Waste of Space is a Children's Science Fiction Mystery novel by Stuart Gibbs. It's the third and final entry in the Moon Base Alpha series.
It's been some time since Nina's brief disappearance, and life continues on as normal on MBA. In fact, it's Dash's birthday today, and his dad decided to bring him out on the lunar surface to play some low-gravity catch with him. Sadly, it's not meant to last. Nina caught them outside and ordered them to come in, since they broke a bunch of rules by doing what they did. However, on their way in, they get word of a shocking event.
Lars Sjoberg has been poisoned.
Seems there was something in his lutefisk, and when he ate it, it started making him act weird. Since Dash solved two mysteries on the base already, Nina pretty much drafts him into solving this one as well. However, it becomes a lot more complicated when a deadline is put on his investigation. Seems Moon Base Alpha's oxygen systems are failing, and the oxygen supplies are dropping. If Dash wants to find out who tried to poison Lars, he'll need to do it now.
The book was published on April 24th, 2018.
Waste Of Space contains examples of:
- Afraid of Needles: Cesar Marquez is this, as noted by Dash. When a syringe full of cyanide gets jabbed in his thigh, Cesar shrieks and passes out.
- All for Nothing: The mystery in the third book is an attempt to poison reviled Corrupt Corporate Executive and space tourist Lars Sjoberg. Lars poisons himself with the help of his daughter Lily to force the moon base to send him home early because of how miserable he is (the allocation of space on cargo shuttles is keeping him from getting regular permission to leave). Unknown to Lars, everyone on the base is about to be evacuated because of equipment failures and all his efforts achieve nothing but leaving him humiliated, in legal trouble, and facing an ugly divorce when his wife disapproves of his cowardly efforts to make Lily take all of the blame.
- Birthday Beginning: Much of the book is set on Dash's 13th birthday.
- Distant Epilogue: The end of the final book takes place a couple of decades after the rest of the trilogy.
- Everyone Has Standards: As unpleasant as Sonja may be, even she draws the line at letting her husband use their daughter as The Scapegoat for his crimes.
- Facial Horror: Dash feels this way about Sonja Sjoberg without her make-up on. The low gravity of the moon has had an adverse effect on the plastic surgery Sonja's had before coming to the moon, causing her lips to swell to three times their intended size, and the helium micro-pockets in her face to rise too high.
- Playing Catch with the Old Man: The book begins with Dash's dad waking him up at midnight so they can play this... out on the lunar surface.
- Starfish Aliens: Zan decides to finally show her true form to Dash. She looks like a giant jellyfish with a body covered in blue dots (likely eyes), and a dozen tube-like tentacles sticking out of it.
- Surprise Party: Late in the book, Dash is called to the mess hall for an emergency, which is revealed to be a surprise party. Unfortunately, it scares him and makes him drop the syringe he got from Chang's room... into Cesar Marquez's thigh.
- Unicorn: Violet invades Roddy's video game riding on one thanks to Kira's skills in hacking.
