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infantile_decorum's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
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? It's complicated
3.5
cgoiris's review against another edition
slow-paced
Who edited this? It's part character study, part scientific explanation, part philosophical ponderings, but only very little actual plot happens.
It meanders a lot and touches on a few interesting ideas and concepts but I couldn't get into it and kept reading other things instead.
It meanders a lot and touches on a few interesting ideas and concepts but I couldn't get into it and kept reading other things instead.
cdeane61's review
5.0
Perfect listen for a 16 hr drive from NY to VA.
Can't go wrong with a Kim Stanley Robinson book, he is the master of the near future novel, extrapolating a story from current events, and spicing it up with cool uses of cutting edge technology.
Hope there is a sequel, would love to continue to follow the storyline.
Can't go wrong with a Kim Stanley Robinson book, he is the master of the near future novel, extrapolating a story from current events, and spicing it up with cool uses of cutting edge technology.
Hope there is a sequel, would love to continue to follow the storyline.
rhysciar's review against another edition
DNF-ed at about 30%.
I think I just don't like his books where the plot is taking place on Earth. It tends to be too similar to real life, and I prefer to escape from that when I'm reading a fiction book. It's the question of taste. What do you prefer. I do think that I should try this book when I'm older or more mature... I dunno, I just dont have the patience for it right now.
I think I just don't like his books where the plot is taking place on Earth. It tends to be too similar to real life, and I prefer to escape from that when I'm reading a fiction book. It's the question of taste. What do you prefer. I do think that I should try this book when I'm older or more mature... I dunno, I just dont have the patience for it right now.
ja_hopkins's review against another edition
2.0
Set in the near future, the moon has been colonised and is largely split between a US dominated northern zone and a southern one where China holds sway. We join Fred Fredericks travelling to the moon on a business trip and Ta Shu, a Chinese celebrity 'blogger', poet and Feng Shui obsessive.
When Fredericks' business meeting goes terribly wrong, he is unwittingly caught up in a political mess related to the upcoming communist party congress. Our third lead is Chan Qi, a princessling whose important father may be about to become president of China. However, she appears to be on the wrong side of some of the politics that Fredericks finds himself caught up in. We spend our time with these three main characters, travelling in China, to and from the Moon and around on the moon.
I have to say, I did not enjoy this book, so much so that I was very close to quitting reading it after about a third. I found the constant references to Feng Shui really irritating, and there seemed to be no plot or storyline - just a rambling poet, a privileged young woman and a strange American. Things did pick up though, and I enjoyed the middle section, which focused on the moon colonisation and life there. However, the end was another disappointment - it just stopped.
I have read and enjoyed KSR previously (esp. the Mars trilogy) so I will be reading more of his stuff, but this was a real disappointment.
When Fredericks' business meeting goes terribly wrong, he is unwittingly caught up in a political mess related to the upcoming communist party congress. Our third lead is Chan Qi, a princessling whose important father may be about to become president of China. However, she appears to be on the wrong side of some of the politics that Fredericks finds himself caught up in. We spend our time with these three main characters, travelling in China, to and from the Moon and around on the moon.
I have to say, I did not enjoy this book, so much so that I was very close to quitting reading it after about a third. I found the constant references to Feng Shui really irritating, and there seemed to be no plot or storyline - just a rambling poet, a privileged young woman and a strange American. Things did pick up though, and I enjoyed the middle section, which focused on the moon colonisation and life there. However, the end was another disappointment - it just stopped.
I have read and enjoyed KSR previously (esp. the Mars trilogy) so I will be reading more of his stuff, but this was a real disappointment.
bookshelf_from_mars's review against another edition
2.0
It was a bit of train wreck, but some parts were salvageable.
Red Moon is ambitious in its description of the near future. The intersection of modern geopolitical trends with space colonization, mass surveillance technology, quantum computing and communication, and the improvement of artificial intelligence premises a world worth exploring. I felt many of the individual pieces would have been entertaining stories by themselves, but the book combined them all into a barely readable jumble.
I'll start with what I liked, because the list is short. I felt like the technical exploration of the sci-fi elements of the story were written well. The author makes the technology and scientific advances comprehensible. To a point, the societal consequences of these technologies make a lot of sense -- yes, a bunch of weird billionaires with more money than they know how to spend would decide to set up bases on the moon to attempt to live in their ideal societies, for example. I particularly liked the chapters devoted to the analyst and his baby artificial intelligence; the chapters after were pleasing to me in their story-telling and written style. Despite my criticism below, I also took pleasure in the interaction between Fred Fredericks and Chan Qi in a lengthy chapter in the center of the book when . I felt for those two as they were trapped in that situation, and their discussions marked the emotional high point of the story for me; I liked getting to know them and seeing their worldviews mingle.
