotely plausible based on how society functions. However, it was too much exposition for the development of a series. Alice's character was the only well-developed one, and even her story does not really rev up till more than halfway through the book. The rest are scenes with no stakes for characters with no story only there for exposition and presumably the set up for future novels.

[Robin Winslow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay. By the end, I sort of liked Alice and Igbal. I thought the author did a good job making the story credible. I have thought for some time that as we deplete resources here on earth we would begin to look toward space for metals, etc. I also thought the four horsemen trillionaires were believable. There were things that I had never considered about living in space that the author brought out. I didn't really see the point of the letters from the monks and after the first one, I skipped reading the long ones. It was exciting in some ways and boring in many others. I think perhaps I missed the point of the book. I think I enjoyed reading the info at the back about the different colonies, etc., than I did the story. I like sci fi and have dreamed of going into space. I was intrigued by the Beings, so if there is a sequel to this book that explores meeting them in the dark spaces between the stars I'd probably read it. There was nothing wrong with the story or descriptions or even the characters, it simply wasn't the type of story I enjoy reading. Perhaps it was a little too realistic for me. I think a lot of very wealthy people are visionaries. Igbal did make me think of Elon Musk.... I also think that people who are multi-talented with many skills and specialties will be the folks most sought after for space colonization or exploitation. The governments seemed true to type, too. Maybe the point of the book was the desire to be completely free without government constraints or the fear that the government will eliminate what it fears? I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the possibility of living in space.

[Andrew Clough · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in space exploration I'd recommend it just for the world building. I also liked how it managed to have a protagonist who remained likable despite her sharp edges.

[Guy Marsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I struggled with this book at first. I stopped reading it about halfway and because the story wasn't getting much traction. Then I decided to pick it up again and read on through. As someone who has been reading hard science fiction since the 1960s, I do enjoy it when an author comes up with good science fiction concepts and there was plenty to chew on in this book. And I also enjoy strong female lead characters so there was a lot for me to enjoy here, I just wish the storyline moved faster.

One thing that really stood out for me was that each of the four parallel subplots and central characters were completely unique both in their "voice" and context. The deep character background on all of the characters was well done and credible. Of course there were obvious parallels to present day billionaires, but that didn't get in the way of reading in fact in some ways it enhanced it. At times I found it rather amusing that the author almost created caricatures of Musk, Gates, and Branson but fell just short of outright parodies.

The whole story wound up rather too quickly at the end for me and I had wished that there was more meat to the story throughout rather than just character development and the very slow build toward the end game.

Overall, I did give it five stars because it was an enjoyable read because of the good science and very well drawn characters.

[Horhe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because it had a lot of great ideas, but the sophomoric characters and some very cringe dialogue let it down. Also, the most out-of-left-field orgy that has ever happened, though I have never had one so maybe they are all like that and the author is writing from experience who knows.

This is my first book from the author and I read it with a critical eye, I guess, but the otherwise fine book was let down by some of the dialogue and some pacing problems. The letters from Michael de la Lune which serve as exposition dumps were so badly made that I almost gave up on the book. They might actually be brilliant and I am the stupid one because I can't believe an author could write such cringe and an editor could read it and say "this is great".

Good hard scifi is hard to find, so I will read the next one, too (am reading it now, and it is MUCH better, but I am writing this review on the merits of the first book). But, as it stands with just the first book, its conceit of The Four Horsemen reminds me of Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon with its Five Dragons only without a good story and with cringe. If anything, it reads like a setup for an RPG.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad to see Wil McCarthy getting back into science fiction with a near-future space opera with enough inventive tech to fill a much longer book.
McCarthy envisions a future in which space and lunar habitats are dominated by Russian oligarchs and capitalists with more money than they know to spend. Each has his own agenda. Meanwhile, NASA and the U.S. government want to get involved. And, oh yes, some monks are working to create sustainable agriculture on the Moon.
Our protagonist, Alice, is an ex-combat medic working undercover for the U.S. president. She hopes to take over the nascent space colony at L1, even if it kills her. Dona, another agent, finds herself working for a Russian gangster who wants to control the helium-three economy in cislunar space.
The novel has as much sex, science, and martial arts as anyone could wish.
My only complaint is that McCarthy is wildly optimistic about the pace of technological development. Do you really think we will have permanent colonies on the Moon and L1 by 2051? Not even Elon in his dreams.

[James Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting setup for a broader universe, but otherwise spends a lot of time setting up characters and situations that are otherwise tangential to the plot at hand (which was itself decent although I found a number of the characters involved to be surprisingly naive given their accomplishments).

Reminiscent of the James S.A. Corey Expanse Series 8 Books Collection Set books in the way it flushes out the motivations for the broader conflict in the solar system.

