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Red 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 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.
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.
446 pages, Hardcover
First published October 23, 2018
972 people are currently reading
6446 people want to read
About the author
Kim Stanley Robinson
250 books7,522 followersKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He has published 22 novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his Mars trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. The Atlantic has called Robinson's work "the gold standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in The New Yorker, Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 847 reviews
October 29, 2018
KSR is one of my favorite writers and even if I don’t always find the subject of his books to my liking, at least I enjoy his beautiful writing. This is the first for me which I did not like.
In a few words, it’s a heavy socio-political debate, with multiple references from Chinese culture and history, built apparently on a murder case on the Moon.
Page after page, following the convoluted path of the two main characters, an American and a Chinese, I kept wondering what happened to KSR writing style: doesn’t resemble anything I read by him so far. Endless political discussions, interrupted here and there by the flight of those two above and in the middle of these, by the introspections of a third character, which gets involved in the conflict generated by the crime.
Don’t expect a murder mystery, as it is not. After 85% I began to find it a bit interesting because I started to have a hunch on where it’s going. And I got the whole picture only at the final line in the book. That’s another first for me.
As I see it, the whole story is a metaphor for our current global socio-political context and where we’re headed. Where? You’ll see at the end of the book.
I ruminated upon it a few days. If I’m right about the metaphor part, the idea is brilliant. However, I did not like a bit the execution. I missed the fluent writing, the sense of wonder reading his thoughts and his endless knowledge in so many domains. Reading mostly about Mao, Feng Shui and China’s political schemes was a chore for me.
However, for someone interested in politics, it may be a blast.
>>> ARC received thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit via NetGalley <<<
In a few words, it’s a heavy socio-political debate, with multiple references from Chinese culture and history, built apparently on a murder case on the Moon.
Page after page, following the convoluted path of the two main characters, an American and a Chinese, I kept wondering what happened to KSR writing style: doesn’t resemble anything I read by him so far. Endless political discussions, interrupted here and there by the flight of those two above and in the middle of these, by the introspections of a third character, which gets involved in the conflict generated by the crime.
Don’t expect a murder mystery, as it is not. After 85% I began to find it a bit interesting because I started to have a hunch on where it’s going. And I got the whole picture only at the final line in the book. That’s another first for me.
As I see it, the whole story is a metaphor for our current global socio-political context and where we’re headed. Where? You’ll see at the end of the book.
I ruminated upon it a few days. If I’m right about the metaphor part, the idea is brilliant. However, I did not like a bit the execution. I missed the fluent writing, the sense of wonder reading his thoughts and his endless knowledge in so many domains. Reading mostly about Mao, Feng Shui and China’s political schemes was a chore for me.
However, for someone interested in politics, it may be a blast.
>>> ARC received thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK / Orbit via NetGalley <<<
April 18, 2021
Let's be real here. I didn't come to KSR's dinner table for a simple adventure story.
I always come to eat a novel so rich with ideas that I tent to forget that there's a core story underneath all the cool bits of political revolution, economic warfare, the problem of representation, quantum intelligence, cultural identity, and of course... CHANGE.
But like a rice dish with WAY too many spices, the core story to this novel is somewhat overwhelmed by this plethora of great ideas.
Did I enjoy the characters represented? The popular-revolution pregnant-princess on the run with an American quantum physicist as they hop throughout the heart of China and the moon, angling toward a war of hearts, minds, and wallets?
Yeah. I did. :) But it was downright SUBTLE compared to the rich mess of other ideas popping all around me!
In this respect, it's quite on par with 2312. Less space-opera, more revolution, and very wonderfully full of Chinese. :)
I always come to eat a novel so rich with ideas that I tent to forget that there's a core story underneath all the cool bits of political revolution, economic warfare, the problem of representation, quantum intelligence, cultural identity, and of course... CHANGE.
But like a rice dish with WAY too many spices, the core story to this novel is somewhat overwhelmed by this plethora of great ideas.
Did I enjoy the characters represented? The popular-revolution pregnant-princess on the run with an American quantum physicist as they hop throughout the heart of China and the moon, angling toward a war of hearts, minds, and wallets?
Yeah. I did. :) But it was downright SUBTLE compared to the rich mess of other ideas popping all around me!
In this respect, it's quite on par with 2312. Less space-opera, more revolution, and very wonderfully full of Chinese. :)
November 9, 2025
A geopolitical allegorical story using the trappings of mid-21st century colonization of the Moon.
Fred Fredericks, a quantum mechanic, arrives at the Chinese moonbase at the Moon's south pole where he gets caught up in an assassination and nearly dies himself. He gets linked up with a young pregnant Chinese woman, Chan Qi, who has her own problems with the authorities. The story follows the two of them as they bounce between the Moon and various places there, China on Earth and back to the Moon, all with the backdrop of the author's wish fulfillment fantasy of eco-techno-Marxist revolution in both China and the USA at the same time.
Fred Fredericks is mildly autistic and insular with very little understanding of China or the Chinese people, even though his business is with China and he can't seem to disengage from China in general. (Pssst. He's a metaphor for the United States.)
Chan Qi is a party princess who's the figurehead leader of a ground-swell new people's revolution. (You'll never guess who she's a metaphor for. Hint: take out the 'Q' in her name and there's an anagram going on.)
The two of them find themselves in similar difficult circumstances and form a co-dependent relationship. (PSSST. IT'S A METAPHOR.)
The two muddle along, threatened at all stages by activity in the world that they had a hand in but have no control over, largely mediated by the general population and emerging new technologies. (DO YOU GET IT YET?! DO YOU??!??! METAPHOR!!)
And all of that gets mixed in with a healthy dose of infodumps on quantum theory, space science and engineering, geopolitics, economics, democracy vs Chinese socialism and in-party politics within China, handily given by an unnamed analyst working on an emergent artificial intelligence.
The story is an absolute mess and even more of a political wish fulfillment fantasy than the previous New York 2140. At no point do the characters transcend their origins as allegories, and the "on-screen" action is both mostly unbelievable and not the most interesting thing happening at the time. I understand the author's political beliefs and I even share many of them, but this is too heavy-handed and poorly executed for even this leftie.
Fred Fredericks, a quantum mechanic, arrives at the Chinese moonbase at the Moon's south pole where he gets caught up in an assassination and nearly dies himself. He gets linked up with a young pregnant Chinese woman, Chan Qi, who has her own problems with the authorities. The story follows the two of them as they bounce between the Moon and various places there, China on Earth and back to the Moon, all with the backdrop of the author's wish fulfillment fantasy of eco-techno-Marxist revolution in both China and the USA at the same time.
Fred Fredericks is mildly autistic and insular with very little understanding of China or the Chinese people, even though his business is with China and he can't seem to disengage from China in general. (Pssst. He's a metaphor for the United States.)
Chan Qi is a party princess who's the figurehead leader of a ground-swell new people's revolution. (You'll never guess who she's a metaphor for. Hint: take out the 'Q' in her name and there's an anagram going on.)
The two of them find themselves in similar difficult circumstances and form a co-dependent relationship. (PSSST. IT'S A METAPHOR.)
The two muddle along, threatened at all stages by activity in the world that they had a hand in but have no control over, largely mediated by the general population and emerging new technologies. (DO YOU GET IT YET?! DO YOU??!??! METAPHOR!!)
And all of that gets mixed in with a healthy dose of infodumps on quantum theory, space science and engineering, geopolitics, economics, democracy vs Chinese socialism and in-party politics within China, handily given by an unnamed analyst working on an emergent artificial intelligence.
The story is an absolute mess and even more of a political wish fulfillment fantasy than the previous New York 2140. At no point do the characters transcend their origins as allegories, and the "on-screen" action is both mostly unbelievable and not the most interesting thing happening at the time. I understand the author's political beliefs and I even share many of them, but this is too heavy-handed and poorly executed for even this leftie.
May 12, 2022
Food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education: these all need to be adequate for everyone alive, before anything else good can happen. The interpenetration of people and planet being so complete as to be determinative of every living thing’s shared fate, meeting basic needs for all the living creatures in the shared biosphere is also required to secure the general health and welfare of humanity and its fellow creatures.
It was fitting to have read this during the period of Lenin’s birthday (on Earth Day on 22 April) and, of course, Workers’ Day on 1 May. In a 2020 article in Jacobin magazine, entitled ‘One of our Greatest Ever Socialist Novelists’, Arvind Dilawar comments that KSR writes “radical science fiction that offers readers not an easy vision of utopia, but a hopeful alternative that still confronts the ecological devastation wrought by capitalism.”
One of the more intriguing ideas in ‘Red Moon’ is a cryptocurrency known as ‘carboncoin’, described as “a coin that is created or validated by taking carbon out of the air.” This forms the basis of a credit system whereby the coins “can only buy sustainable necessities.” KSR realises though that the average reader is likely to see this as a mere cosmetic tweak to capitalism itself.
The idea really comes into its own when everyone in the world is mysteriously given a million carboncoins and an invitation to join a global householders’ union. It leads to a ‘fiscal noncompliance campaign’ of such monumental and overwhelming proportions that governments all over the world simply collapse like a deck of cards.
While this is the broader kind of idea behind the ‘red’ in the title, a ‘red moon’ is actually an optical effect created by a lunar eclipse. Beware of lazy symbolism, KSR seems to warn his readers. Speaking of symbolism, readers of ‘Antarctica’ (1997) will be surprised to see the return of Ta Shu, a celebratory blogger whose many fascinating asides include not only a comparison between feng shui and quantum mechanics, but how on earth one can apply the principles of feng shui in an airless and waterless environment like the moon.
This would not be a KSR novel if we did not have an AI as a viewpoint character, as in ‘Aurora’ (2015). Here the AI muses on everything from Thucydides to Chairman Mao as it grapples with the world’s increasingly fractured geopolitics. Oh, did I mention that this book is structured like a thriller? It begins when Ta Shu accompanies Fred Fredericks on a visit to the moon to deliver a quantum entangled phone to the governor of China’s Lunar Special Administrative Region (the ‘red’ section of the moon.)
