Gold in the Sky

A space adventure set on Mars and the asteroid belt. It's a novella rather than novel length but well paced. The imagery and concepts seem fairly dated, though. Inertia is still a problem, but they apparently have artificial gravity. The predominant weapon is the adjustable strength stunner, though projectile weapons are still around. Leigh Brackett's The Big Jump is from roughly the same period, but I liked it better. For a story dealing with the asteroid belt possibly being a formerly inhabited planet, I much prefer Inherit the Stars by James Hogan.