Heavy Time (Company Wars Series)

by C. J. Cherryh

Overview

Asteroid miners Bird and Ben encounter an adrift ship in an asteroid belt that's inhabited by a half-crazy spacer named Dekker. When they tow the ship, they find their livelihoods--and their lives--in deadly danger. Proves that high-tech science fiction need not sacrifice literary values.--Publishers Weekly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446362238
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/01/1992
Series:	Company Wars Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Carolyn Janice Cherry, better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is the author of more than 70 books, including the Hugo Award-winning novels Downbelow Station and Cyteen, both set in her Alliance-Union universe. She planned to write since the age of ten, and when she was older, learned to use a typewriter while triple-majoring in Classics, Latin, and Greek. Cherryh is one of the most prolific and highly respected authors in the science fiction field.

Editorial Reviews

Another adventure set in the medium-future universe of Rimrunners and Cyteen; here, the action takes place in the solar system's asteroid belt, where independent miners are slowly being squeezed out by the predatory mining consortium ASTEX. Prospecting partners Morrie Bird, the old hand who owns the ship, and young, hotheaded pilot Ben Pollard encounter a wrecked, tumbling ship and discover aboard a lone survivor, Dekker, babbling and traumatized by whatever happened to him and by the loss of his partner. Hoping for salvage rights, Ben and Bird tow the hulk back to Base, and turn Dekker over to the medics. But, despite company denials, soon it emerges that at least part of Dekker's wild claims (an unreported collision, claim-jumping, a sinister plot) are true. Then, Dekker's partner's body turns up, bizarrely flung into a recovery orbit along with ores mined from a huge rock the company maintains doesn't exist. Teaming up with influential female miners Meg and Sal, Bird, Ben, and Dekker contrive to blow the lid off a massive coverup that involves ASTEX and public figures as distant as the President of Earth. Taut, gripping, realistic work, with Cherryh taking a stab at character development, and bringing her agreeably complex plot to a satisfying if unsurprising conclusion.

Kirkus Reviews