ISBN 0-671-55899-4 (US pbk)

"A lot of dreams died when NASA went belly-up. One was Frontera, the first permanent Mars settlement. Though almost a hundred colonists refused to board when the last shuttle left for Earth, they were ghosts now.

"At least, that's how Kane figured it -- until the giant conglomerate Pulsystems mounted the first space flight in ten years, destination Mars. The hardware was aging, the mission high-risk and low-redundancy. But for Kane, corporate mercenary in Pulsystem's hire, there was no backing down.

"And conditions at Frontera were stranger than anyone could have guessed. There was treasure on Mars, treasure that Pulsystems wanted -- and that Kane found himself programmed to bring home. Whether he willed it or no, he was a weapon... in a war he'd never joined". [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1984]

"Shiner's first novel, Frontera , is perhaps the best and most realistic novel about a near-future NASA Mars colony ever done. This compelling and harrowing book should have made him a household name. The book was, perhaps, hampered by being a Baen Book, albeit legendary for being the best novel Baen ever published (and it's high time this sucker got back into print.)" --Stephen P.Brown (in Science Fiction Eye , Volume 1, Number 5, July 1989).