A diplomatic incident (I do not wish to spoil the plot) soon follows that sees Fred return to earth with a reluctant, and very pregnant, Chan Qi in tow, the daughter of a prominent Chinese politician. The clumsy interaction between the two, largely due to the bumbling and socially awkward nature of Fred, sort of mirrors a nascent détente between East and West. Yes, KSR does reference ‘Orientalism’ (1978) by Edward W. Said.
You’d think this was a comedy of errors as opposed to a thriller when, hardly returned to earth, Fred and Chan flee back to the moon … This time we are introduced to the ‘free crater people’, an anarchist community inhabiting a subterranean lava tube large enough to host an aerial city. Described as “a new kind of commons, a new way of living”, the free crater has “almost as many yottaflops available as all the servers in the United States combined … Computing power was economic power, they said; and economic power was political power.”
The free crater community is predicated on ‘blockchain governance’, whereby all activities and decisions, “everything we do as a town”, is recorded in a secure distributed network. An inhabitant remarks cheerfully: “We call it documented anarchy. A full-disclosure commons. Anyone can do anything, but everyone gets to know what that is.”
Here follows one of the most inspired and bonkers scenes that KSR has ever conjured up: A lunar (meaning zero gravity) performance of the Philip Glass opera ‘Satyagraha’, replete with orchestra and a chorus of hundreds. It is a (literally) dizzying setpiece, beautifully described and weirdly alien, and a fantastic example of how astutely KSR subverts our understanding of seemly innocuous concepts like ‘normal’ or ‘human’.
Long-time KSR readers won’t mind this being a bit of a shaggy dog story so jam-packed with a surfeit of ideas and images that the narrative thread is dropped and picked up again only when the author seems to remember he has a murder mystery to resolve. My biggest gripe is the ending, or rather the lack of one, as it genuinely seems KSR just stopped writing in the middle of one of the most nailbiting sequences in what is quite a long book. Maybe he was aiming for an ambiguous ending? Whatever, it is a supremely frustrating and unsatisfactory conclusion.
Despite this, ‘Red Moon’ not only continues KSR’s fascination with China as both a cultural and political force, it is also a great example of his astute dissection of the strengths and weaknesses of both socialism and capitalism.
It was fitting to have read this during the period of Lenin’s birthday (on Earth Day on 22 April) and, of course, Workers’ Day on 1 May. In a 2020 article in Jacobin magazine, entitled ‘One of our Greatest Ever Socialist Novelists’, Arvind Dilawar comments that KSR writes “radical science fiction that offers readers not an easy vision of utopia, but a hopeful alternative that still confronts the ecological devastation wrought by capitalism.”
One of the more intriguing ideas in ‘Red Moon’ is a cryptocurrency known as ‘carboncoin’, described as “a coin that is created or validated by taking carbon out of the air.” This forms the basis of a credit system whereby the coins “can only buy sustainable necessities.” KSR realises though that the average reader is likely to see this as a mere cosmetic tweak to capitalism itself.
The idea really comes into its own when everyone in the world is mysteriously given a million carboncoins and an invitation to join a global householders’ union. It leads to a ‘fiscal noncompliance campaign’ of such monumental and overwhelming proportions that governments all over the world simply collapse like a deck of cards.
While this is the broader kind of idea behind the ‘red’ in the title, a ‘red moon’ is actually an optical effect created by a lunar eclipse. Beware of lazy symbolism, KSR seems to warn his readers. Speaking of symbolism, readers of ‘Antarctica’ (1997) will be surprised to see the return of Ta Shu, a celebratory blogger whose many fascinating asides include not only a comparison between feng shui and quantum mechanics, but how on earth one can apply the principles of feng shui in an airless and waterless environment like the moon.
This would not be a KSR novel if we did not have an AI as a viewpoint character, as in ‘Aurora’ (2015). Here the AI muses on everything from Thucydides to Chairman Mao as it grapples with the world’s increasingly fractured geopolitics. Oh, did I mention that this book is structured like a thriller? It begins when Ta Shu accompanies Fred Fredericks on a visit to the moon to deliver a quantum entangled phone to the governor of China’s Lunar Special Administrative Region (the ‘red’ section of the moon.)
A diplomatic incident (I do not wish to spoil the plot) soon follows that sees Fred return to earth with a reluctant, and very pregnant, Chan Qi in tow, the daughter of a prominent Chinese politician. The clumsy interaction between the two, largely due to the bumbling and socially awkward nature of Fred, sort of mirrors a nascent détente between East and West. Yes, KSR does reference ‘Orientalism’ (1978) by Edward W. Said.
You’d think this was a comedy of errors as opposed to a thriller when, hardly returned to earth, Fred and Chan flee back to the moon … This time we are introduced to the ‘free crater people’, an anarchist community inhabiting a subterranean lava tube large enough to host an aerial city. Described as “a new kind of commons, a new way of living”, the free crater has “almost as many yottaflops available as all the servers in the United States combined … Computing power was economic power, they said; and economic power was political power.”
The free crater community is predicated on ‘blockchain governance’, whereby all activities and decisions, “everything we do as a town”, is recorded in a secure distributed network. An inhabitant remarks cheerfully: “We call it documented anarchy. A full-disclosure commons. Anyone can do anything, but everyone gets to know what that is.”
Here follows one of the most inspired and bonkers scenes that KSR has ever conjured up: A lunar (meaning zero gravity) performance of the Philip Glass opera ‘Satyagraha’, replete with orchestra and a chorus of hundreds. It is a (literally) dizzying setpiece, beautifully described and weirdly alien, and a fantastic example of how astutely KSR subverts our understanding of seemly innocuous concepts like ‘normal’ or ‘human’.
Long-time KSR readers won’t mind this being a bit of a shaggy dog story so jam-packed with a surfeit of ideas and images that the narrative thread is dropped and picked up again only when the author seems to remember he has a murder mystery to resolve. My biggest gripe is the ending, or rather the lack of one, as it genuinely seems KSR just stopped writing in the middle of one of the most nailbiting sequences in what is quite a long book. Maybe he was aiming for an ambiguous ending? Whatever, it is a supremely frustrating and unsatisfactory conclusion.
Despite this, ‘Red Moon’ not only continues KSR’s fascination with China as both a cultural and political force, it is also a great example of his astute dissection of the strengths and weaknesses of both socialism and capitalism.
October 24, 2018
Having loved Kim Stanley Robinson's previous novels, I jumped at the chance to read this one. The story is a fascinating one which explores the current international relations between the U.S. and China, relations that are becoming increasingly more hostile. It takes place both on the Moon and on Earth, with wonderfully vivid descriptions that immerse you in the settings. Refreshingly original, stunning, with an authentic portrayal of the Chinese culture, something I have always been intrigued by, this novel was exhilarating!
At its core, this is an exceptionally thrilling murder mystery, and there were many intense and suspenseful moments littered throughout the novel. Although this was entertainment of the highest order, I felt that some of the author previous books were actually more successful in terms of the exploration of different topics. There is certainly plenty of action, the three main characters are beautifully painted and each very different from one another. With a writing style that is easy to follow and engage with, exploration of politics and artificial intelligence within the context of the story and colonisation and its causes and effects, this was an exciting and unputdownable speculative sci-fi work. I look forward to reading more from him in the future. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Orbit for an ARC.
At its core, this is an exceptionally thrilling murder mystery, and there were many intense and suspenseful moments littered throughout the novel. Although this was entertainment of the highest order, I felt that some of the author previous books were actually more successful in terms of the exploration of different topics. There is certainly plenty of action, the three main characters are beautifully painted and each very different from one another. With a writing style that is easy to follow and engage with, exploration of politics and artificial intelligence within the context of the story and colonisation and its causes and effects, this was an exciting and unputdownable speculative sci-fi work. I look forward to reading more from him in the future. Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Orbit for an ARC.
February 17, 2020
Red Moon is a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson that covers some familiar territory. It is a near future science fiction story that uses a plot about Chinese political upheaval to explore politics, capitalism, climate change, dynastic change, lunar colonization, quantum mechanics, and popular uprising. Unfortunately, the plot is too meandering and poorly paced to carry all the commentary.
Kim Stanley Robinson is a very smart man. He studies a lot of subjects, and if you read his novels so will you. During my review of New York 2140 I said it had “an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach”, and Red Moon is similar. This story takes time to touch on such sundry topics as bamboo, gibbons in low gravity, Chinese surveillance, cryptocurrency, and poetry. I did not enjoy it as much this time. I think the central plot was too vague and meandering to allow for so many deviations into unrelated topics.
I still struggle to describe said plot. I think it is about two regular people dodging the footfalls of giants during a time of dynastic change in China. The protagonists, Frederick Fredericks and Chan Qi, are not especially active. They seem to just wander around for months desperately trying to avoid capture. I am not sure what would happen if they were captured. I am not sure how they intended to outlast the Chinese authorities. At no point do they seem to have a plan; they are just dealing with each challenge as it arises.
This story has SERIOUS pacing issues. Plot points arrive at seemingly random intervals. The plot crawls along until, apropos of nothing, it decides to lurch forward. The best example is the very long chapter of Fredericks and Chan hiding in a safe house. This chapter expertly recreates the boredom of a month of house arrest. They resort to entertaining each other with passages from a bird watching book and quotes from Mao Zedong until Chan suddenly decides she must eat at a restaurant. Naturally, this inexplicable decision initiates the next action scene. Similar pacing issues made reading this novel a slog.
Red Moon does not end as much as stop. There is no clear reason that Fredericks and Chan can stop running. It feels like Robinson had said all he wanted to say, and decided to contrive an ending the way he contrived many of the plot points.
The characters are a mixed bag. Most are underdeveloped, but a few are really good. Frederick Fredericks is a pretty good depiction of an autistic man. (EDIT: I recently spoke to Kim Stanley Robinson, and Fredericks was in fact meant to be autistic.) Ta Shu is a compelling character with some complicated thoughts on society and the human condition. Others, like Peng Ling and Valerie Tong, had tremendous potential. I wish more had been done with them.
I was severely disappointed by Red Moon. I know he can do better. I was excited to read this novel with the NESFA reading group, but we all found it lacking. I hope the next book of his I read is better.
