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A review by bookshelf_from_mars
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
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.