The verdict
A grounded thriller that makes asteroid mining feel like a real job. Read it for competence, contracts and corporate politics rather than chosen ones and prophecy.
Quick facts
- Author
- Mike Coville
- Series
- Deep Space Mining, book 1
- Genre
- Hard science fiction, near-future space opera
- Best for
- Readers who like working-space science fiction with corporate politics
- Skip it if
- You want first contact or grand cosmic mysteries
Author Mike Coville
Lasso is a science fiction thriller about asteroid mining, which turns out to be a much better idea for a novel than it sounds. A capture crew, an expensive rock, a suspicious accident and a political fight over who gets to decide the future of the solar system, all told at a brisk pace.
The idea behind it
The premise is refreshingly ordinary in the best sense. Humanity has moved into space not as explorers but as workers. Asteroids are not wonders, they are deposits, and the people who go out to fetch them are doing a dangerous job for a company that is watching the numbers. The book treats space as a workplace, and that immediately makes it different from most of what is on the shelf.
The title comes from the method: a mining vessel captures an asteroid many times its own mass and brings it home. Captain Greg Daniels of the DSM Boone knows exactly how badly that can go wrong, and his approach to the job is professional rather than heroic. He trusts his crew, he respects the physics, and he understands that no contract is worth the ship.
Against him, and eventually alongside him, is David Rivera, a mining director with political ambitions and a clear view of what the industry needs. That collision between a working captain and an executive with a plan is the spine of the book, and it is a more interesting conflict than a straightforward villain would have been. Neither man is wrong about everything.
The story, spoiler-light
An accident aboard the Boone starts the plot, and what looks like an operational failure turns out to be something more deliberate. From there the story widens out from the ship to the corporate boardroom and then to the political arena, where the question of who controls the mining of the solar system is being decided by people who have never been on a ship.
The book moves well and it is built in short chapters, which suits the material. It also has a sense of humour about the situation, and the crew banter keeps the tension from becoming unrelenting. The technical detail is present without being showy: enough to make the work feel real, not so much that it becomes a manual.
It is the first book of the Deep Space Mining series, and the ending is aware of that. It closes enough to satisfy and opens enough to continue, which is standard for the start of a series and worth knowing in advance.
What makes it science fiction
The science here is industrial rather than cosmic. Asteroid capture, orbital mechanics, mining operations, lunar politics: the book is interested in the logistics of a working solar system, and it is the kind of setting that becomes more plausible with every year that passes. There are no aliens and no grand mystery, and it does not need them.
Where it sits in the genre is close to the near-future hard science fiction of the seventies and eighties, the tradition that assumes space is worth going to because of what can be dug out of it. Readers who like their science fiction to feel like a business as well as an adventure will find a lot to like, and readers who want wonder may find it a little dry.
Who should read it, and who should give it a miss
- Read it if you like working-space science fiction with competent people doing hard jobs.
- Read it if corporate and political intrigue in a near-future solar system appeals.
- Read it if you want short chapters and a fast pace.
- Give it a miss if you want first contact, alien civilisations or grand mysteries. There are none here.
- Give it a miss if you dislike stories where the corporation is part of the problem. That is a large part of the plot.
Where to start, and what to read next
Lasso is book one of the Deep Space Mining series, so this is the correct entry point. Read it before the later volumes; the corporate and political situation is set up here and the later books assume it.
If you want more in the same territory, the classic comparisons are the near-future industrial science fiction of the last few decades, and the belt politics of the Expanse novels for a version of the same idea with a much larger canvas. If you liked the ship and the crew more than the boardroom, lean towards the former.
The verdict
Lasso is a good, grounded science fiction thriller that gets mileage out of taking space mining seriously. The conflict between the captain and the executive works, the pace is tight, and the setting feels like somewhere people might actually live and work rather than a stage for a hero. It is not profound and it does not try to be, and that is to its credit.
Read it if you like competence, contracts and politics rather than chosen ones and prophecy. It is the kind of science fiction that makes a working solar system feel plausible.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lasso the first book in the series?
Yes. It opens the Deep Space Mining series, so there is nothing earlier to read.
Are there aliens in it?
No. The conflict is human: corporate, political and personal. The setting is the solar system rather than deep space.
Is it hard science fiction?
It is close to it. The mining, capture and orbital mechanics are treated with real attention, though the book never lets them get in the way of the story.