Simmons is one of my favorite authors, not because he's a brilliant wordsmith but because he consistently entertains in creative ways. Hardcase is not his best book by any stretch. ( The Crook Factory and Hyperion are my favorites among his work.) It's a potboiler with no literary pretense, and I'd guess that Simmons wrote it purely for fun. I read somewhere that he planned to release it under a pseudonym — I'm glad he didn't because his writing is always enjoyable.