Wil McCarthy

A Benedictine monastery on the south pole of the Moon is a good place for a murder mystery. In this sequel to Rich Man’s Sky (2021), a man dies from an unexplained suit failure as he approaches the monastery habitat. A detective must be imported from Earth. Raimy Vaught is a homicide cop from Colorado Springs. He is also a former diver and submariner and a current candidate in a crowd-funded contest for an administrative slot in a Mars colony.
Give Wil McCarthy credit—all his characters have credibly complex histories. His monks, refugees, and corporate bosses are neatly individualized. One set of characters wants to build a hotel or a retirement village on the moon, while the hardworking monks strive to develop agriculture using only lunar materials.
I hope this well-made series continues.… (more)

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.… (more)