CHARACTER LIST (abridged)
Kim Stanley Robinson is a very smart man. He studies a lot of subjects, and if you read his novels so will you. During my review of New York 2140 I said it had “an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach”, and Red Moon is similar. This story takes time to touch on such sundry topics as bamboo, gibbons in low gravity, Chinese surveillance, cryptocurrency, and poetry. I did not enjoy it as much this time. I think the central plot was too vague and meandering to allow for so many deviations into unrelated topics.
I still struggle to describe said plot. I think it is about two regular people dodging the footfalls of giants during a time of dynastic change in China. The protagonists, Frederick Fredericks and Chan Qi, are not especially active. They seem to just wander around for months desperately trying to avoid capture. I am not sure what would happen if they were captured. I am not sure how they intended to outlast the Chinese authorities. At no point do they seem to have a plan; they are just dealing with each challenge as it arises.
This story has SERIOUS pacing issues. Plot points arrive at seemingly random intervals. The plot crawls along until, apropos of nothing, it decides to lurch forward. The best example is the very long chapter of Fredericks and Chan hiding in a safe house. This chapter expertly recreates the boredom of a month of house arrest. They resort to entertaining each other with passages from a bird watching book and quotes from Mao Zedong until Chan suddenly decides she must eat at a restaurant. Naturally, this inexplicable decision initiates the next action scene. Similar pacing issues made reading this novel a slog.
Red Moon does not end as much as stop. There is no clear reason that Fredericks and Chan can stop running. It feels like Robinson had said all he wanted to say, and decided to contrive an ending the way he contrived many of the plot points.
The characters are a mixed bag. Most are underdeveloped, but a few are really good. Frederick Fredericks is a pretty good depiction of an autistic man. (EDIT: I recently spoke to Kim Stanley Robinson, and Fredericks was in fact meant to be autistic.) Ta Shu is a compelling character with some complicated thoughts on society and the human condition. Others, like Peng Ling and Valerie Tong, had tremendous potential. I wish more had been done with them.
I was severely disappointed by Red Moon. I know he can do better. I was excited to read this novel with the NESFA reading group, but we all found it lacking. I hope the next book of his I read is better.
CHARACTER LIST (abridged)
December 26, 2018
Three and half stars
(my apologies for mistreating the English language)
Excellent ideas, good characters, but not a great-great story, or not enough captivating for me at least, if we except the last chapters. In two thirds of the novel it seems that the worldbuilding deserves a better plot (or more epic maybe) but at the end the whole story improves and all haves more sense.
As usual in the author, there are frequently infodumps (generally they are interesting and does not disturb the reading), but a criticism about this: with all due respect to Mr. Robinson wisdom, I consider that this is more a present or a near future speculation than a plot set in 2050. In other words, in this novel there is a mix of the current concerns and uncertainties about China in our present plus an actually future speculation: the latter basically the chapters that take place on the moon.
So, an important part of the plot takes place on Earth. It can be said that the novel deals with both the Moon and China itself and could easily be titled "Tomorrow's China" (but in this way it would not allude to KSL’s excellent Red Mars).
The author explains his own ideas about China interspersed in history, mainly in the voice of one of the protagonists, feng shui master and TV celebrity Ta Shu. The other characters are a pregnant woman (pregnancy is forbidden on the Moon for safety reasons), Chan Qi, daughter of the Chinese finance minister and the american Fred Fredericks, who carries a quantum phone unit whose (only) other unknown interlocutor is on China.
Do not misunderstand me, Red Moon is a good science fiction story, with interesting characters and a more than correct worldbuilding (but maybe not as good as in his other space novels, of course not as good at Red Mars to be clear). And I will be a bit unfair here: maybe the handicap of the novel is that I have the Ian McDonald's syndrome; that is, I’m reading his excellent Luna series (waiting for the third and last novel). On the other hand I think this book is more oriented to mainstream readers, in a bestselleresque style, than to our science fiction guetto.
(my apologies for mistreating the English language)
Excellent ideas, good characters, but not a great-great story, or not enough captivating for me at least, if we except the last chapters. In two thirds of the novel it seems that the worldbuilding deserves a better plot (or more epic maybe) but at the end the whole story improves and all haves more sense.
As usual in the author, there are frequently infodumps (generally they are interesting and does not disturb the reading), but a criticism about this: with all due respect to Mr. Robinson wisdom, I consider that this is more a present or a near future speculation than a plot set in 2050. In other words, in this novel there is a mix of the current concerns and uncertainties about China in our present plus an actually future speculation: the latter basically the chapters that take place on the moon.
So, an important part of the plot takes place on Earth. It can be said that the novel deals with both the Moon and China itself and could easily be titled "Tomorrow's China" (but in this way it would not allude to KSL’s excellent Red Mars).
The author explains his own ideas about China interspersed in history, mainly in the voice of one of the protagonists, feng shui master and TV celebrity Ta Shu. The other characters are a pregnant woman (pregnancy is forbidden on the Moon for safety reasons), Chan Qi, daughter of the Chinese finance minister and the american Fred Fredericks, who carries a quantum phone unit whose (only) other unknown interlocutor is on China.
Do not misunderstand me, Red Moon is a good science fiction story, with interesting characters and a more than correct worldbuilding (but maybe not as good as in his other space novels, of course not as good at Red Mars to be clear). And I will be a bit unfair here: maybe the handicap of the novel is that I have the Ian McDonald's syndrome; that is, I’m reading his excellent Luna series (waiting for the third and last novel). On the other hand I think this book is more oriented to mainstream readers, in a bestselleresque style, than to our science fiction guetto.
December 31, 2018
Too formulaic, too transparant. It seems like KSR is stuck in automatic mode in this part of his carreer - or maybe by now I know him too well as an author. Either way, I'm sad to say I DNFed after about 100 pages, totally bored.
Longer reviews & analysis on Weighing A Pig...
Longer reviews & analysis on Weighing A Pig...
December 13, 2018
This was a bit disappointing - not a bad story, not badly told, but rather average, a little too vague, and not what I thought I was getting based on the title. Red Moon? Well, it's about a possible social/economic revolution in China, so I get the "Red" bit. But the fact that the characters get ping-ponged back and forth from the Earth to the Moon didn't seem to matter that much. They're on the run - just some of it is in a more exotic and alien setting than others.
So, frankly, I was bored. I never became interested in the topic or themes. Despite the surprisingly small cast of characters (for a KSR novel), no one felt very developed. The best bit for me was . But then the book just ended at that point.
Ok then!
So, frankly, I was bored. I never became interested in the topic or themes. Despite the surprisingly small cast of characters (for a KSR novel), no one felt very developed. The best bit for me was . But then the book just ended at that point.
Ok then!
September 16, 2020
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
June 3, 2022
Después de leer la nueva novela de Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Moon, ahora sé más sobre los ciclos de crecimiento del bambú de lo que nunca pensé que sabría, sé cómo funcionaría la agricultura en la luna, he aprendido sobre mecánica de los cuerpos orbitales bloqueados por mareas, y mucho sobre el feng shui pero me he quedado un poco vacio.
La historia trata sobre Fred Fredericks, un hombre enviado a la luna para entregar un tipo especial de teléfono, de persona a persona, encriptado mediante entrelazamiento cuántico, al gobernador chino Chang Yazu (la luna ha sido colonizada por China) Pero cuando Fred va a entregar su teléfono y estrecha la mano de Chang, ambos hombres terminan envenenados, y Chang muere. Fred se despierta en un hospital sin tener idea de cómo pudo haber sucedido esto. Comienza una investigación. Fred es acusado de asesinato, detenido, escapa, huye (junto con una mujer, Qi, que quedó embarazada ilegalmente en la luna). Hay persecuciones en cocne y persecuciones a pie, escapadas por poco, explosiones y la ayuda ocasional de Ta Shu, un presentador de un programa de viajes chino, poeta en ocasiones y un tipo raro.¿Tiene buena pinta, no?
Pero Red Moon parece una charla de TED en medio de una persecución de coches. En muchas ocasiones se sacrifica el ritmo por debates de ideas.Fascinante, seguro. Pero en última instancia, se convierte en un libro que es demasiado seco para sostenerse hasta el final.
KSR se marca un riff extendido de 400 páginas sobre un futuro en el que una China en ascenso se ha convertido en la superpotencia mundial y esta claro que Robinson tenía algo muy importante que quería decir sobre China, el papel de la tecnología y la política de la agitación social, y que todo lo demás (la trama, los personajes, especialmente el poeta Ta Shu) lo manipula exclusivamente para ese fin. Como marionetas, sus personajes existen solo para involucrarse en conversaciones sobre las cosas de las que KSR quiere hablar aunque no vengan al caso.
Así eligió escribir su libro. Y eso está bien. Pero simplemente a veces no es la mejor manera de contar una historia.
La historia trata sobre Fred Fredericks, un hombre enviado a la luna para entregar un tipo especial de teléfono, de persona a persona, encriptado mediante entrelazamiento cuántico, al gobernador chino Chang Yazu (la luna ha sido colonizada por China) Pero cuando Fred va a entregar su teléfono y estrecha la mano de Chang, ambos hombres terminan envenenados, y Chang muere. Fred se despierta en un hospital sin tener idea de cómo pudo haber sucedido esto. Comienza una investigación. Fred es acusado de asesinato, detenido, escapa, huye (junto con una mujer, Qi, que quedó embarazada ilegalmente en la luna). Hay persecuciones en cocne y persecuciones a pie, escapadas por poco, explosiones y la ayuda ocasional de Ta Shu, un presentador de un programa de viajes chino, poeta en ocasiones y un tipo raro.¿Tiene buena pinta, no?
Pero Red Moon parece una charla de TED en medio de una persecución de coches. En muchas ocasiones se sacrifica el ritmo por debates de ideas.Fascinante, seguro. Pero en última instancia, se convierte en un libro que es demasiado seco para sostenerse hasta el final.
