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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
I didn’t finish this book, which is rare for me. But I couldn’t get through it all. I can’t remember why, but I think it had to do with my realization that I didn’t care about the characters. They do not elicit empathy. You kind of want them to die from exposure to the vacuum of space. The plot is interesting in its detailed depiction of multigenerational moon terraforming, and I really appreciated the use of a Brazilian family as the main characters.
Damit Ian McDonald, you evil man.
I loved the world building and the drama. The multiple pov's did not annoy me for once.
The characters were great and kept me coming back until the plot started to move and man did it move once it got rolling.
The next one is on my to read list once it's out
I loved the world building and the drama. The multiple pov's did not annoy me for once.
The characters were great and kept me coming back until the plot started to move and man did it move once it got rolling.
The next one is on my to read list once it's out
My first Ian McDonald book and a great read! A lot of people compared this to GOT but on the Moon but tbh I didn’t think it was as complex as GOT. Nonetheless, it was a solid read. The characters were interesting and I was anxious about what happened to them. The plot was fast-moving (esp in the third part of the book) and I enjoyed learning about the different families and their connections. NGL some of the terminology was confusing at first and there WAS one plot point that I felt wasn’t explained very well
I sincerely wish this book did not have to end. It has been a long time, save the feels I got from Carolyn Ives Gilman's fast-paced, dimension-bending work in 'Dark Orbit', since I've felt this way about a book. When I would get to the last few remaining pages, even paragraphs, I would set it down and listen to Celso Fonseca distractedly just to save myself a few more minutes before the end. Trying to stave myself off from the inevitable, agonizing conclusion. It's the kind of book I would read all over again if I didn't have to return my copy for the 37 other people who are in the hold queue at the library.
New Moon has one foot firmly set in a hard science fiction tradition of lunar sociology best exemplified by Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and also worked on by Clarke, Asimov, and John Varley. In the early 22nd century, the moon is a mining outpost that provides Earth with vital Helium-3 and rare earth minerals. It's a harsh world of 1.8 million or so souls, with absentee corporate overlords, where everything is negotiable, beauty is cheap, and death is omnipresent in a thousand ways. This is a serious story about existence and flowering on the thinnest of margins.
But McDonald has a second inspiration, which I didn't realize until reading about this book afterwards, and that's the classic soap opera Dallas. The moon is ruled by the Five Dragons, great family corporations, and our heroes, the Brazilian Helium mining Cortas, are sliding towards a war against the dominant Mackenzies. The Cortas are lead by an old woman, with five children scrabbling for the future of the family. Rafa is the golden boy, the heir apparent, with a weak temperament. Lucas is the schemer, a Machiavellian with a deadly plan. Ariel is an outsider who abandoned the family to become a lunar lawyer. The last two siblings fade to colorlessness. Luna and Lucasinho, grandchildren, round out the family. Lucasinho in particular is a spoiled playboy, a viewpoint into lunar society. The other families are less developed, reptilian antagonists rather than characters.
It's melodrama, but to paraphrase a former FBI director, "I'm just a messy bitch from New Jersey who loves drama", and while this book takes it good time to find it's place, once it arrives it is utterly compelling. The finale, an orgy of shocking violence, is particularly well done. I can't say that New Moon is great. I can say that after finishing the book past midnight, I immediately grabbed the sequel and stayed up till 5:00 AM getting through part two.
But McDonald has a second inspiration, which I didn't realize until reading about this book afterwards, and that's the classic soap opera Dallas. The moon is ruled by the Five Dragons, great family corporations, and our heroes, the Brazilian Helium mining Cortas, are sliding towards a war against the dominant Mackenzies. The Cortas are lead by an old woman, with five children scrabbling for the future of the family. Rafa is the golden boy, the heir apparent, with a weak temperament. Lucas is the schemer, a Machiavellian with a deadly plan. Ariel is an outsider who abandoned the family to become a lunar lawyer. The last two siblings fade to colorlessness. Luna and Lucasinho, grandchildren, round out the family. Lucasinho in particular is a spoiled playboy, a viewpoint into lunar society. The other families are less developed, reptilian antagonists rather than characters.
It's melodrama, but to paraphrase a former FBI director, "I'm just a messy bitch from New Jersey who loves drama", and while this book takes it good time to find it's place, once it arrives it is utterly compelling. The finale, an orgy of shocking violence, is particularly well done. I can't say that New Moon is great. I can say that after finishing the book past midnight, I immediately grabbed the sequel and stayed up till 5:00 AM getting through part two.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Took me until about chapter 3 or 4 to really get immersed in the world. I’d recommend skimming through the glossary and the character list before starting the book because there’s lots of unfamiliar words and characters which takes some getting used too. Once I really got into I enjoyed how the POV switched so often and how different threads of the story were tied together. Disappointed in the ending, especially because the “bad guys” (if there are any true bad guys here, almost everyone does awful things) were characters who barely appeared prior to this and whose POV we had never seen but will still probably read the next one.
Took me a while to understand the societal structure and political environment of the moon society. Ending felt very fast, but I guess that's what a sequel is for, to clear up and expand upon the world. It was nice to see a society with zero homophobia, though the focus on sex got a bit old after a while. I wanna see some romantic love damn it!
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an unusual read! The format of this book is unique, with each chapter following many different character broken down in 2-20ish page blurbs per person. The chapter breaks sort of felt arbitrary since there were so many mini breaks. With all the jumping around from character to character and with SO MUCH plot happening it read slow for me despite all the action. Not sure if I’ll continue on with the series or not but I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the moon!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Death of parent
Dieses Buch enthält die typischen Elemente, die einen Roman von Ian McDonald ausmachen, jedoch in abgemilderter Dosis und leichter verträglich für den vielleicht nicht ganz so intellektuell ambitionierten Leser. So ist man auch beim Lesen dieses Buches des Öfteren in der Versuchung, einen Finger als provisorisches Lesezeichen zu Personenverzeichnis und Glossar zu stecken, um das permanente Hin- und Her-Blättern zu beschleunigen, das aufgrund der Vielzahl an Protagonisten mit verzwickten Verwandtschaftsverhältnissen sowie der Verwendung fremdsprachlicher Bezeichnungen für eben diese Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse nötig wird.
Ein Science-Fiction-Setting, aber kein Science-Fiction-Thema, das die Handlung vorantreibt. Das muss ja nicht unbedingt schlecht sein. Eine Gesellschaft auf dem Mond der Zukunft, Schmelztiegel unterschiedlicher irdischer Kulturen. Vor diesem Hintergrund spielt sich eine Familiensaga über konkurrierende kapitalistische Clans ab, Heliumförderung auf dem Mond ersetzt die Weingüter in FALCON CREST oder das Öl-Business in DALLAS. Familien-Soap im All, mal was anderes. Dummerweise interessieren mich Familien-Soaps nicht sonderlich.
Die Handlung plätschert länger vor sich hin, die Fäden laufen in regelmäßigen Abständen zusammen, wenn der Clan mal wieder eine Familienparty schmeißt, zu dem sich die meisten Protagonisten zusammenfinden (und der Lesezeichen-Finger wieder ins Personenverzeichnis gesteckt wird).
Am Schluss gewinnt die Handlung enorm an Tempo und Dramatik. Die Fäden, die in der Fortsetzung wieder aufgenommen werden, sind geschickt gelegt, so dass man nicht umhin kommt, auch den Folgeband auf die To-Read-Liste zu setzen.