The Road to the Rim The Hard Way Up Author:A. Bertram Chandler Meet John Grimes at the very beginning of a career that will lead him to fame and glory out at the edge of the galaxy, out where the laws of men are nonexistent, and those of nature itself are sometimes tenuous. This is Book One of the Commodore John Grimes series. The Road to the Rim was written in 1968 and The Hard Way Up was written in 1972.