Despite the cover blurb and artwork this is less a story about life on an orbiting space station than a story of population explosion, revolution, and conflict between corporations and the World Government. As such it's more of a novel of ideas, politics and sociology than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. It's sometimes a little clunky, characterisation is kept to a minimum, and Bova throws in some incongruous explicit sex and violence (and sexual violence) towards the end in order to keep our attention, but it still just about works as an SF thriller with a refreshingly optimistic ending.