In the thrilling space adventure The Oxygen Farmer by Colin Holmes (Thunder Road), a lunar-dwelling curmudgeon discovers a secret that may not only endanger those who learn it--but also the entire human race.
Mil Harrison has lived and worked on the moon as an oxygen farmer for 35 years. He doesn't much like things or people that get in the way of his doing his job, so when his truck breaks down one day, he takes a shortcut through an Exclusion Zone on the way home for spare parts and stumbles across a mysterious facility--one that triggers a radiation warning when he approaches. His initial probing into what's hidden there results in the death of a young astronaut; his granddaughter's removal from a crew flying to Mars; and the possibility of a cover-up that may involve the person who is both chief administrator of the space agency and possible future vice president--who also happens to be Mil's daughter.
Holmes crafts a twisty thriller with conspiracies to spare, in which a small band of endearing characters will have to use all of their considerable skills to prevent the destruction of the moon and of life on Earth. There are some details of dialogue that make it hard to believe that Mil, so named because he was the first baby born in this millennium, is an aging member of Gen Z rather than a septuagenarian from today. Still, this is a rollicking science-fiction thriller that will please fans of Andy Weir. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library