KSR se marca un riff extendido de 400 páginas sobre un futuro en el que una China en ascenso se ha convertido en la superpotencia mundial y esta claro que Robinson tenía algo muy importante que quería decir sobre China, el papel de la tecnología y la política de la agitación social, y que todo lo demás (la trama, los personajes, especialmente el poeta Ta Shu) lo manipula exclusivamente para ese fin. Como marionetas, sus personajes existen solo para involucrarse en conversaciones sobre las cosas de las que KSR quiere hablar aunque no vengan al caso.
Así eligió escribir su libro. Y eso está bien. Pero simplemente a veces no es la mejor manera de contar una historia.
February 22, 2024
Red Moon is a 450-page vehicle for iconic science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson to showcase a future where China has become the dominant player on the moon. They have the biggest base there, the most infrastructure, the most comprehensive security apparatus, etc. To be able to market the book as a "murder mystery", the author shoehorns in the most incongruous, "I don't even want to put this in my book, I just want to talk about China and geopolitics for 450 pages, but I have to so I can sell this as a work of fiction instead of a book of essays about China" murder you will ever see in a book. It's really dull, takes place on probably a single page (or maybe even in a single paragraph), and then is promptly forgotten about and almost never mentioned again for the remaining 400-plus pages. So if you're looking to read this for the "murder mystery" part, don't, because there isn't anything there.
Some characters in this story are okay, and it did teach me some real facts about China, its history, and its culture, and I respect books that teach me things and enrich my mind above all others. But that's where the positive ends with this one. The writing is incredibly lazy here, both the prose and the story/plot itself. Probably 20,000 words of this book are taken up by these clueless characters constantly answering questions by saying "I don't know", and by the word "quivering". And all the author does with these characters is send them back and forth from the Moon to the Earth, with very thin and ridiculous reasons for doing so, because he had no clue what to do with the plot of this book, because the plot wasn't a priority. He just wanted to talk about his thoughts on a future where China dominates space exploration.
I don't exaggerate at all when I say that nothing happens in this book. It's the truth. Literally nothing. The characters here are mostly bland and unlikable people, and there's no plot to speak of. To top things off, near the very end of the book the author treats the reader to a graphic, disgusting, overlong scene of a woman giving birth in a shelter on the Moon that goes on for like ten or twenty pages. Ugh.
Dull, pointless, and instantly forgettable, Red Moon should have been a book of essays instead of a thinly-veiled work of fiction that the author put no effort whatsoever into making an enjoyable reading experience, or even a work that justifies its own existence. I have never felt like a book completely and utterly wasted two-plus weeks of my life more than Red Moon.
I found this book in a bargain section at a big chain bookstore. It belonged there.
Don't waste your time on this empty, pointless book. Life's too short.
Some characters in this story are okay, and it did teach me some real facts about China, its history, and its culture, and I respect books that teach me things and enrich my mind above all others. But that's where the positive ends with this one. The writing is incredibly lazy here, both the prose and the story/plot itself. Probably 20,000 words of this book are taken up by these clueless characters constantly answering questions by saying "I don't know", and by the word "quivering". And all the author does with these characters is send them back and forth from the Moon to the Earth, with very thin and ridiculous reasons for doing so, because he had no clue what to do with the plot of this book, because the plot wasn't a priority. He just wanted to talk about his thoughts on a future where China dominates space exploration.
I don't exaggerate at all when I say that nothing happens in this book. It's the truth. Literally nothing. The characters here are mostly bland and unlikable people, and there's no plot to speak of. To top things off, near the very end of the book the author treats the reader to a graphic, disgusting, overlong scene of a woman giving birth in a shelter on the Moon that goes on for like ten or twenty pages. Ugh.
Dull, pointless, and instantly forgettable, Red Moon should have been a book of essays instead of a thinly-veiled work of fiction that the author put no effort whatsoever into making an enjoyable reading experience, or even a work that justifies its own existence. I have never felt like a book completely and utterly wasted two-plus weeks of my life more than Red Moon.
I found this book in a bargain section at a big chain bookstore. It belonged there.
Don't waste your time on this empty, pointless book. Life's too short.
September 14, 2020
I've never read anything by KSR before since reviews by GR friends & the community make it sound as if he's into intricate world building which isn't my thing. That was certainly true here in a near future story about social & political upheaval spurred by the wealth gap. It's focused on China & the moon with the US also playing a role. The overall idea wasn't bad, but it didn't do a lot for me since the characters were flat. There were a lot of opportunities for great characters, but he missed them all as he continually told the story in a pretty boring fashion. It never really grabbed me even in moments that should have been tense.
Amazingly, the early info dumps were kind of interesting due to the narrator, an old guy who uses feng shui as a basic philosophy. It got old & strained as the story moved on, though. The story wasn't helped by the current state of Hong Kong, something KSR couldn't have foreseen.
I wasn't thrilled with the ending which was abrupt, but I did like the birth scene. I've helped a lot of animals through the process & watched all 3 of my kids being born. His observations on the woman's grip strength were right on target. The narration was good.
All in all, not a bad read, but I doubt I'll read another by this author. My opinion of his writing seems to have been correct. I wouldn't have read it this time except it is the BotM for the Evolution of SF group. We're discussing it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Amazingly, the early info dumps were kind of interesting due to the narrator, an old guy who uses feng shui as a basic philosophy. It got old & strained as the story moved on, though. The story wasn't helped by the current state of Hong Kong, something KSR couldn't have foreseen.
I wasn't thrilled with the ending which was abrupt, but I did like the birth scene. I've helped a lot of animals through the process & watched all 3 of my kids being born. His observations on the woman's grip strength were right on target. The narration was good.
All in all, not a bad read, but I doubt I'll read another by this author. My opinion of his writing seems to have been correct. I wouldn't have read it this time except it is the BotM for the Evolution of SF group. We're discussing it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
November 10, 2018
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Many readers will recognize in Kim Stanley Robinson the writer known for thought-provoking science fiction stories, especially for his award-winning Mars trilogy. How he is known to enlighten readers through hard science while having a wonderful grasp on character development is not uncalled for, and rare are the times his books do not spark an interest within the community. After all, everyone has to wonder what new story the man has to tell with each release. In his latest novel, Red Moon, he explores a near-future highlighting the rise of China as a powerhouse in colonization, and this time, the leader in development as the Moon becomes an extension of mankind’s home, while the United States struggles to find a grip on this opportunity.
The story follows American quantum computer technician Fred Fredericks as he’s called onto the Moon to deliver to Chinese governor Chang Yazu a quantum-enabled communication device. Arriving for the first time in his life on this new habitable planetary satellite, he finds himself dumbfounded by the experience until his first encounter with the governor that rapidly turns into a disaster as they both fall unconscious upon shaking hands. Seconds after awakening, he realizes he’s being accused of murder and that being on the run is the only solution left in his situation. This is where he runs into a young pregnant woman who coincidentally is also on the run for being in a condition that is forbidden according to the law on the Moon. While they both struggle together to avoid the law, countless other characters are weaved into the narrative to highlight the political conflict that reigns in this story.
I came into this story thinking that maybe the murder mystery will be the driving force for Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel, but instead ran into a different surprise. The narrative is split into multiple story arcs which some might say are also different point of views. From the planetary chase for Fredericks and Qi to the insights offered by an artificial intelligence, the story lingers too long with both those protagonists as they hint and avoid at a potential relationship while tackling incredibly varied topics, sometimes a little too boring, regarding their personal situations or the history of the world in which they grew in. Far too often have I found myself thinking this was going to end up being a story focused on a romance set on the Moon with a plot twist regarding the politics at play, as well as a metaphor of that relationship and the climate in which they live in, but I was wrong. This is a novel with ambitious ideas and it simply struggled to convey it without sacrificing character development.
What Kim Stanley Robinson does wonderfully is extrapolate our current politico-economic climate, especially that of the United States and of China in order to portray a totally plausible future where the Moon serves as a rescue boat to growth, but also the possibility of what the author calls the Chinese Dream. There’s no denying that he does a skillful job at tackling the subject by bringing up some of our most modern technologies and creations, such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, but the execution makes it difficult to indulge in these subjects without feeling like you’re reading a history book with a lot of dots having a hard time being connected from one another by the author. I think the most detrimental element was also the inclusion of a lot of Chinese concepts within the narrative, such as Feng shui, that not only made it near-impossible to follow at times, but incredibly unmemorable even if it was thoroughly researched and cleverly integrated.
While still a solid new novel but Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Moon struggles in its ability to be captivating and drags too much in its cat and mouse game to be able to deliver its ideas with the gravitas he wished to convey them.
Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada and Orbit Books for sending me a copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
Many readers will recognize in Kim Stanley Robinson the writer known for thought-provoking science fiction stories, especially for his award-winning Mars trilogy. How he is known to enlighten readers through hard science while having a wonderful grasp on character development is not uncalled for, and rare are the times his books do not spark an interest within the community. After all, everyone has to wonder what new story the man has to tell with each release. In his latest novel, Red Moon, he explores a near-future highlighting the rise of China as a powerhouse in colonization, and this time, the leader in development as the Moon becomes an extension of mankind’s home, while the United States struggles to find a grip on this opportunity.
The story follows American quantum computer technician Fred Fredericks as he’s called onto the Moon to deliver to Chinese governor Chang Yazu a quantum-enabled communication device. Arriving for the first time in his life on this new habitable planetary satellite, he finds himself dumbfounded by the experience until his first encounter with the governor that rapidly turns into a disaster as they both fall unconscious upon shaking hands. Seconds after awakening, he realizes he’s being accused of murder and that being on the run is the only solution left in his situation. This is where he runs into a young pregnant woman who coincidentally is also on the run for being in a condition that is forbidden according to the law on the Moon. While they both struggle together to avoid the law, countless other characters are weaved into the narrative to highlight the political conflict that reigns in this story.
I came into this story thinking that maybe the murder mystery will be the driving force for Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest novel, but instead ran into a different surprise. The narrative is split into multiple story arcs which some might say are also different point of views. From the planetary chase for Fredericks and Qi to the insights offered by an artificial intelligence, the story lingers too long with both those protagonists as they hint and avoid at a potential relationship while tackling incredibly varied topics, sometimes a little too boring, regarding their personal situations or the history of the world in which they grew in. Far too often have I found myself thinking this was going to end up being a story focused on a romance set on the Moon with a plot twist regarding the politics at play, as well as a metaphor of that relationship and the climate in which they live in, but I was wrong. This is a novel with ambitious ideas and it simply struggled to convey it without sacrificing character development.
