1999-08-08 Earth faces catastrophe. One man is determined to reveal it.

'Privateers' succeeded because the premise on which it was based felt as if it may be possible. Dan ran around the Earth-Moon system antagonising the Soviet administrators who had almost complete control of space operations, in an attempt to prove that things would be better if they weren't under such tight bureaucratic control.

'Empire Builders' is essentially the same premise. Except that now the old Soviet Union is gone, Bova has had to invent an enemy in the form of the Global Economic Council (GEC). Somehow this makes the whole thing feel less like a story that could happen in the real world.

Scientists at Randolph's company discover that the Greenhouse Effect will reach a 'cliff' around ten years after the events of the book. The gradual warming of the Earth will suddenly accelerate and the sea level will rise catastrophically. Attempts to warn the GEC seem to ignored. Then the Council tries to silence the rumour by taking control of Dan's company. Then we learn that the GEC actually know of the problem, and plan to solve it by forcefully controlling all world industry and compelling everyone to stop using fossil fuels. Dan disagrees, feeling that co-operation rather than control is a better way forward.

As always Bova's science appears well-researched and accurate, yet remaining easy to read. His characters in this book are not as well defined as in some of his earlier work (eg The excellent 'Orion'), but this is not a major problem as he keeps the story moving at a frantic pace. The pages just keep turning.

Although it is a sequel, this book has been skilfully written to allow anyone to read it. If you have read 'Privateers' then you may get a little more out of it, but if not, you are never left wondering about some obscure reference to the previous volume.