The Moonbase Saga

For the last 30 years, Ben Bova has been composing an intricately interconnected sequence of novels that explore the human colonisation of the entire solar system. Inevitably, the Moon plays a key role in that story, and it is at the centre of two novels collectively known as the Moonbase Saga.In the first of the novels, Moonrise, Moonbase is a failing colony, losing money and in imminent danger of being closed down. But when an astronaut dreams of establishing a new, sustainable colony on the Moon he faces unexpected opposition. By the second novel, Moonwar, the new Moonbase is the last redoubt for research into nanotechnology, which has been banned on Earth. When the Earth sends soldiers to shut the research down, a new kind of war develops.Why it's on the list:Exciting as the idea of a human colony on the Moon might be, in the long term it can only ever be a springboard to the rest of the solar system, and within the sequence of novels that make up Bova's Grand Tour, the Moon is firmly located within that context.