What Kim Stanley Robinson does wonderfully is extrapolate our current politico-economic climate, especially that of the United States and of China in order to portray a totally plausible future where the Moon serves as a rescue boat to growth, but also the possibility of what the author calls the Chinese Dream. There’s no denying that he does a skillful job at tackling the subject by bringing up some of our most modern technologies and creations, such as cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, but the execution makes it difficult to indulge in these subjects without feeling like you’re reading a history book with a lot of dots having a hard time being connected from one another by the author. I think the most detrimental element was also the inclusion of a lot of Chinese concepts within the narrative, such as Feng shui, that not only made it near-impossible to follow at times, but incredibly unmemorable even if it was thoroughly researched and cleverly integrated.
While still a solid new novel but Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Moon struggles in its ability to be captivating and drags too much in its cat and mouse game to be able to deliver its ideas with the gravitas he wished to convey them.
Thank you to Hachette Book Group Canada and Orbit Books for sending me a copy for review!
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
May 22, 2019
The book was not up to my expectations, it was a political SF with emphasize on the moon explorations, but it became really boring somewhere in the middle of the book and it became so predictable too.
I found some small similarities between this book and "Moon is a harsh mistress" by Robert Heinlien. I am not saying Kim stanley Robinson was inspired by that book, or something, but they had some points in common. like the political essence of the 2 books, the setting which was the moon, the role of the AI in assisting the rebellion and the rebellion itself. but "The moon is a harsh mistress" was much more fun to read, it was a better story and more SF than this one.
some good points are:
the optimistic look towards the future, how they save the earth and revive the ecosystem was beautiful,
the references to Chinese culture were interesting and fascinating, and the AI was a practical and realistic one.
I found some small similarities between this book and "Moon is a harsh mistress" by Robert Heinlien. I am not saying Kim stanley Robinson was inspired by that book, or something, but they had some points in common. like the political essence of the 2 books, the setting which was the moon, the role of the AI in assisting the rebellion and the rebellion itself. but "The moon is a harsh mistress" was much more fun to read, it was a better story and more SF than this one.
some good points are:
the optimistic look towards the future, how they save the earth and revive the ecosystem was beautiful,
the references to Chinese culture were interesting and fascinating, and the AI was a practical and realistic one.
December 10, 2019
Revolution in near future China affects the Chinese dominated Moon catching-up an unlikely cast of characters in the chaos. This book has no ending.
My hardcopy of the book was a moderate 450+ pages. The book had a U.S. copywrite of 2018.
Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) is an American writer of science fiction. He has written more than twenty (20) novels, which include several series. Many of his books are cli-fi related, although some involve space travel. I have read several books by the author. The last book of his I read was New York 2140 (my review). My experience with his books has been mixed.
TL;DR Synopsis
This story started out very strong. It mapped out a credible near future where the Chinese dominated Lunar colonization and the Earth was bi-polar; politically divided between an intertwined at many levels America and China. This hardish science fiction story gives the reader a broad-spectrum introduction of the science, technology, economy, politics, society and culture of the future from a mainly Sino-centric POV. The story follows the three (3) main characters as they are affected by the interregnum in the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the time of the story. It’s a very Run or Die type story as the main protagonists ping-pong between China and the Moon without paying the fare. The story abruptly ends in the middle of a volley from the Moon back to Earth. There is no closure for the reader. KSR is a good writer, although his descriptions are a lot better than his dialog. He is also fond of info-dumps. He sucks at writing a story. In many ways the book is almost worth reading just for the world building. The main characters aren’t bad either. However, the book is unfinished. There is no hint in the book or Out There of a continuation. Too bad.
REVIEW
KSR is a good, but not great writer. Word usage was well done. The book was technically well edited. The descriptive prose was much better than the dialog. I savored his descriptions of Moon. Space and technical vocabulary was authentic. Action sequences were well-enough choreographed. The dialog felt weirdly simple for a book of this obvious complexity. There were occasional bits of humor in there. I think at heart the author is a non-fiction writer? There were multiple POVs throughout. Their use was well-handled.
There was no: sex, drugs or no rock ‘n roll in the story. There was some discussion sex, but it was handled in the dialog. Its possible a woman may have self-pleasured herself in secret to alleviate boredom while in a safe house. In addition, there was graphic description of a human birth. I noted that the description did not include the woman giving birth vomiting or shitting herself, which is not uncommon. Alcohol was consumed socially. I don’t recall any drug or pharmaceutical use or abuse. Music references excluded Rock ‘n Roll and may have appeared in the background. Music references did, include a lengthy description of a Phillip Glass opera performed in low-g .
Violence was physical and with non-lethal firearms, although it was not graphic. Weapons of mass destruction were deployed. There was only a small amount of violence in the action scenes. That was handled rather blandly. There was discussion of the use of torture. Body count directly related to the story was one (1), although there was likely greater unaddressed collateral damage.
I rarely like stories with many POVs. There were several protagonists each with a POV. The POVs included: Ta Shu, Fred Fredericks, The Analyst, Little Eyeball and Valarie Tong. Ta Shu was first introduced in KSR’s Antarctica . He was lapsed famous poet, now hosting a celebrity travelogue with a side hustle doing Feng Shui. His was a very interesting traditional Taoist/Confucianist counterpoint to the The East Is Red near future Chinese world building. Fredericks was a high-on-the-spectrum American engineer swept into the story’s main conspiracy. He provided a peculiar Anglo counterpoint to the mainly Sino-plot. The Analyst was unnamed. He was the human Ghost in the Machine of the Great Firewall of China and its peer infrastructure. He was a mole supporting the populists. Little Eyeball was The Analyst’s fledgling AI. KSR had an excellent AI character in Aurora (my review). This one was very good. Little Eyeball and The Analyst did Deus Ex Machina duty. Tong was a Chinese-American Secret Service agent detached to the American Moon base under diplomatic cover. Along with Fredricks she provided an American POV to this mostly Chinese-set story as well as helping the plot along.
The most important protagonist without a POV was Chan Qi. She was the privileged daughter of a pivotal member of the Chinese Politiboro. She was the titular head of the Chinese populist underground. She was also pregnant for most of the story. The imperious, revolutionary Chan Qi thrown into a non-romantic Run or Die plotline with the autistic Fredricks was one of the story’s best parts.
Antagonists are all The Other Politically Conservative Guys in a Chinese Government Conspiracy. Red Spear was the shadowy organization providing their pointy tip (and weapons of mass destruction).
The Usual Suspects were also represented. Although, these characters can be seen to be riffs on an extended list of KSR arch-types made Chinese. Characters include: diplomats, spies, bureaucrats, politicians, rich men, policemen, activists, scientists, engineers and lunar colonists. There was an unfortunate lack of a Chinese demimonde lunar or otherwise.
In this story, 30-years in the future the semi-orderly change in the Chinese Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee results in a political struggle between the various ruling Party elites and the Chinese hoi polli (The Billion). The struggle involves assassination and kidnap. America and Americans are only tangentially involved in this conflict. The interregnum sucks in the protagonists who are on the Chinese dominated Moon (hence the Red Moon. The only one of which who has a political ax to grind is Chan Qi. She’s been stashed there by her father to be out of harms way, which is where she doesn’t want to be. Unfortunately, the Moon is not the main venue of the story. The protagonists move back and forth between Luna and China to avoid the machinations of Red Spear. KSR devotes a lot of narrative to life on Earth and the use and abuse of technology 30-years from now mostly from a Chinese point of reference. The story ends precipitously with Chan Qi and Fredericks escaping the Moon after a pursuit across the lunar surface; being bombarded with missiles and Chan Qi giving birth. It was an unexpected cliffhanger. Note there is no published information about there being a sequel to the story.
World building was exceptional as is characteristic of KSR. This is hard-ish science fiction, but only because there was no maths involved. If I could have had a wish, it would have been there be more prose dedicated to the colonization of the Moon and less about near-future Earth. In addition, there was a lot about the in-progress terraforming of the future Earth. (KSR's cly-fi fetish.)
This was an initially entertaining Moon Base story. Its Sino-centric orientation where the West had lost The High Frontier gave it a different perspective. I enjoyed the dynamic between Chan Qi and Frederiks, and Ta Shu’s observations on (then contemporary) Chinese society vs. traditional and the early Moaist state, and the growth of Little Eyeball under the tutelage of The Analyst. I also liked every sentence devoted to Lunology. However, the story devolved into a high-tech, Chinese, political, espionage story. I was OK with that too. Then, it abruptly ended in an unanticipated and unadvertised cliffhanger. That reallyangered disappointed me. In summary, I liked parts of the book, but the whole was less than the sum of the parts due to the cliffhanger non-ending.
Readers interested in Moon Base stories may want to check-out a Listopia list I created: Moon-based Adult Science Fiction .
My hardcopy of the book was a moderate 450+ pages. The book had a U.S. copywrite of 2018.
Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) is an American writer of science fiction. He has written more than twenty (20) novels, which include several series. Many of his books are cli-fi related, although some involve space travel. I have read several books by the author. The last book of his I read was New York 2140 (my review). My experience with his books has been mixed.
TL;DR Synopsis
This story started out very strong. It mapped out a credible near future where the Chinese dominated Lunar colonization and the Earth was bi-polar; politically divided between an intertwined at many levels America and China. This hardish science fiction story gives the reader a broad-spectrum introduction of the science, technology, economy, politics, society and culture of the future from a mainly Sino-centric POV. The story follows the three (3) main characters as they are affected by the interregnum in the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the time of the story. It’s a very Run or Die type story as the main protagonists ping-pong between China and the Moon without paying the fare. The story abruptly ends in the middle of a volley from the Moon back to Earth. There is no closure for the reader. KSR is a good writer, although his descriptions are a lot better than his dialog. He is also fond of info-dumps. He sucks at writing a story. In many ways the book is almost worth reading just for the world building. The main characters aren’t bad either. However, the book is unfinished. There is no hint in the book or Out There of a continuation. Too bad.
