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A review by oleksandr
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.0
This is a near future hard SF novel with political elements. I read is as a part of monthly reading for September 2020 at The Evolution of Science Fiction group.
The story’s start is quite interesting (spoilers of the first 5% of the book, setting the scene): an American IT guy Frederic Fredericks travels by a regular shuttle to the Moon, where he has to deliver a quantum phone (linked via entanglement to the unique other phone and hacking-proof) to a customer. The largest colony on the Moon is Chinese (therefore “red” in the title), but there are many countries present and it is more a global collaboration than competition, even despite there are some China-US issues. On the shuttle he meets Ta Shu, old Chinese man, a famous poet in his youth, but currently more a net celebrity (with a travelog) and feng shui master. The transfer of the phone went sour and now Frederic is on the run, together with a princeling – Chan Qi, a pregnant daughter of CCP politburo member and finance minister.
Strong sides: as always great infodumps – from current views on forming of our satellite to Chinese history, to bamboo growing to feng shui to quantum mechanics. In this sense his books are a great way to learn new things.
Weaker points: no character development and too much Chinese propaganda. All positive praises come from Chinese in the text, so it is hard to divide what the author thinks and what are just the characters. This starts with Mao, who killed by his policies more people than Hitler and to the current president Xi, who “worked hard at poverty reduction, and land restoration, and reducing corruption in the Party.” He is the same Xi, who pushed for the removal of term limits for the president, whose cult of personality was evident when the story was written and whose “fight with corruption” surprisingly well hit only folk loyal to his predecessor Hu Jintao, but say when ‘Panama leaks’ were out showing corruption among “his folks”, there very term Panama was banned from Chinese search engines.
The book started great but the ending was both too choreographed and rushed and more to show authors political preferences (as in the Mars trilogy) than to make a good story. Four star start and two star final make for three star overall rating
The story’s start is quite interesting (spoilers of the first 5% of the book, setting the scene): an American IT guy Frederic Fredericks travels by a regular shuttle to the Moon, where he has to deliver a quantum phone (linked via entanglement to the unique other phone and hacking-proof) to a customer. The largest colony on the Moon is Chinese (therefore “red” in the title), but there are many countries present and it is more a global collaboration than competition, even despite there are some China-US issues. On the shuttle he meets Ta Shu, old Chinese man, a famous poet in his youth, but currently more a net celebrity (with a travelog) and feng shui master. The transfer of the phone went sour and now Frederic is on the run, together with a princeling – Chan Qi, a pregnant daughter of CCP politburo member and finance minister.
Strong sides: as always great infodumps – from current views on forming of our satellite to Chinese history, to bamboo growing to feng shui to quantum mechanics. In this sense his books are a great way to learn new things.
Weaker points: no character development and too much Chinese propaganda. All positive praises come from Chinese in the text, so it is hard to divide what the author thinks and what are just the characters. This starts with Mao, who killed by his policies more people than Hitler and to the current president Xi, who “worked hard at poverty reduction, and land restoration, and reducing corruption in the Party.” He is the same Xi, who pushed for the removal of term limits for the president, whose cult of personality was evident when the story was written and whose “fight with corruption” surprisingly well hit only folk loyal to his predecessor Hu Jintao, but say when ‘Panama leaks’ were out showing corruption among “his folks”, there very term Panama was banned from Chinese search engines.
The book started great but the ending was both too choreographed and rushed and more to show authors political preferences (as in the Mars trilogy) than to make a good story. Four star start and two star final make for three star overall rating