Scavengers in Space

As is my usual custom, I'll start several books more or less at once, realize I've started too many books, put a few aside, and then start finishing them off...

I recently finished Scavengers in Space by Alan E. Nourse. It's a darn shame that Nourse is pretty much forgotten and probably uknown by the generations of readers past mine. With a little polishing and very little updating this book could fit in with much of the SF of today. Heck, it would make a great episode in the lamented British SF series Star Cops. Or it would fit in with the Japanese anime/magna Planetes.

The sons of an asteroid hunter receive word that their father died (apparently in an accident) in the Belt. When they hook up with his partner, they feel that it was not an accident, that he had made a big strike, and that the nefarious Jupiter Equilateral mining corporation was behind it (hey, just like they say on TV—"ripped from the headlines!!!!").

They try to find the strike that their father made. Trouble ensues when Jupiter Equilateral sends a ship to capture them and get the information out of them so JE can claim the strike for themselves.

There's lots of nifty scenes—a ship trying to escape, a chase around the JE "mothership", a very neat planetarium, an amazing discovery.

As I said, this book could stand up today. Maybe somebody like Baen will republish Nourse's books, along the lines of what they've been doing with Murray Leinster's books and stories.