REVIEW
KSR is a good, but not great writer. Word usage was well done. The book was technically well edited. The descriptive prose was much better than the dialog. I savored his descriptions of Moon. Space and technical vocabulary was authentic. Action sequences were well-enough choreographed. The dialog felt weirdly simple for a book of this obvious complexity. There were occasional bits of humor in there. I think at heart the author is a non-fiction writer? There were multiple POVs throughout. Their use was well-handled.
There was no: sex, drugs or no rock ‘n roll in the story. There was some discussion sex, but it was handled in the dialog. Its possible a woman may have self-pleasured herself in secret to alleviate boredom while in a safe house. In addition, there was graphic description of a human birth. I noted that the description did not include the woman giving birth vomiting or shitting herself, which is not uncommon. Alcohol was consumed socially. I don’t recall any drug or pharmaceutical use or abuse. Music references excluded Rock ‘n Roll and may have appeared in the background. Music references did, include a lengthy description of a Phillip Glass opera performed in low-g .
Violence was physical and with non-lethal firearms, although it was not graphic. Weapons of mass destruction were deployed. There was only a small amount of violence in the action scenes. That was handled rather blandly. There was discussion of the use of torture. Body count directly related to the story was one (1), although there was likely greater unaddressed collateral damage.
I rarely like stories with many POVs. There were several protagonists each with a POV. The POVs included: Ta Shu, Fred Fredericks, The Analyst, Little Eyeball and Valarie Tong. Ta Shu was first introduced in KSR’s Antarctica . He was lapsed famous poet, now hosting a celebrity travelogue with a side hustle doing Feng Shui. His was a very interesting traditional Taoist/Confucianist counterpoint to the The East Is Red near future Chinese world building. Fredericks was a high-on-the-spectrum American engineer swept into the story’s main conspiracy. He provided a peculiar Anglo counterpoint to the mainly Sino-plot. The Analyst was unnamed. He was the human Ghost in the Machine of the Great Firewall of China and its peer infrastructure. He was a mole supporting the populists. Little Eyeball was The Analyst’s fledgling AI. KSR had an excellent AI character in Aurora (my review). This one was very good. Little Eyeball and The Analyst did Deus Ex Machina duty. Tong was a Chinese-American Secret Service agent detached to the American Moon base under diplomatic cover. Along with Fredricks she provided an American POV to this mostly Chinese-set story as well as helping the plot along.
The most important protagonist without a POV was Chan Qi. She was the privileged daughter of a pivotal member of the Chinese Politiboro. She was the titular head of the Chinese populist underground. She was also pregnant for most of the story. The imperious, revolutionary Chan Qi thrown into a non-romantic Run or Die plotline with the autistic Fredricks was one of the story’s best parts.
Antagonists are all The Other Politically Conservative Guys in a Chinese Government Conspiracy. Red Spear was the shadowy organization providing their pointy tip (and weapons of mass destruction).
The Usual Suspects were also represented. Although, these characters can be seen to be riffs on an extended list of KSR arch-types made Chinese. Characters include: diplomats, spies, bureaucrats, politicians, rich men, policemen, activists, scientists, engineers and lunar colonists. There was an unfortunate lack of a Chinese demimonde lunar or otherwise.
In this story, 30-years in the future the semi-orderly change in the Chinese Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee results in a political struggle between the various ruling Party elites and the Chinese hoi polli (The Billion). The struggle involves assassination and kidnap. America and Americans are only tangentially involved in this conflict. The interregnum sucks in the protagonists who are on the Chinese dominated Moon (hence the Red Moon. The only one of which who has a political ax to grind is Chan Qi. She’s been stashed there by her father to be out of harms way, which is where she doesn’t want to be. Unfortunately, the Moon is not the main venue of the story. The protagonists move back and forth between Luna and China to avoid the machinations of Red Spear. KSR devotes a lot of narrative to life on Earth and the use and abuse of technology 30-years from now mostly from a Chinese point of reference. The story ends precipitously with Chan Qi and Fredericks escaping the Moon after a pursuit across the lunar surface; being bombarded with missiles and Chan Qi giving birth. It was an unexpected cliffhanger. Note there is no published information about there being a sequel to the story.
World building was exceptional as is characteristic of KSR. This is hard-ish science fiction, but only because there was no maths involved. If I could have had a wish, it would have been there be more prose dedicated to the colonization of the Moon and less about near-future Earth. In addition, there was a lot about the in-progress terraforming of the future Earth. (KSR's cly-fi fetish.)
This was an initially entertaining Moon Base story. Its Sino-centric orientation where the West had lost The High Frontier gave it a different perspective. I enjoyed the dynamic between Chan Qi and Frederiks, and Ta Shu’s observations on (then contemporary) Chinese society vs. traditional and the early Moaist state, and the growth of Little Eyeball under the tutelage of The Analyst. I also liked every sentence devoted to Lunology. However, the story devolved into a high-tech, Chinese, political, espionage story. I was OK with that too. Then, it abruptly ended in an unanticipated and unadvertised cliffhanger. That really
Readers interested in Moon Base stories may want to check-out a Listopia list I created: Moon-based Adult Science Fiction .
December 29, 2019
Well, China has colonised the Moon and the rest of the world is playing catch-up, making the dusty, cratered lump of rock a giant political football. Shenanigans start up there, involving internal Chinese politics, but things turn international when a murder is committed and blamed on an American...an odd series of chases and attempts to hide follow, as "global" revolution looms.
"Global" in quotation marks, becuase KSR argues that only the USA and China matter any more and that they have become economically co-dependent. I personally think one Vladimir Putin would dispute the first part of that analysis. It smacks of the over-simplification prevalent in the Cold War era USA that Europe was nothing but a potential battle field to be fought over by the binary Superpowers.
It was amusing to find charcters from KSR's novel, Antarctica, playing key roles, thus linking this book to that but also, by extention, to the Science in the Capital sequence. Additionally, strong reference is made to events in the USA that are the material of the novel, New York, 2140 - but that's ~100 years in the future of this book, so he's just recycling those ideas.
I struggled to connect with the protagonists here and felt distanced by a fair amount of apparent Luggage Syndrome, which was disappointing. Neither the best nor the worst by Robinson.
"Global" in quotation marks, becuase KSR argues that only the USA and China matter any more and that they have become economically co-dependent. I personally think one Vladimir Putin would dispute the first part of that analysis. It smacks of the over-simplification prevalent in the Cold War era USA that Europe was nothing but a potential battle field to be fought over by the binary Superpowers.
It was amusing to find charcters from KSR's novel, Antarctica, playing key roles, thus linking this book to that but also, by extention, to the Science in the Capital sequence. Additionally, strong reference is made to events in the USA that are the material of the novel, New York, 2140 - but that's ~100 years in the future of this book, so he's just recycling those ideas.
I struggled to connect with the protagonists here and felt distanced by a fair amount of apparent Luggage Syndrome, which was disappointing. Neither the best nor the worst by Robinson.
March 8, 2020
I was so excited to read this but it just turned out just a smidge above okay. I don't know what happened and I've never had this experience with a KSR book but this just didn't captivate me and took me a week to get through. It had all the usual elements I enjoy, a murder on the moon, a lunar settlement/colony setup and a good amount of politics. I didn't find the main character terribly compelling either. The parts were all there, the mechanics proficient but this just wasn't the read for me. Still, I'd read a sequel (because the end felt like there should be more forthcoming). Neutral on recommending. If you're going to begin with KSR, don't begin here.
August 22, 2018
A new book by Kim Stanley Robinson is always good news and I jumped on this as soon as it arrived - a fascinating story that follows growing hostilities between China and the US, and particularly within China itself, as it plays out on the Moon and on Earth. Three people are caught in the middle - an activist (inconveniently heavily pregnant), a celebrity travel reporter and an American engineer. The wonderful descriptions of the habitats on the Moon are the novel's greatest strength for me - original and stunning. Review to follow closer to publication on For Winter Nights.
December 5, 2018
Actual rating: 3.5 stars.
We open with a murder on the Moon (which is largely Chinese). Strange characterization of one of our main characters - does he receive any at all? By far the most interesting narrator is the elderly poet/travel guide Ta Shu. Suffers a bit at the end from deus ex machina. Very abrupt ending.
We open with a murder on the Moon (which is largely Chinese). Strange characterization of one of our main characters - does he receive any at all? By far the most interesting narrator is the elderly poet/travel guide Ta Shu. Suffers a bit at the end from deus ex machina. Very abrupt ending.
August 26, 2018
Meh. If it was written by anyone else, I probably would have loved it. It was painfully light on science, and read like it was ready to be adapted for Netflix. And I would watch every second of that.
April 10, 2019
With just one hand
Held up high
I can blot you out
Out of sight...
—from the song "Hello Earth" by Kate Bush, on Hounds of Love (1985)
There is truly nothing new under the Moon, I suppose. Even Hugo Gernsback, the pioneering writer and editor who came up with the term "scientifiction" (and after whom the Hugo Awards are named) would recognize the beginning of Kim Stanley Robinson's 2018 novel Red Moon: two men, seatmates on a spaceship fast approaching its landing on the Moon, marvel at their surroundings and trade observations about the science that keeps them safe despite their speed.
WELCOME TO THE PEAKS OF ETERNAL LIGHT
—p.7
After the landing—with its own descriptions of magnetic braking and levitation—these chance companions, both new to the Moon, must adjust quickly to walking in one-sixth gravity and to the difference between mass and weight (to the great amusement of older Lunar hands), while receiving a tour of the Lunar settlement.
And yet... this novel is from 2018, not the 1920s—and it's by Kim Stanley Robinson, not Gernsback. These make a big difference. The elder passenger is Ta Shu, who is warm, witty and wise, a retired poet who's become one of China's most popular travel show hosts. And the younger man, Fred Fredericks, may be hard SF's most stereotypical character, a cis white male engineer, but Fred is also on the autism spectrum. Fred's complex interior life, and his strategies for dealing with the neurotypical, lift him—at least a little way—out of the common rut of SF protagonists. This becomes even more significant later on, when Fred is thrown willy-nilly into the company of the book's only major female character, the fierce rebel aristrocrat Chan Qi.
