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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“[E]very child should know a fighting art, play a musical instrument, speak three languages, read an annual report, and dance a tango.”
Takes a quarter of the way to acclimate to the huge amount of information that confronts you, and then It settles and you speed through the devastation that ensues. Brilliant!
Es curioso, porque por una parte el ritmo me ha parecido irregular, en ocasiones me ha parecido que únicamente se recrea en la construcción del mundo.. y sin embargo quiero saber más sobre él, porque no he sentido que se trate de "info dumps" sino que poco a poco se va tejiendo una luna a base de piezas de puzzle: economía de escasez, hiper capitalismo, culturas diferentes, evolución de especies adaptándose al medio, diseñadores de moda y vestidos, avatares, tradiciones.. y toda la base preparada para el siguiente libro. ¡La pena es que se acabe!
The arrival of a new book by Ian McDonald is nearly always an event, and with good reason. In recent years his previous books written for adults have been rewarded with a string of awards and nominations, from River of Gods (2004) winning a BSFA Award and a Clarke nomination in 2005 to Brasyl (2007) winning a BSFA Award and a Hugo and a Nebula nomination in 2007 and The Dervish House gaining a Clarke and a Hugo nomination and winning a BSFA Award, and the John W. Campbell Award in 2011.
His books are usually well crafted, clever and literate, emphasising a William Gibson-style savvy with a genuinely global perspective. River of Gods was set in India in 2047, Brasyl in a past, present and future Brazil and The Dervish House in a near future Turkey, all of which thus becoming something a little more worldly than the usual American or West European perspective.
With Luna: New Moon (the first book in a duology) Ian takes his ideas off-planet. And it is as good as I had hoped.
One of the things most recognisable in Ian’s work is the globalisation network aspect – that people in Brazil or India or Turkey have links or connections to the other places in the world around them. In Ian’s worlds the usual dominance of the USA or Europe are in the descendant and it is the rising stars – the BRICs, the MINTs – that are more noticeable.
With Luna such things are both recognisable and also different. Ian combines the cultures of his earlier novels but then puts them into a new, relatively unexplored, environment. Interestingly, rather than emphasising the links between nations and worlds, Luna emphasises the danger of isolation of people existing on another world. People living underground, due to the radiation bombarding the lunar surface, have a life that is international and multicultural, but not for everyone:
“I know I should feel privileged to be working here, but I can’t wait to get home… I don’t like your world…I don’t like its meanness and tightness and ugliness and that everything has a price… You’re rats in a cage, one look, one wrong word away from eating each other.”
The main difference between Luna and Ian’s previous novels is that on the Moon, relatively simple mistakes can kill you. There’s the constant surface radiation, not to mention the monotony of the landscape which can make you become complacent and make mistakes. Losing oxygen means death, you Luna US covercan fry in your suit. Just living is dangerous and simple mistakes can have deadly consequences. Everything has a cost – people sell their urine to pay for the water they drink and the air they breathe.
In this dangerous environment it is the corporate culture that rules, for the novel shows the reader the importance of industry in helping Luna develop interplanetary influence. Like some of the other places Ian has written about, the Moon has access to energy, selling the resources (such as helium-3) to Earth, but getting other resources that Earthers take for granted to the Moon is the issue here.
Much of this interplanetary power is generated through the geopolitical positioning of key families who own the industrial complexes of Luna. Not only do the people of a beleaguered Earth need what the Moon is providing, but the people living on the Moon rely on them for their basic existence.
To this then we have a number of key players. There are five main groups, referred to as Dragons, that dominate the economy and culture of the Moon. Luna mainly tells a tale from the perspective of the (relatively speaking) new kids on the block, the Corta family from Brazil. Their direct enemies are one of the oldest families on the Moon, the Australian Mackenzie family, running Mackenzie Metals, who resent their rivals intensely.
Like Dune’s planetary Houses, (or, if you have to, A Game of Thrones’ hereditary feudal Houses) the families on Luna are in a constantly changing situation of political, social and economic power. Luna shows us what happens as these families spy on each other, ally with each other, often through arranged marriages, squabble, bicker and complain about each other. Think The Godfather, but in space, and you get an idea of how this works out.
If you thought you were having a bad day, then this quote may make you feel better, summarising a day in the life of a CEO. Believe it or not, it is a chat-up line from the novel:
“One wife has left me, my other wife is dead, my daughter is afraid of me and I hurt my son because I was angry at someone else. My brother spies on me because he thinks I’m a fool and my mother is halfway to believing him. I just lost a deal, my enemies have f*cked me over, my security guards couldn’t find their own asses in the dark, someone tried to assassinate me with a fly and my men’s handball team is bottom of the league.”
The book is also about class. In terms of an enclosed society surrounded by danger, the fashion, the drugs, the open sexuality, the sheer partying attitude amongst the young and rich is well portrayed, whilst the position of the disadvantaged are shown through the origins of Marina Calzaghe, a surface worker who rises through the system to become personal assistant to Ariel Corta.
It can take a little while to work out what’s going on, for Luna is an ambitious book. This can have its issues. Juggling so many things in the proverbial air can be a bit confusing initially and it did take me a little while to get to grips with the different groups, their actions and their interactions. Living and working in a relatively contained space with a select few with often similar backgrounds meant that individual voices at times tended to blur. Luna’s not a book you can read half-heartedly – you have to concentrate whilst reading it.
This also applies when you encounter Ian’s trademark characteristic of using a polyglot of different languages within the English for places, people and things. There’s a sprinkling throughout of a multitude of languages, mainly Portuguese and Chinese, which gives the culture that multi-lingual tone but can also have you turning to the Glossary more than you would like.
