Trouble With Tycho

Like Rogue Moon, which came out at around the same time, and presaging Arthur C. Clarke's 2001, A Space Odyssey in odd ways, this is a novel about the Moon as mystery. The hero is a prospector, hoping to strike it rich, but without very much luck. In the end he has to take a wild gamble, so he heads for the mysterious crater, Tycho. Thirty years before, two ships and nearly a dozen astronauts disappeared without trace in Tycho; since then, two further expeditions have vanished, so now, no one wants to go near the crater. But Chris Jackson doesn't really have a choice, and the alien artefact he finds there will change everything, for ever. Why it's on the list: This is a tightly written and very effective short novel, but Simak still finds the space to include lots of fascinating incidental detail about life in the lunar outback.