Anyhow, this is an entertaining bit of frontier adventure SF. Think "third-world company-bent mining town" frontier, not "square-jawed American cowboys". The authors (I'm not going to try to sort them out, except for a vivid touch of Martin's alien lifeforms) do a nice job of presenting a mean, self-centered cuss of a protagonist whom I didn't like, but rooted for anyway. (Which turns into its own set of problems; you'll see.) Also, nice to have an SF protagonist who, when lectured by aliens about the central macguffin of the plot, doesn't respond "Fascinating!" or "That's incredible!" but rather "...You are a lying whore with breath like a Russian's asshole!"