Stealing the Sky is a fast paced heist novella in the style of Donald Westlake. In a world much like ours, but a few years more advanced in terms of private spaceflight, Starman is a very specialized high end thief, a renegade aerospace engineer who steals satellites and related gear for people who want a short cut to a space program. He's trying to earn enough to boost off this Earth.

An ordinary job has Starman also grabbing a strange orb with weird anti-inertial properties, but there's no time to study the ORB, because he's being chased by the Feds and is hired to do a job in Russia. A separatist republic wants a Soviet heavy lift booster for their own purposes, and Starman has to heist the obsolete rocket and deal with the inevitable betrayal from his employers.

Is this high literature? Definitely no, but it's an amusing diversion and well worth your dollar. The big scifi ideas with the ORB hint at a series.