Alan Smale

Hot Moon Alan Smale

"I loved it. Great 'hard' science fiction with convincing space battles. "-Larry Niven

From the Sidewise Award-winning
author of the acclaimed Clash of Eagles trilogy
comes an alternate 1979 where the US and the Soviets have permanent Moon bases,
orbiting space stations, and crewed spy satellites supported by frequent rocket
launches.


Apollo
32, commanded by career astronaut Vivian Carter, docks at NASA's Columbia space station en route to its main
mission: exploring the volcanic Marius Hills region of the
Moon. Vivian is caught in the crossfire as four Soviet Soyuz craft appear
without warning to assault the orbiting station. In an unplanned and desperate move,
Vivian spacewalks through hard vacuum back to her Lunar Module and crew and
escapes right before the station falls into Soviet hands.


Their
original mission scrubbed, Vivian and her crew are redirected to land at Hadley
Base, a NASA scientific outpost with a crew of eighteen. But soon Hadley, too,
will come under Soviet attack, forcing its unarmed astronauts to daring acts of
ingenuity and improvisation.


With
multiple viewpoints, shifting from American to Soviet perspective, from
occupied space station to American Moon base under siege, to a covert and
blistering US Air Force military response, Hot
Moon tells the gripping story of a war in space that very nearly might have
been.