Storming Intrepid

In Harrison's first novel, a scheme hatched in Stalin's last days finally comes to light - when an American-raised Soviet mole hijacks NASA's space shuttle in mid-flight. Having clawed its way back from the Challenger disaster, the American space program seems at last to be solidly on track again - until the launch of the shuttle Intrepid and its Star Wars satellite payload. Intrepid slides into orbit correctly, but disaster has struck the crew. Following a few frantic cries from space, communication with the spacecraft ends. It's an unnatural disaster. Shuttle commander Julian "Iceberg" Kapuscinski has shot his copilot through the head and locked the navigator outside in the Infinite Void. He's going to land the shuttle in Russia if the Russians can fly up and fix the damage wrought by the dying navigator. It seems that Julian - although a superb pilot, a hero of the Vietnam War, and a veteran of previous successful shuttle missions - marches to Soviet drums. But he's not a turncoat; his second-generation Polish refugee bio is a fraud. Raised by a crypto-Stalinist mum in Chicago, he's always been loyal to Mum and to Mother Russia, and now he's going to deliver them the latest in technology, since the Soviets haven't got the hang of building shuttles. The Americans at last smell a rat when one of their big-eared satellites catches Julian talking to the Soviets, and their rescue plans become a way to recapture the shuttle before the Russians can get to it. Zap! Pow! Whoosh! Zoom! Plenty of techno-toys and a breakneck pace dazzle enough to distract from routine characters and one Of the year's more improbable plots. (Kirkus Reviews)