Synopsis: "Apollo 19, the last of the manned lunar modules, has successfully landed. Exhilarated and confident, Commander Gary Lucas and pilot Charlie Shepherd set out to explor a vast, mysterious depression at the lunar south pole. There in the icy darkness . . . the search for fragments of crystalline bedrock . . . then tragedy strikes, the men are driven deeper into the lethal realm, where they find much more than they bargained for . . . — abbreviated from the book's back cover.