Overall enjoyable and I will be reading the sequel when it comes out.

[chaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok so I saw quite a few reviews in the the 3* and 4* with the common, first half was a slug fest second half was ok. But in my opinion those people need to grow up and go read some Ada Palmer or Bruce Sterling, see links below:

Look, If a book has a lot going on and all the going on feels fulfilling and thought out with lots of that rich background world building that just makes you feel left out of the loop, that's your issue, not the books problem. I particularly LOVED the moon monk love letters that just absolutely "hard lined" the day in the life of a monastic Luna Vatican-naught.

Wil McCarthy I thankyou for a well needed start to a new Sci-Fi series to get into I hope the follow on books are as good.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

[Chuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure about this one. The 'main characters' in the setting are a few multi-billionaires very transparently based on real life ones, but they are farther along in their space travel ventures than the real ones. The main character of the story is a bit better drawn, but it feels like the story is more of a travelogue/cool ideas showcase than a real heavy plotting story. I wasn't as interested in the plot as I was in finding out the hard science details of the tech projects. Oh and I'm not sure about the moon monks yet, the writing in those sections was very different and I don't think I liked it as much.

[William M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 AND 1/2 STARS

Intrigued by the author's background and the unique cover art, I decided to give this book a try. A worthwhile read, but not as good as I had hoped it would be. While I enjoyed the possibility that this story could actually happen in a few decades time, the neat and convenient wrap-up at the end was a bit of a disappointment. I expected more action and danger throughout. Perhaps a longer page count could have flushed out my issues, but I enjoyed the diverse characters and points of view. The believable science and fascinating concepts that author Wil McCarthy researched and brought to the table in such a credible way makes me give this a solid recommendation.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tech bros control space and Earth's governments are freaking out. This is the start of a series so there's some decent worldbuilding and a introduction to the bros, all men of course, women aren't capable of becoming wealthy. The Russian bro is a mafia member, but reading this book, an incompetent one. He's a druggie, building a harem in space as well as a giant space umbrella for controlling Earth's climate. Earth sends some of their most badass women to deal with him and he caves so fast, it's hard to believe.

At time of writing there's at least one more in the series, I may read it if I see it and nothing much else on the shelves.

[Peter Andersson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some cool new sci-fi concepts apparently based on real NASA tech speculations, but the book as a whole is way too disorganized and/or hastily published to fulfill such good potential. About half the book is a (very thin) main story, and the other half is about three or four very loosely connected side stories with minimal overlap - kinda like a bunch of Venn diagrams that barely touch each other. The writing is okey, but nowhere near what someone like Charles Stross in good form could have done with the concept.

[John Stults · Rating 4 out of 5]

light fun read

A good beach read, very enjoyable basically a sci fi space novel. As you would expect the book makes some good libertarian points (and does a good job of this). The author puts most of the technical material in an appendix. Or rather an explanation of what he mentions in the text. The technical material is fairly simple (but then I am an astronautical engineer) but I like the way the author uses a main character as a foil to explain additional technical items. Good technique.
As I said this was a fun read and I recommend the book.

[MARK F RUTH · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because Wil McCarthy was planning to join us at the Visioning Energy workshop at NREL. I was surprised how much I liked it. The hard science was interesting and a lot of fun (a solar shield generating electricity!). The characters are compelling (Alice Kyeong is incredibly tough but realizes her shortcomings, I liked the portrayal of the monks). The social commentary is great -- interesting how oligarchs may impact the stellar economy and availability.

My only complaint is that at the end it seemed that Igbal converted more easily than seems real.

[Howard Brazee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trillionaires are in space (orbit, L5, & moon) and the powers on earth feel threatened by them. Agents are sent by the powers. The trillionaires have their own interests such as colonization that they care about.

We get to see how those work as the characters learn.

I expect there will likely be a sequel.

[Peter Staples · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice Read!!!

I almost did not read this, based on the frivolous ( but sexy) cover art, but I’m glad I did. It really kept my interest, even read a few pages when I should have been working. Well done action story, and the characters were well thought out , even when they were not an important part of the plot.

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing and characters are decent. The science and sociology is great. Reads like the author really has studied the challenges of trying to live on the moon or travel to the nearest star with realistic technology.

[MARTIN WATSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick but satisfying

A fun quick read. Silly and superficial in many ways, but a great ride.
Nicely paced with an even style.
A definite recommend….

[Chuck Ledger · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were 6 story threads in the book....it was about 3 too many for me. Their inclusions made me feel like the author had a good 200 page story, but the publisher said we need closer to 300 pages.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining hard SciFi tale. Sequel??