Robert J. Sawyer's Above it All

American Paul Rackham is above it all. Ever since he was a child, Paul had dreamed of going into space. Committed to doing whatever it took to get there, Paul had "clawed, competed, cheated, left his parents behind in (a) nursing home. He'd never married, never had kids, never had time for anything but this" and now his dedication and single-minded determination has paid off. Paul Rackham is a Colonel in the U.S. military and an astronaut aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Yuri Vereshchagin is above it all too. A Russian cosmonaut, Yuri orbits the Earth in the space station Mir, far removed from the economic troubles of his homeland and other problems which plague the Earth. Or is he?

Now Yuri Vereshchagin is dead, killed by his own hand, and Paul Rackham, sent in to retrieve Yuri's body, must come face to face with the true price of being Above it All.

Suspenseful, moving and beautifully crafted, Above it All is a contemporary story set in space which dares us to examine the human condition, here and now, and to ask ourselves what price we pay - personally and communally - to realize our dreams.