Red Moon is a magnificent novel of space exploration and political revolution from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson. It is thirty years from now, and we have colonized the moon. American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China’s Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is … for China’s Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival he witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding.
It is also the first visit for celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu. He has contacts and influence, but he too will find that the moon can be a perilous place for any traveler.
Finally, there is Chan Qi. She is the daughter of the Minister of Finance, and without doubt a person of interest to those in power. She is on the moon for reasons of her own, but when she attempts to return to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything – on the moon, and on Earth.
Fascinating and well-written, as you would expect of this author, and full of political, social, and economic speculation. Science fiction is known for asking, “What if…?” and this book does that in a big way. It also asks that question of a non-Western country, which is interesting in its own right. The title might seem misleading, with a significant portion of the book taking place on Earth and not on the Moon, but the internal logic of the story supports this, so it wasn’t a problem for me. Those part on the Moon came across as plausible, and the Moon came across as a real place, a landscape, and not a mere stage on which events played out. I find speculative economics, sociology, and related subjects in fiction fascinating, so the fact there is a lot of that going on was a pleasure for this reader.
A disappointment!
Well, I should start off by mentioning that I’m a fan of Robinson’s sci-fi works to date (the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy, The Martians, Aurora, 2312, etc.). I was hoping for another story of the same quality, but was sadly disappointed.
The writing in this book is significantly different than in Robinson’s previous works. If I didn’t know any better, I might think that Red Moon was actually written by someone else – some white Western guy who just “discovered” the Chinese culture and wanted to show people how much he knows about it. The switching of point-of-view from chapter-to-chapter also made me wonder whether Robinson was trying to emulate James S.A. Corey’s brilliant Expanse series, where each chapter is from a different character’s POV.
The dialog in Red Moon is often stilted and the writing, at times, rather juvenile. At times I wondered whether parts were originally written in Chinese, then poorly translated into English.
After reading the first 10% of the book, I skipped past the long, tedious description of the main protagonist as he went on the run in China (some decent substantive editing could have removed a good chunk of this). Halfway through the book, the protagonist returns to the Moon, which is at least a bit more engaging.
At this point in the book I was going to rate it at one star and toss it aside, but I soldiered on. The second half of the book was better able to hold my attention, but barely. It was a mishmash of different scenes that barely linked to each other.
The ending was, well, not really an ending. It felt like the author just gave up writing and wrote, “The End.”
As for the science in this sci-fi book, it’s minimal. I did like the description of how, at the very beginning of the book, the spacecraft lands horizontally on the moon at very high speed. There is the occasional mention of quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies, but it’s superficial – almost as if it were written by someone who just read a couple of introductory books on those subjects and thought they’d include it in a story.
This book is more of a treatise on the current and likely future relationship between China and the US than it is science fiction.
I’m pretty sure this is the longest book review I’ve ever written, which should tell you something…
I really wish I could get my money back.
I like almost all of KSRs books. Red moon is enjoyable. China is ascendant. The US is in turmoil and secondary to China. The ending is abrupt.
This a terrific novel. It is the best thing I have read by Robinson since his Red Mars trilogy. Red Moon reminds me of those stories: lots of characters, lots of politics, clever world building. There was also a faint echo of Heinlein’s “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress”. Most of the “big” action is political but there is plenty of small scale, individual action (fast getaways, murder, escapes via rocket, etc.) to keep things interesting. The emphasis on Chinese characters, history and politics was interesting and refreshingly different. There were a lot of characters and some were inevitably more fully realized than others – but they all felt like people, not card board cut outs. I thoroughly enjoyed it and definitely recommend it.
The Mars trilogy is a must read!
For lovers of science, Kim Stanley Robinson is the real deal. Marvelous characters will take you on the first comprehensive travelogue of the moon. As well, he sketches plausible geopolitics of the 2050s. This book begs for a sequel.
New point of view, original idea, well paced
Great author! Always mixes fact and fiction well. Provides insight into Chinese history and mind. Looking forward to the sequel.