The Black Tide

The vastness of space isn't the only thing that haunts Bill Staker. In the asteroid belt, where two brothers have staked their fortune on a uranium claim, Bill pilots his ship through a darkness that mirrors his own doubts about whether he belongs among the stars at all. His brother Tom believes in the grand venture with the kind of reckless faith that Bill has never been able to muster, and their relationship frays under the pressure of corporate war. The Asteroid Mining Corporation wants them gone - not because they pose a real threat, but because independent operators are bad for business. When sabotage turns a routine mission into a fight for survival, Bill must decide whether his fear of the void is worth more than his brother. The Black Tide captures the anxious, ambitious spirit of early 1950s science fiction: the promise of space, the terror of irrelevance, and the question of whether ordinary men can carve out their own destiny against forces that want to crush them.