The story is told from multiple viewpoints and opens with a sort of round robin tour around some of the characters in situations that highlight who they are. It's a great way to draw the reader in and have him feel he really knows these people. While the trick of ending each chapter with a series of headlines and clips from current news stories that could, with a few changes, appear today adds to the immediacy. That's not to say this world seems too much like our own, just that the connections help make it so believable an extrapolation from our own world. The whole is nicely decorated with food for thought about a number of things.

Mysterious objects called moonriders are popping up in space. Or are they? Cynical, misanthropic, and highly influential journalist Gregory MacAllister is among those who believe they're likely just the result of trick photography and active imaginations. Which is why he is targeted as the star passenger when the powers that be decide to battle negativism about the space program with a "moonrider mission". The trip results in an avalanche of changes, from personal level ones to having all of earth's eyes ruthlessly opened to its status in the larger universe and the need to think about what it does and why. Highly recommended reading full of action, ideas, technology and people who really engage you in their stories.