Outpost

The author is a writer of Westerns who decided to try his hand at science fiction without doing the requisite research or making use of a science consultant, and it shows. The very first paragraph contains an absolute howler:

[The planet] Donovan rotated in the same direction as Earth, so sunrise was still in the east.

This was pretty much an indicator of how the book was going to be: a paint-by-numbers western transplanted to a colony planet, with dubious science. There are some interesting ideas here, but the story disappointingly never rises above the level of a forgettable, while-you're-waiting-at-the-gate airport read.