What’s more dangerous than a prison riot? A prison riot on the Moon. Gail Moore is the administrator of the prison, operated by Andrus, a private company. When a riot gets out of hand, the firm gets the US to send Special Forces. Major Charlie Hawk is the leader of the company sent to bring peace back, by any means. On arrival, the soldiers discover that the situation is way worse than they’ve been told. To make matters worse, the Moon rotation means that in a few hours, they’ll go across the dark horizon, meaning they won’t have any sun for 14 days. No more sun means no more energy than what has been stocked, and also no communication with Earth.
This was so fast-paced that it felt shorter than it really is. I really liked that it wasn’t as much set in the future as in a present where a company trying to outdo Boeing found, almost by chance, a way to make space travel possible. It felt as if this could really happen one of these days. Setting the story on the Moon also added elements of danger (being stranded in space, the lack of backup, the time frame of the dark side of the Moon…) and heightened the tension. While I’m sure some things could have been deepened (the relationship between the two MCs was a bit rushed, but I decided to see it as a side effect of fearing death), I couldn’t put this book down.
Jude in the Stars 