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A Western Hemispherical Union spacer stows away on a Coyote ship to claim political asylum on Coyote. The Coyoteans aren't pleased with his methods and throw him in the stockade. When the richest man on Coyote shows up and offers him a job he accepts and becomes a shuttle pilot on the first trade mission to the newfound alien world Talus.

The rich guy is in a super hurry to be the first trader to the aliens so the ship they take isn't so great, the crew is a bunch of misfits, and the plan is to bring a load of grass to the aliens and find out what they'll trade for it when they get there. Things don't go as planned, the aliens are not as honest as one would hope, everybody gets fired, some get high, and the aliens give them the option of salvaging the trip by going on a suicide mission for them.

After so much time wading through tall grass and shooting giant man eating ostriches it's nice to be reminded that Steele can write some really good space stuff. The real, gritty, nuts and bolts space stuff he basically pioneered with his space construction worker stories. This one has a good deal of flying by the seat of your pants, some stomach turning wormhole transit, and plenty of zero G floating. The characters aren't complex, every one having a hair trigger temper, the aliens are conveniently timid so the humans only interact with three of them, and there is a bit of humor involving baseball and hash browns. Easy to read, flows nicely, and a basic story with a bit of a twist at the end. I'll not spoil it for you but there is a picture of a black hole on the front of the book.