Luna: Moon Rising, by Ian McDonald

When I finished New Moon (the 2nd book), I had become fascinated but also somewhat frustrated and worn out with this story. It felt like there were no grownups present--the members of the Dragons, the 5 oligarchies that ran the Moon, broke big expensive things in extravagant feuds without regard for consequences for their employees. It seemed like half the Moon made a living as soldiers (blades or dusters) in the various private armies. All with very colorful names (escoltas, jackaroos, etc) to make it seem very cool.

The start of the third book was kind of awkward and made me think the trend was going to continue. The violence gets ever more picturesque. But as the story goes along, some human elements finally emerge, and those human elements get handled very well at the end. It made me happy that I had persevered and read the whole series. Character development that seemed tedious to me on first reading explains itself as I think about the ending. All in all, good stuff.

I am not surprised to see that this series was optioned for television--it's very visual, and a feud of wealthy and beautiful families always seems like it's going to be a winner.

My Goodreads Review

Luna: Wolf Moon, by Ian McDonald

 I struggled with giving this four stars but am going to do it. This entry, in my view, is a better book than New Moon, especially as I started thinking about it in a larger social context. The Moon is what Texas and California, and now Nevada, are to America--chances to leave and start fresh. Except that the Moon is a full on corporate/family oligarchy (I am remembering last year, when it seemed like over half of the major award entries were for stories of family oligarchy). To me, the book is an unintentional indictment of the moon's premise (which is more clearly articulated here, near the end of the book by Luis Corta, than anywhere else)--that no one owes you anything and you live on what you earn, or not at all.

The book starts where it left off, with more profligate destruction. The incredible McKenzie smelter, the Crucible, is destroyed by sabotage. What follows is a fascinating tale of family intrigue and survival, with lots of interesting details--and a lot of bloody combat, with more large-scale sabotage and promises of even more to come. There are no grownups present--all egos are completely outsized and the result is destruction on the Game of Thrones scale.

There are a lot of really good elements to the book, enough to make me want to complete the series. The newness of the Moon means new social structures and sexual possibilities, enhanced by technology. Then again the rich are often kinky, they can afford to be. Wagner Corta is explained--he and others like him have found a unique way to manage their manic-depressive condition and turn it into an advantage. It's a very good story that mostly ends up highlighting personal failings, and the incredibly bad consequences of them, with some heroism thrown in.

My Goodreads Review

Time Was, by Ian McDonald

Time Was by Ian McDonald

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was fortunate enough to not read the misleading book blurb or the Goodreads spoiler blurb. Letting the book tell you about itself is probably the best way to experience it. That said, I kind of liked it but did not love it. It is a book-based time-travel/gay romance/mystery that unfolds pretty slowly and ends in a mild but not earthshaking twist. Our main character is kind of feckless for most of the book, and his semi-helpless singlemindedness is somewhat hard to like. It's a very literary book in a genre that doesn't value literature over ideas, so...hard to get excited about it, but I'm not sorry I read it.



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Luna: New Moon, by Ian McDonald

New Moon by Ian McDonald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One thing for sure, this book will not bore you. A page turner all the way through. Many good action scenes, maybe not quite as good on the sex scenes, but it's definitely a solid thriller that will get your adrenaline humming.

Some good points: Finding alternate sexuality in a book is really easy these days, in fact it's pretty much the default. McDonald's lunar society finds a way to make it feel deliberate and natural at the same time--everyone is pretty much full-on horny for everyone else all the time. This feels natural because it's consistent with lunar culture, every aspect is intense. Believable maybe--a good story grounding, definitely. I was able to round up to four stars because of this. There are a few genuine cultural moments as well, in particular the description of the Long Run.

Problems: The appeal begins and ends with the storytelling, the story itself is well worn. I am reading the award winners this year, and picked this up as a catch-up for Wolf Moon, which is nominated for a Locus award. Does everyone have to write about Great Family rivalries? John Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, Yoon Ha Lee's Raven Stratagem, Fonda Lee's Jade City--I could go on and on. Basically everything by Aliette De Bodard. Yes, it's always been a popular story framework, but is it truly the ONLY one? I may be an outlier because, while I enjoy the Song of Ice and Fire, I'm not blinded by it. Goodness.

Other reviewers have mentioned the poor production quality of the book. There are definitely enough errors to be distracting, almost causing me to lower the rating to 3 stars. Not quite.



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Some Strange Desire, by Ian McDonald

I have enjoyed Ian McDonald's other works, including Dervish House, and was glad to find this one, Some Strange Desire, among the Free SF Online award winners.  Infinity Plus is still around as a site, makes me hopeful someone will pick it up again someday.  Anyway, this story is particularly good in that it manages to sketch a whole quasi-human species living alongside humans in a single short story.  Granted that they have a relationship to vampires, but the blending of Greek and Voodoo myths is very well done.  It's very different and tasty, worth a little time and one of those treasures one likes to come across on the Web.  Long may McDonald prosper.  3 stars because I had to work a little too hard to get going on it, but it is worth it.

The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald

I have once more funded a "free" sf item, in the public interest--now that I am finished with the 2010 award nominees, they can go to the library.  The last is one I was particularly looking forward to--The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald.

In my last post I stated that Africa has a relative shortage of speculative fiction on it.  But Turkey--damn near none.  I had a great time reading this novel, perhaps the most pleasurable part being rolling the place names around in my head.  McDonald offers a brief pronunciation guide at the beginning, and as I went through the book it became a real pleasure to be able to properly pronounce names like Sarioglu (though the accent marks are not possible here). 

The story is set in near-future Istanbul.  Near-future work is always a real challenge--one is either not speculative enough and it reads like yesterday's news, or completely wrong.  Istanbul's age grounds the speculation, though, and gives it a very full and real backdrop.  Nanotechnology as a mental aid forms a solid backdrop for the story, and a tech start-up tale (one of five well-managed narrative threads) makes it geeky enough to hold interest while McDonald develops all the characters those threads require.  The characters don't make you cry or anything, but they are very genuine and insightful.  I learned a lot about Turkey and people generally.  The book is not an easy read, you have to keep paying attention, but it rolls along well and picks up at the end just as it should.  If you missed out on this one, go back and get it.  4 stars!