L. Neil Smith's latest novel is a science fiction epic. Pallas is vivid in its description, the characters memorable and unique, the pace hard and fast, and Smith's vision of liberty is uncompromising. The scope of the novel elevates it a notch above much of Smith's other work, while still holding the promise of grander things to come in the future.

Pallas is an asteroid settled by two kinds of earth colonists. One group, headed by a United Nations project, is tightly run and controlled by a former US Senator. Activity in this UN settlement is planned and regulated, privacy is non-existent and life is both rough and drab, despite its utopian promises.

In stark contrast to this enforced servitude, the rest of Pallas is inhabited by independent-minded individuals, linked together in spirit by their unanimous allegiance to the Stein Covenant, an almost anarchistic agreement and statement of rights. Breaking out of the UN Project and into this other society is young Emerson Ngu, the novel's central character.

Emerson, inventor, entrepreneur, and visionary, revolutionizes Pallas with the invention and introduction of cheap guns and new methods of travel on the small terraformed asteroid. His escape from the Project incurs the eternal animosity of the Project director, Senator Altman, who is determined to limit or subvert Emerson in Altman's effort to control all the inhabitants of Pallas, even those outside of the project.

With deft use of language and a fascinating array of characters, Smith makes Pallas a very pleasing saga. The Pallatians outside the Project are radical hunters and anti-agriculturalists, and base their views on an interesting and daringly convincing argument. The pace is at times confusing in certain sudden transitions, but the mental jars and bumps thus generated rarely throws off the reader for long.

Pallas is true frontier science fiction, a roaring, libertarian wild west space opera dazzling in its intensity and color. Smith knows how to pull the reader's emotional strings, and even though the ending seems strained and unfulfilling, the novel's powerful libertarian image remains, a testament to Smith's take-no-prisoners libertarianism.