Human Resource
Pierce Askegren
Ace, Feb 2005, $6.99, 288 pages, ISBN: 0441010792
reviewed by Harriet Klausner

The moon has been colonized with most of the residents working for Allied Lunas Combined (ALC), a conglomerate of corporations that spy on one another to steal the latest research and development designs. Erik Morrison is the new site coordinator for EnTek, a position he does not want and hopes is temporary.

Morrison’s predecessor Roger Caspian works for a rival firm, a taboo under the unwritten rules the corporations have established on the moon. Wendy Sheer of the Halo Base is involved in SETI (sentient extraterrestrial intelligence), who will use any means or method to find an ET out there. She has psionic power that makes people want to please her and uses her skill for intelligence gathering. She, Erik and others seeks Keith Ramirez, who possesses something that everyone covets.

Book one of the Inconstant Moon trilogy explores living on the moon in e minute detail from traveling in domed "atmospheric" cars on the surface to residing underground and critically adjusting to much lower gravity than earth. Though a few readers will feel that this much insight overwhelms the action, most of the audience will be in awe of Pierce Askegren, who obviously has first hand knowledge of lunar residency. Morrison and Wendy are intriguing enigmatic characters who not quite antagonists, but come close at times. Readers who appreciate the depth of life on the moon will anxiously await the next tale from what looks like a terrific miniseries.