As for the negatives, there are many.
The book's worst failing is its utterly cardboard characters. Fred and Qi felt one-dimensional for most of the book. Ta Shu was lively, but his purpose in the story seemed to be to fulfill the desires of other characters. All the other characters were one-note, whether it was the American Spies or the Powerful Party Leader or the Eccentric Billionaire.
That these characters are so uninteresting stems in part from a frenetic and implausible plot. The way the protagonists rocketed between the moon and China repeatedly bothered me. The story establishes early on that travelling to the moon in the story is much like travelling to a remote base in Antarctica today, yet the characters bounce back in forth like the trip is a 90 minute car ride. The plot elements that take these characters from place to place often feel contrived (yes, there is nowhere else that we could hide two fugitives than the moon). Other plot elements that seem key to the story amount to nothing in the end. The fact that the incident that kicks off this book is seemingly forgotten for 80% of the story before being breezily resolved in a sentence during the climax is just poor writing.
The world-building that happens in the background of the story is really shaky. The author refers to social upheaval in the US where citizens withdraw their money from banks and invest it in cryptocurrencies. The mechanics of this financial revolt aren't explained well. I didn't have an issue with this -- the stuff going on in America is at the periphery of the story -- but. In addition, the concepts of cryptocurrency and "blockchain governance" feel at best underexplored and at worst tacked-on gimmicks meant to increase the appeal of the story.
(Maybe the blockchain stuff is some kind of joke about how the word seems to summon venture capital like rubbing a lamp summons a genie, but that seems too clever by half for this book.)
A less serious complaint I have with the book is with its chapter structure. The chapters vary wildly in length, which dampened my reading experience. Books with lots of short chapters are fine; books with several long chapters are fine. Books with some chapters being only 3 pages in length and others as long as 50 are disorienting.
I had a hard time finishing the story. Red Moon would have benefited from a trimmed-down plot, fewer sci-fi elements to explore, and more time devoted to fleshing out its two main characters.
Red Moon is ambitious in its description of the near future. The intersection of modern geopolitical trends with space colonization, mass surveillance technology, quantum computing and communication, and the improvement of artificial intelligence premises a world worth exploring. I felt many of the individual pieces would have been entertaining stories by themselves, but the book combined them all into a barely readable jumble.
I'll start with what I liked, because the list is short. I felt like the technical exploration of the sci-fi elements of the story were written well. The author makes the technology and scientific advances comprehensible. To a point, the societal consequences of these technologies make a lot of sense -- yes, a bunch of weird billionaires with more money than they know how to spend would decide to set up bases on the moon to attempt to live in their ideal societies, for example. I particularly liked the chapters devoted to the analyst and his baby artificial intelligence; the chapters after
Spoiler
the analyst is arrested and the AI has to operate on its ownSpoiler
the two of them hide in a home in Hong Kong for a monthAs for the negatives, there are many.
The book's worst failing is its utterly cardboard characters. Fred and Qi felt one-dimensional for most of the book. Ta Shu was lively, but his purpose in the story seemed to be to fulfill the desires of other characters. All the other characters were one-note, whether it was the American Spies or the Powerful Party Leader or the Eccentric Billionaire.
That these characters are so uninteresting stems in part from a frenetic and implausible plot. The way the protagonists rocketed between the moon and China repeatedly bothered me. The story establishes early on that travelling to the moon in the story is much like travelling to a remote base in Antarctica today, yet the characters bounce back in forth like the trip is a 90 minute car ride. The plot elements that take these characters from place to place often feel contrived (yes, there is nowhere else that we could hide two fugitives than the moon). Other plot elements that seem key to the story amount to nothing in the end. The fact that the incident that kicks off this book is seemingly forgotten for 80% of the story before being breezily resolved in a sentence during the climax is just poor writing.
The world-building that happens in the background of the story is really shaky. The author refers to social upheaval in the US where citizens withdraw their money from banks and invest it in cryptocurrencies. The mechanics of this financial revolt aren't explained well. I didn't have an issue with this -- the stuff going on in America is at the periphery of the story -- but
Spoiler
then the protests spread to China. The book refrains from telling us how a protest of hundreds of millions of people happens, handwaving it away as the doing of some superhuman secret organization capable of mobilizing that many people on mere hours' notice. That this organization has managed this feat in the People's Republic of China without the notice of the surveillance state defies all plausibility(Maybe the blockchain stuff is some kind of joke about how the word seems to summon venture capital like rubbing a lamp summons a genie, but that seems too clever by half for this book.)
A less serious complaint I have with the book is with its chapter structure. The chapters vary wildly in length, which dampened my reading experience. Books with lots of short chapters are fine; books with several long chapters are fine. Books with some chapters being only 3 pages in length and others as long as 50 are disorienting.