The preponderance of Chinese names is no accident. In 2046, the human presence on the Moon, or at least its southern hemisphere, is solidly Chinese. Fred is traveling to the Moon to deliver a quantum-entangled communication device—to be precise, a "Swiss Quantum Works Unicaster 3000" (p.9)—to "Chang Yazu, chief administrator of the Chinese Lunar Authority" (p.10), and the entity providing these details about Fred's mission is an experimental Chinese AGI—a so-called "artificial general intelligence"—who is not just an exposition delivery mechanism but is in fact the third viewpoint character in Red Moon.
"If they could do that to the world—wreck it, restore it—what else could they do?"
—p.126
Although Red Moon shows us a relatively hopeful future (it'd have to, in order to include a viable Lunar colony at all), it is no utopia. The "G2"—that is, China and the United States, the last remaining great global powers—each seem to have reached a tipping point, with popular resistance to top-heavy economic injustices manifesting as civil rebellions in both countries. These crises don't seem arbitrarily inserted as plot drivers, either, but are organic elements, likely consequences of plausible decisions in a realistically-complex geopolitical landscape.
Red Moon contains a lot more than exposition, travelogue and economic theory, though—as one should expect from Robinson's work by now. Poetry, for example, surrounds Ta Shu—at one point he even returns to writing poems himself, tapping in a verse that could be an echo of or response to the Kate Bush song that begins this review, although there's no hint in the text that either Ta Shu or Robinson himself know anything about Bush's oeuvre:
We have one home: a ball in space
Hard to believe the world could be
So small. My living hand
Which covers my whole face
Can now when held at arm's length
Cover all the Earth.
{...}
—p.220
And—this is a digression, I know—a recent preoccupation with estate sales (not, so far, my own!) made this later observation by Ta Shu resonate more strongly with me than perhaps it would have otherwise:
"She had kept such a lot of junk. But there were always people who needed such things. These things would live on in other lives. They lived longer than people."
—p.283
In short, Kim Stanley Robinson has always given me much to think about, and this book is no exception.
Red Moon's future history may already have been overtaken by real-world events—and if not, it will be soon; that's just a hazard of writing near-future SF. More strongly: Kim Stanley Robinson will turn out to have been wrong—ludicrously wrong, I'm sure—about details we can't even see yet. But... as has often been observed, science fiction is a reflection of the present, anyway. Red Moon has a lot to tell us about the here-and-now, and its ending is a great leap forward, into the unknown. (As always.)
Will Robinson's observations turn out to be accurate in important ways, even if the precise details aren't correct?
I think they just might...
November 28, 2018
108th book for 2018.
I love KSR. I started reading him when he first started publishing short stories and so am always happy when he publishes a new book.
Unfortunately, this is not one of his better books. His characters are OK, but even more one-dimensional than normal. My favorite character in fact was a primitive AI. His descriptions of the Moon was OK, but again nothing really special.
The plot itself is (largely) a strange sort of roadtrip, bouncing a pregnant Chinese activist/princeling and an autistic quantum programmer back and forth from the Moon to China, accompanied at various stages by a Chinese sage/poet/cloud-travel-writer. Unfortunately KSR wastes much of the promise here, and the insights gained are relatively thin.
I did enjoy the messy descriptions of an emergency home birth at low G. If gibbons can do it, why not humans? And of course it was satisfying to read of the collapse of the global capitalist system brought on in large part by a primitive QM AI program. Go mass human demonstrators. Go blockchain anarchistic collectivists! Go Carbon Dollars! Well done Little Eyeball!
Three-stars.
I love KSR. I started reading him when he first started publishing short stories and so am always happy when he publishes a new book.
Unfortunately, this is not one of his better books. His characters are OK, but even more one-dimensional than normal. My favorite character in fact was a primitive AI. His descriptions of the Moon was OK, but again nothing really special.
The plot itself is (largely) a strange sort of roadtrip, bouncing a pregnant Chinese activist/princeling and an autistic quantum programmer back and forth from the Moon to China, accompanied at various stages by a Chinese sage/poet/cloud-travel-writer. Unfortunately KSR wastes much of the promise here, and the insights gained are relatively thin.
I did enjoy the messy descriptions of an emergency home birth at low G. If gibbons can do it, why not humans? And of course it was satisfying to read of the collapse of the global capitalist system brought on in large part by a primitive QM AI program. Go mass human demonstrators. Go blockchain anarchistic collectivists! Go Carbon Dollars! Well done Little Eyeball!
Three-stars.
October 22, 2018
Red Moon is quality science fiction. I've often found myself enjoying the marrying of this particular genre with the Chinese culture and this was no exception as it proved to be interesting, entertaining and also a little educational. At it's heart it is a murder mystery which I certainly got caught up in, it just didn't rock my world like some sci fi has recently.
Now I am new to the author. I have heard spectacular things about Aurora in particular and funnily enough picked it up at the shop about a week before this arrived. I put that on hold in favour of this but after chatting with a few of his fans have heard various comments suggesting that some of the elements of Red Moon have been explored before, and more successfully, in previous books. While I don't see myself going back to the beginning I enjoyed Kim's writing and the themes being explored so I will definitely be picking up Aurora again and giving it the time it deserves.
I received an Advance Reading Copy from Orbit. It did not affect my review.
Now I am new to the author. I have heard spectacular things about Aurora in particular and funnily enough picked it up at the shop about a week before this arrived. I put that on hold in favour of this but after chatting with a few of his fans have heard various comments suggesting that some of the elements of Red Moon have been explored before, and more successfully, in previous books. While I don't see myself going back to the beginning I enjoyed Kim's writing and the themes being explored so I will definitely be picking up Aurora again and giving it the time it deserves.
I received an Advance Reading Copy from Orbit. It did not affect my review.
February 5, 2019
Red Moon is a good introductory book if you're new to Kim Stanley Robinson. It draws on many of his ideas, but it is also lighter and more focused than some of his others.
The plot starts off as a crime story, then morphs into political struggle. It takes place later in the 21st century, partly on the titular moon, largely colonized by China, and partly in China itself. We begin by following two characters on their first visit to the Chinese colony: Fred Fredericks, an IT specialist, and Ta Shu, poet and web video star. Soon Fredericks is involved in murder and is on the run, joined by Chan Qi, revolutionary and daughter of a party leader. The plot ratchets up as political instability rises.
Overall, it's a fine mix. We get science fiction, suspense, and politics in one novel, which isn't easy to pull off.
There's much I enjoyed, and much of that involves what's so Kim Stanley Robinson-ish about Red Moon. Chan Qi is a good character, irascible and committed. The political plot unfolds well. I enjoyed Ta Shu's wonderment at the worlds he explores.
There is a whole series of interesting ideas. The key conceit is China becoming the world's leading power, leaving America behind. This is well developed, without portraying China as evil or utopia. I was struck by the carboncoin (361), a kind of bitcoin that's backed by carbon sequestration and also serves to take down the world financial system. There's also a neutrino telegraph, shooting or using neutrinos as they pass through the moon to send messages.. And KSR is clearly having fun, as when he mentions the Balkanization Assistance Division's Administrative System Society (307; I expect to see people using this in the wild) or nicknaming an AI after a character from Evgeny Zamiatin's classic We (if you haven't read it, do so now! Ask me if you need encouragement). Other readers have complained about the book offering too many infodumps, but they worked for me. Robinson is an elegant explainer and has an infectious enthusiasm.
There are also connections to other KSR novels. The revolution breaking out in America that parallels the Chinese story clearly recalls New York 2140 (here's our book club's reading) and echoes the revolutionary politics of Red Mars and 2132.
Red Moon does have some limitations. Fredericks is too blank a character - a decent foil for the more interesting people, but not enough to sustain him. The political bad guys are not well explained, nor are we allowed into their mentality - a typical problem for Robinson.
Some have complained about the ending. Naturally I must raise spoiler shields here:
Overall, recommended.
The plot starts off as a crime story, then morphs into political struggle. It takes place later in the 21st century, partly on the titular moon, largely colonized by China, and partly in China itself. We begin by following two characters on their first visit to the Chinese colony: Fred Fredericks, an IT specialist, and Ta Shu, poet and web video star. Soon Fredericks is involved in murder and is on the run, joined by Chan Qi, revolutionary and daughter of a party leader. The plot ratchets up as political instability rises.
Overall, it's a fine mix. We get science fiction, suspense, and politics in one novel, which isn't easy to pull off.
There's much I enjoyed, and much of that involves what's so Kim Stanley Robinson-ish about Red Moon. Chan Qi is a good character, irascible and committed. The political plot unfolds well. I enjoyed Ta Shu's wonderment at the worlds he explores.
There is a whole series of interesting ideas. The key conceit is China becoming the world's leading power, leaving America behind. This is well developed, without portraying China as evil or utopia. I was struck by the carboncoin (361), a kind of bitcoin that's backed by carbon sequestration and also serves to take down the world financial system. There's also a neutrino telegraph, shooting or using neutrinos as they pass through the moon to send messages.. And KSR is clearly having fun, as when he mentions the Balkanization Assistance Division's Administrative System Society (307; I expect to see people using this in the wild) or nicknaming an AI after a character from Evgeny Zamiatin's classic We (if you haven't read it, do so now! Ask me if you need encouragement). Other readers have complained about the book offering too many infodumps, but they worked for me. Robinson is an elegant explainer and has an infectious enthusiasm.
There are also connections to other KSR novels. The revolution breaking out in America that parallels the Chinese story clearly recalls New York 2140 (here's our book club's reading) and echoes the revolutionary politics of Red Mars and 2132.
Red Moon does have some limitations. Fredericks is too blank a character - a decent foil for the more interesting people, but not enough to sustain him. The political bad guys are not well explained, nor are we allowed into their mentality - a typical problem for Robinson.
Some have complained about the ending. Naturally I must raise spoiler shields here:
Overall, recommended.
