he time is the day after tomorrow. The setting is Texas, at the HQ of the Astro Manufacturing corporation, the brainchild of Dan Randolph. Randolph and his company are in the midst of perfecting the first-ever power satellite, an installation in geosynchronous orbit that will beam gigawatts of solar-derived electricity back to Earth in the form of diffuse microwaves aimed at a "rectenna" farm in the American desert. But there are parties at work who don't want Randolph and the United States to succeed in their bid to become energy-independent. There are the Japanese competitors, led by one Saito Yamagata. There's the intrusive U.S. government, in the form of FAA inspector Claude Passeau. There's the oilman Wendell T. Garrison, whose companies would be bankrupt without a market for oil. And there's Asim al-Bashir, a mysterious Tunisian businessman who is actually a member of a terrorist cabal named the Nine. Arrayed against Randolph, these men offer varying degrees of hindrance, with al-Bashir being the most deadly.
Randolph's first hint of trouble comes when one of Astro's space planes—essential to the maintenance of the powersat—is destroyed by sabotage during a test flight. Head engineer Joe Tenny deduces the sabotage from the wreckage, and sets out to find the inside man who enabled the disaster. But a hired killer in al-Bashir's employ intervenes to prevent full disclosure of the leak. An FBI agent in the shape of the beautiful Kelly Eamons is brought onto the case, and with the help of Randolph's personal assistant, April Simmonds, begins her own investigations.
Meanwhile, Randolph is maneuvering on several fronts. He arranges a loan from Garrison himself—the old man thinks to grasp Astro's purse strings and eventually take control—but this move brings al-Bashir the terrorist right into Astro's heart. For al-Bashir is a member of the Garrison board of directors, and in charge of overseeing the loan. Meanwhile, Sen. Jane Thornton, an ex-lover of Randolph's, is trying to help her old friend using some political moves in Washington. Concerned with getting the governor of Texas elected president, Thornton still holds a flame in her heart for Randolph.
Overcoming all obstacles in his path by hook or crook, Randolph approaches the day his powersat will go live and prove the rightness of his dream, granting the U.S., and later the world, limitless power. But he is not counting on the ultimate plan by al-Bashir, in which thousands will die and Astro Manufacturing will become a global pariah.
Science and politics conspire
Stepping back from his ongoing series that profiles the colonization of the solar system, Bova mounts a thriller in the Michael Crichton mode. And even though Bova fingers unwitting eco-dupes as minor villains, just as Crichton does in his latest, the slant and tone in Bova's book differ radically from Crichton's infamous anti-science bent. Bova sees the solution to mankind's dilemmas in the intelligent, judicious use of technology. While acknowledging that no technology is ever fully fail-safe, Bova maintains that the risks are worth the game.
His protagonist, Dan Randolph, is unswervingly committed to technical fixes for the quandary that civilization finds itself in. While he might make a lot of noise about chucking the whole project and reclaiming Jane Thornton, the love of his life, we know—as Dan eventually admits—that he never could. He's too principled, too much a believer in the path to the stars that he—and humanity—are embarked on. His bullheaded faith is refreshing—but Bova portrays the pitfalls of such a determined viewpoint as well. Dan's project brings about the deaths of several of those he loves, as well as any number of innocent bystanders. The moral calculus of his actions requires some fine parsing.
As for the actions of the villains, however, all results are in. Bova has a gleeful time conjuring up quintessential baddies in the manner of the best James Bond cinematic outings. The plot and themes of this book adhere firmly to the thriller genre of the Tom Clancy variety. With short chapters and straightforward language, Bova pushes his story relentlessly ahead. Yet he's scrupulous enough to provide catchy, vivid encapsulations of all characters, however minor, right up to and including the introduction of a couple of orbital terrorists only sent onstage three-quarters of the way into the book.
At the same time, Bova painlessly delivers some real scientific information on powersats, a clear-sighted depiction of the global hump our civilization must overcome if we are to flourish, and some solid character interplay as well. This novel provides lots of suspenseful moments with plenty of food for thought.
