Rogue Moon

Author: Algis Budrys

In the days of the Cold War, the Moon became either a symbol of freedom (as it was in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), or the opposite, an image of alienation, mystery and threat. And no novel evoked that sense better than Rogue Moon. At the time, the Moon was believed to present the same face to Earth at all times, so there was a mysterious, unseen, dark side of the Moon, which was an appropriate location for menace. It is on the dark side that an alien installation has been discovered in this novel. The artefact is a maze, and everyone who tries to penetrate it is killed. People are sent there by matter transmitter, but each time they are killed in the labyrinth it affects their sanity back on Earth, until one man is found who is unaffected by being killed over and over again, until gradually he penetrates to the very heart of the mystery. Why it's on the list: This is one of the most profound of all Cold War thrillers, in which death is the price of discovery.