October 29, 2018
Kim Stanley Robinson (henceforth, KSR) is one of the greatest science fiction writers who ever lived. He started writing novels in 1984, and one after another he kept hitting them out of the park. BAM! The Three Californias trilogy! BAM! The Mars Trilogy! BAM! Antarctica! Years of Rice and Salt! BAM!
And then in 2009 he released Galileo's Dream. Which I didn't care for.
And then he went right back to hitting them out of the park again! BAM! Science in the Capitol trilogy! BAM! 2312 BAM! Shaman. BAM! Aurora BAM! New York 2140. One book flying out of his computer after another, each one better and more interesting than the one before.
And then in 2018 he released Red Moon. Which I didn't care for.
From anyone else, this would be a great book. I myself would donate major organs to be able to write a book like this. But KSR is such a good writer that anything less than total amazement is a disappointment. This review is totally unfair to Kim Stanley Robinson, I know. This is not a bad book. But it's not a great book, and I'm unfortunately used to great books from Kim Stanley Robinson.
I predict that he's got another run of about a decade, maybe 7-8 more books, all of them masterpeces, before he has to worry again.
Oh, and the idiot reviewer who claimed that this book was a re-write of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? He's wrong.
And then in 2009 he released Galileo's Dream. Which I didn't care for.
And then he went right back to hitting them out of the park again! BAM! Science in the Capitol trilogy! BAM! 2312 BAM! Shaman. BAM! Aurora BAM! New York 2140. One book flying out of his computer after another, each one better and more interesting than the one before.
And then in 2018 he released Red Moon. Which I didn't care for.
From anyone else, this would be a great book. I myself would donate major organs to be able to write a book like this. But KSR is such a good writer that anything less than total amazement is a disappointment. This review is totally unfair to Kim Stanley Robinson, I know. This is not a bad book. But it's not a great book, and I'm unfortunately used to great books from Kim Stanley Robinson.
I predict that he's got another run of about a decade, maybe 7-8 more books, all of them masterpeces, before he has to worry again.
Oh, and the idiot reviewer who claimed that this book was a re-write of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress? He's wrong.
November 27, 2025
Fred Fredricks has an important delivery to make to someone on the moon. It is his first time there, and everything about the trip is strange. On the space flight over, he meets Ta Shu, a celebrity travel reporter and feng shui expert who agrees to meet with him again later in their visit to the moon. It is all going well until Fredricks meets the recipient of the package he is delivering, and it rapidly goes horribly wrong.
Fredricks is taken into custody following the incident. As he is an American and working for a Swiss company, there is a diplomatic standoff. Somehow, he manages to escape and joins a lady called Chan Qi, who is being sent back to Earth. They travel back with Ta Shu to China, where they evade the authorities on arrival and head to a safe house for a while. After being couped up, it gets to them, and they make a miscalculation on just how close the people looking for them are. They have to go on the run again, but they know the authorities are closing in on them.
One of the myriad factions in the Chinese security services that is sympathetic to Chan Qi has made the decision that they would be safer back on the moon and not be a distraction to the other factions on Earth. Once again, they are dispatched back on a space flight to stay in a super-rich gentleman’s called Fang Fei’s place. He is a businessman, and he has a separate base on the moon.
Even though she is 238,000 miles away, there are still people after her. They decide to hitch a ride with a couple of helium miners to an even more remote part of the moon. She decides that this is the time to send a coded message to her supporters in China, to add to the disruption as a power struggle for the president of China begins.
I have tried to keep the plot details as sparse as possible, to minimise spoilers, but there are a few. I would say that I liked rather than loved this; I had expected it to be entirely set on the moon, and was a little disappointed that it wasn’t. I would have liked it if Fred’s character had played a larger role in the story too; he was there as a bit of a stooge to the main character, Chan Qi. I felt it could have been a bit shorter, too. There were times when it dragged a bit, until the last quarter, when it flew by. Not bad overall, but not the best of his that I have read.
Fredricks is taken into custody following the incident. As he is an American and working for a Swiss company, there is a diplomatic standoff. Somehow, he manages to escape and joins a lady called Chan Qi, who is being sent back to Earth. They travel back with Ta Shu to China, where they evade the authorities on arrival and head to a safe house for a while. After being couped up, it gets to them, and they make a miscalculation on just how close the people looking for them are. They have to go on the run again, but they know the authorities are closing in on them.
One of the myriad factions in the Chinese security services that is sympathetic to Chan Qi has made the decision that they would be safer back on the moon and not be a distraction to the other factions on Earth. Once again, they are dispatched back on a space flight to stay in a super-rich gentleman’s called Fang Fei’s place. He is a businessman, and he has a separate base on the moon.
Even though she is 238,000 miles away, there are still people after her. They decide to hitch a ride with a couple of helium miners to an even more remote part of the moon. She decides that this is the time to send a coded message to her supporters in China, to add to the disruption as a power struggle for the president of China begins.
I have tried to keep the plot details as sparse as possible, to minimise spoilers, but there are a few. I would say that I liked rather than loved this; I had expected it to be entirely set on the moon, and was a little disappointed that it wasn’t. I would have liked it if Fred’s character had played a larger role in the story too; he was there as a bit of a stooge to the main character, Chan Qi. I felt it could have been a bit shorter, too. There were times when it dragged a bit, until the last quarter, when it flew by. Not bad overall, but not the best of his that I have read.
April 28, 2019
4.5 I thought this was great but I know why it’s not higher rated; as always KSR is very political which turns many off, plus he’s a socialist! So this has the usual KSR stuff but now we’ve expanded to the moon which gets caught up in the politics on Earth. I loved how this focuses on China, and I got an inkling into the different ways the Chinese mind views their country, history and philosophy so bravo. The plot moved quickly, lots of action. Plus we watch an AI evolve!
December 18, 2018
This might be the best page-turner Kim Stanley Robinson has ever written, without sacrificing any of the depth and complexity I read his books for. The year is 2047, the moon is inhabited – mostly by Chinese scientists, but also some American scientists and some multicultural anarchists. The primary viewpoint character, Fred Fredricks, is a clueless tech guy who is basically running an errand to the moon. Through no fault of his own, he gets accused of a murder which is part of a very complicated Chinese internal struggle. Additional viewpoint characters are an older man named Ta Shu, who is somewhat of acelebrity, basically the 30-years-from now equivalent of a YouTuber, and an AI analyst in a top-secret location in China.
One fascinating thing Robinson does here is completely decenter the United States. Fredricks is an American, working for a Swiss company, and not at all interested in America. Every other important character is Chinese, or in a couple of fairly minor cases, American people of color. The Years of Rice and Salt effectively eliminates whiteness; this book does not eliminate either whiteness or the U.S.; it just doesn’t find them very interesting. I am pondering what it means for a white American man to write books that decenter himself. I know some people will find this book culturally appropriative, and may well be right – at the same time, the attention to Chinese complexity is stunning.
I cannot remember ever reading a book where a pregnancy was the driving force in the book’s timing—Chan Qi, a deeply revolutionary character who is the daughter of a very high-profile Chinese politician, is pregnant on the moon (which is illegal) and it is always clear that she’s going to give birth at some crucial moment. You can also see Robinson playing out his concepts of “actor network theory,” which is basically a way of thinking about how crucial people come together to change something that otherwise wouldn’t change. All of this is set against a fascinating background of how Earth’s economy might change. If that weren’t enough, there are dangerous villains, struggles in low gravity, hidden Chinese paradises on the moon, and much more. I’ve said for decades that Stan Robinson writes for me, and he’s still doing it.
One fascinating thing Robinson does here is completely decenter the United States. Fredricks is an American, working for a Swiss company, and not at all interested in America. Every other important character is Chinese, or in a couple of fairly minor cases, American people of color. The Years of Rice and Salt effectively eliminates whiteness; this book does not eliminate either whiteness or the U.S.; it just doesn’t find them very interesting. I am pondering what it means for a white American man to write books that decenter himself. I know some people will find this book culturally appropriative, and may well be right – at the same time, the attention to Chinese complexity is stunning.
I cannot remember ever reading a book where a pregnancy was the driving force in the book’s timing—Chan Qi, a deeply revolutionary character who is the daughter of a very high-profile Chinese politician, is pregnant on the moon (which is illegal) and it is always clear that she’s going to give birth at some crucial moment. You can also see Robinson playing out his concepts of “actor network theory,” which is basically a way of thinking about how crucial people come together to change something that otherwise wouldn’t change. All of this is set against a fascinating background of how Earth’s economy might change. If that weren’t enough, there are dangerous villains, struggles in low gravity, hidden Chinese paradises on the moon, and much more. I’ve said for decades that Stan Robinson writes for me, and he’s still doing it.
November 2, 2018
Probably my favorite KSR so far. It's about the Moon, it's about China, it's about our present global politics. Rotating POV where one is autistic. It's a novel of ideas (of all kinds), but also about revolution, changes in political and earthly climate, poetry. Very likely to make my Hugo-nomination ballot.
I would really like to see a review from someone who's spent a lot of time in China and really understands it. The China stuff--characters, politics, worldview--seems plausible to me, but I know very little. The New York in New York 2140 didn't ring quite true to me, because I know a lot about NYC; I'd like to hear if the China stuff rings true to someone with on-the-ground experience.
There are a couple things about the book production that puzzle me:
1. why is there no acknowledgement or afterword? KSR must have had a lot of help with the China stuff, in particular.
2. Each chapter begins with a Chinese word or phrase and then its translation. Why is the Chinese only in Roman-letter transliteration, and not also in characters?
I would really like to see a review from someone who's spent a lot of time in China and really understands it. The China stuff--characters, politics, worldview--seems plausible to me, but I know very little. The New York in New York 2140 didn't ring quite true to me, because I know a lot about NYC; I'd like to hear if the China stuff rings true to someone with on-the-ground experience.
There are a couple things about the book production that puzzle me:
1. why is there no acknowledgement or afterword? KSR must have had a lot of help with the China stuff, in particular.
2. Each chapter begins with a Chinese word or phrase and then its translation. Why is the Chinese only in Roman-letter transliteration, and not also in characters?
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