Nevertheless you do get the impression that you are watching life out on the frontier of space – I was reminded both of High Noon and Sean Connery’s Outland in that respect. The book is worth reading for the last quarter of the book alone, which is a tour de force of heart-stopping, page turning moments.
Imagine Ben Bova’s Farside mixed up with Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress and David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series but then re-imagined for the 21st century, with a sexed-up, more global viewpoint and you’ll get an idea of Luna. I foresee great things for this book and award nominations a-plenty. Recommended.
His books are usually well crafted, clever and literate, emphasising a William Gibson-style savvy with a genuinely global perspective. River of Gods was set in India in 2047, Brasyl in a past, present and future Brazil and The Dervish House in a near future Turkey, all of which thus becoming something a little more worldly than the usual American or West European perspective.
With Luna: New Moon (the first book in a duology) Ian takes his ideas off-planet. And it is as good as I had hoped.
One of the things most recognisable in Ian’s work is the globalisation network aspect – that people in Brazil or India or Turkey have links or connections to the other places in the world around them. In Ian’s worlds the usual dominance of the USA or Europe are in the descendant and it is the rising stars – the BRICs, the MINTs – that are more noticeable.
With Luna such things are both recognisable and also different. Ian combines the cultures of his earlier novels but then puts them into a new, relatively unexplored, environment. Interestingly, rather than emphasising the links between nations and worlds, Luna emphasises the danger of isolation of people existing on another world. People living underground, due to the radiation bombarding the lunar surface, have a life that is international and multicultural, but not for everyone:
“I know I should feel privileged to be working here, but I can’t wait to get home… I don’t like your world…I don’t like its meanness and tightness and ugliness and that everything has a price… You’re rats in a cage, one look, one wrong word away from eating each other.”
The main difference between Luna and Ian’s previous novels is that on the Moon, relatively simple mistakes can kill you. There’s the constant surface radiation, not to mention the monotony of the landscape which can make you become complacent and make mistakes. Losing oxygen means death, you Luna US covercan fry in your suit. Just living is dangerous and simple mistakes can have deadly consequences. Everything has a cost – people sell their urine to pay for the water they drink and the air they breathe.
In this dangerous environment it is the corporate culture that rules, for the novel shows the reader the importance of industry in helping Luna develop interplanetary influence. Like some of the other places Ian has written about, the Moon has access to energy, selling the resources (such as helium-3) to Earth, but getting other resources that Earthers take for granted to the Moon is the issue here.
Much of this interplanetary power is generated through the geopolitical positioning of key families who own the industrial complexes of Luna. Not only do the people of a beleaguered Earth need what the Moon is providing, but the people living on the Moon rely on them for their basic existence.
To this then we have a number of key players. There are five main groups, referred to as Dragons, that dominate the economy and culture of the Moon. Luna mainly tells a tale from the perspective of the (relatively speaking) new kids on the block, the Corta family from Brazil. Their direct enemies are one of the oldest families on the Moon, the Australian Mackenzie family, running Mackenzie Metals, who resent their rivals intensely.
Like Dune’s planetary Houses, (or, if you have to, A Game of Thrones’ hereditary feudal Houses) the families on Luna are in a constantly changing situation of political, social and economic power. Luna shows us what happens as these families spy on each other, ally with each other, often through arranged marriages, squabble, bicker and complain about each other. Think The Godfather, but in space, and you get an idea of how this works out.
If you thought you were having a bad day, then this quote may make you feel better, summarising a day in the life of a CEO. Believe it or not, it is a chat-up line from the novel:
“One wife has left me, my other wife is dead, my daughter is afraid of me and I hurt my son because I was angry at someone else. My brother spies on me because he thinks I’m a fool and my mother is halfway to believing him. I just lost a deal, my enemies have f*cked me over, my security guards couldn’t find their own asses in the dark, someone tried to assassinate me with a fly and my men’s handball team is bottom of the league.”
The book is also about class. In terms of an enclosed society surrounded by danger, the fashion, the drugs, the open sexuality, the sheer partying attitude amongst the young and rich is well portrayed, whilst the position of the disadvantaged are shown through the origins of Marina Calzaghe, a surface worker who rises through the system to become personal assistant to Ariel Corta.
It can take a little while to work out what’s going on, for Luna is an ambitious book. This can have its issues. Juggling so many things in the proverbial air can be a bit confusing initially and it did take me a little while to get to grips with the different groups, their actions and their interactions. Living and working in a relatively contained space with a select few with often similar backgrounds meant that individual voices at times tended to blur. Luna’s not a book you can read half-heartedly – you have to concentrate whilst reading it.
This also applies when you encounter Ian’s trademark characteristic of using a polyglot of different languages within the English for places, people and things. There’s a sprinkling throughout of a multitude of languages, mainly Portuguese and Chinese, which gives the culture that multi-lingual tone but can also have you turning to the Glossary more than you would like.
Nevertheless you do get the impression that you are watching life out on the frontier of space – I was reminded both of High Noon and Sean Connery’s Outland in that respect. The book is worth reading for the last quarter of the book alone, which is a tour de force of heart-stopping, page turning moments.
Imagine Ben Bova’s Farside mixed up with Heinlein’s Moon is a Harsh Mistress and David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series but then re-imagined for the 21st century, with a sexed-up, more global viewpoint and you’ll get an idea of Luna. I foresee great things for this book and award nominations a-plenty. Recommended.
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This was a quick, exciting read to be sure. I enjoyed all of the subplots and most of the characters. It had little substance, and read more like an action thriller than anything, but some well-written, fast-reading sci fi pulp is something I don't turn my nose up at! Especially not when it's done with skill.
Al final m'ha acabat enganxant però esperaré a llegir el següent.
Igual no és bona idea perquè ja no recordaré cap dels noms però igualment esperaré.
Igual no és bona idea perquè ja no recordaré cap dels noms però igualment esperaré.