I had a hard time finishing the story. Red Moon would have benefited from a trimmed-down plot, fewer sci-fi elements to explore, and more time devoted to fleshing out its two main characters.
hooksforeverything's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.0
KSR is always so very convincing about sciences that it's hard not to take him as a political authority too. The ai chapters and the older man chapters are really quite special.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
4.0
A slow start. I read 25 pages and put it down and had to start back from the beginning a month or two later. It's a character study but tons of stuff happens. And our 3 main characters really don't make a lot of sense. Well actually the online travel show ex-poet super-connected feng shui master makes a certain amount of sense. And a re-write of [b:The Moon is a Harsh Mistress|16690|The Moon is a Harsh Mistress|Robert A. Heinlein|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348768309s/16690.jpg|1048525] complete with newly formed AI. So there's a lot going on in this one. But it is readable and it is fully written - it doesn't seem to be a sketch. And it has some interesting tech and interesting politics. It is near-future which is always risky and is also right now. Not bad, perhaps the best Robinson I've read in awhile. Reviewed from an ARC - Advance Reading Copy.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
KSR has been on a tear the last couple of years. I was not a huge fan of New York 2140, I believe 2312 and Aurora to be two of the best 21st-century sci-fi novels. No matter what it is important to check in with Robinson and see what ideas were getting him going this year.
Red Moon will probably not be as popular as the last couple books but I think there are a lot of important ideas being touched upon in this seemingly straight forward space adventure. The Setting is a Chinese moon colony in the year 2047, our main point of view comes from Fred Fredricks an American engineer working for a Swiss company. Things get messy with governments and jurisdiction when he is accused of poisoning a Chinese official.
Fred escapes the moon with the help of poet and celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu in the process he meets another renegade named Qi. She is the daughter of a famous Chinese political figure who illegally got pregnant on the moon. (for real that would be really dangerous - we have no idea how that would work) What Fred learns is that Qi is a political revolutionary working to change to the political system in China. The political ideas are central to the final act but certainly one of the shortcomings of the novel was that these ideas didn't come to the forefront until 370 pages in.
Certainly, KSR suggests some interesting ideas for how technology could help move democracy forward into a more effective space. As a character points out "I think the idea that everyone's got a wrist pad and a connection to the cloud, everyone could participate in some kind of global governance."
Red Moon is a really thoughtful book and I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the last few books but it was not for the lack of ideas. I think it is a little bit more action orientated than most KSR books are. It has an international thriller feel like movies Like Syriana but updated to reflect China as an insurgent super-power and increased space presence.
It is a big deal that the Chinese were the first to solve the issue it would take to put a rover on the far side of the moon. This novel is less about moon issues as it is current political realities being explored into the future. How Chinese politics and economy will affect the future is the spine of this narrative. You might overlook it with the back and forth to the moon and the first lunar pregnancy.
The novel is a pretty good experience over-all and I like the third act best. That said it ends really abruptly. I kinda felt like my library copy was missing ten pages.
Red Moon will probably not be as popular as the last couple books but I think there are a lot of important ideas being touched upon in this seemingly straight forward space adventure. The Setting is a Chinese moon colony in the year 2047, our main point of view comes from Fred Fredricks an American engineer working for a Swiss company. Things get messy with governments and jurisdiction when he is accused of poisoning a Chinese official.
Fred escapes the moon with the help of poet and celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu in the process he meets another renegade named Qi. She is the daughter of a famous Chinese political figure who illegally got pregnant on the moon. (for real that would be really dangerous - we have no idea how that would work) What Fred learns is that Qi is a political revolutionary working to change to the political system in China. The political ideas are central to the final act but certainly one of the shortcomings of the novel was that these ideas didn't come to the forefront until 370 pages in.
Certainly, KSR suggests some interesting ideas for how technology could help move democracy forward into a more effective space. As a character points out "I think the idea that everyone's got a wrist pad and a connection to the cloud, everyone could participate in some kind of global governance."
Red Moon is a really thoughtful book and I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the last few books but it was not for the lack of ideas. I think it is a little bit more action orientated than most KSR books are. It has an international thriller feel like movies Like Syriana but updated to reflect China as an insurgent super-power and increased space presence.
It is a big deal that the Chinese were the first to solve the issue it would take to put a rover on the far side of the moon. This novel is less about moon issues as it is current political realities being explored into the future. How Chinese politics and economy will affect the future is the spine of this narrative. You might overlook it with the back and forth to the moon and the first lunar pregnancy.
The novel is a pretty good experience over-all and I like the third act best. That said it ends really abruptly. I kinda felt like my library copy was missing ten pages.