Red Moon

By: Kim Stanley Robinson

Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton, Joy Osmanski, Feodor Chin

Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's Summary

Red Moon is a magnificent novel of space exploration and political revolution from New York Times best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson.

It is 30 years from now, and we have colonized the moon.

American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip, his purpose to install a communications system for China's Lunar Science Foundation. But hours after his arrival, he witnesses a murder and is 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 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.

For more from Kim Stanley Robinson, check out:

• New York 2140
• 2312
• Aurora
• Shaman

©2018 Kim Stanley Robinson (P)2018 Hachette Audio

So much Chinese influence in Modern SciFi: Good

I am really enjoying the greater participation of Chinese culture in SciFi. It both more accurately reflects the direction the 21st century seems to be taking and gives us insight into an entirely different (from western norms) culture. Or maybe I was just spoiled by The Three Body Problem trilogy.

Robinson always seems to manage to write a ripping great yarn when it comes to space colonization, which is a genre I very much prefer to space ship battles, space monarchies and space kitties. It is so much more grounded than the sort of space opera that somehow manages to completely miss the sense of scale involved in interplanetary travel. Rather than patching over plot holes with Treknobabble and magic FTL, Robinson leaves us with something that sounds like a plausible near future.

I loved Ta Shu, but was kind of annoyed by Fred and Qi. (Guessing at the spellings as I did not visually read the book). Still, most characters in the book served a useful function and both explained and enabled the story, and were therefore necessary.

I very much enjoyed the story, although I couldn't quite figure out the inconsistent narrators (seems to me, any one of them would be fine, but for a single character to have multiple voices was a bit jarring). My one major complaint is that the ending isn't really. There's obviously a "Green Moon" (if Robinson's naming convention can be predicted) coming, and since this book is so new, I'm probably going to have to wait a year or more before getting the rest of the story

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great story. Very hopeful for a sequel

Good near future hard sci-fi. Loved the world that was setup. Haven’t had a chance to read Robinson in a while and he didn’t let me down.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Decent, but drags in places - and lose the accents

I am a longtime fan of the author, but this book dragged in places. It got better later on, but there were long stretches where it wasn't really clear what was going on or where the same point was banged over the reader's head several times. As an audiobook it can be a little hard to keep track of who all the different people are. But having said that, the premise is interesting and as always the details of daily life were wonderfully drawn. The narrators got a bit carried away with trying to do accents, though. This seems to be A Thing with Audible now- having the narrators read in different accents. It seems to me that it would be better to just read it straight and let the listener imagine rather than have a somewhat goofy and hard to understand accent thrown in.

Better than one could have possibly hoped.

If you'd told me this was an 18 hour long riff on "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," written by a white guy in the voice of Chinese characters, I'd have passed it by. But, it's surprisingly thoughtful and engaging. If only it had an ending, it would be a truly great novel. (I suspect the end is 800 pages in the future, which is thoroughly annoying, but not unexpected, given the author.)

One of Kim's best

There's some really relevant stuff in this futuristic political climate between China, America and the moon. As always, Robinson has done his research! I loved the story.

wonderful story, fascinating background

Big concept, great performance. The Chinese perspective is thoughtful, and challenges our Western one dimensional view of China. I found certain parts of Chi's experience a bit simplified ... post partum infant care is not so natural as portrayed. But it is a great and engaging story, very much like the best of Robinson's past stories.

Good science additions

Loved the setting in terms of technology, the author definitely did their homework on current space livability theory. Not a fan of the communist overtones, and it could have used more humor. The writing style and structure of the novel is awesome and multi faceted. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, but if you like sci-fi, it’s worth a shot.

An interesting political sci-fi

The Chinese poetry was great. The moon sounds like a great adventure. The characters were interesting but the story was a bit thin. I think I will reread this in a few weeks just to hear the poems again. I will even write down some of my favorites. Maybe even seek out some examples on the web.
I wanted to like it more but I couldn’t get it to 4stars. It’s not a bad book you may really like it. Just a bit thin for me.

This is Sci-Fi. I want Fin-Fi.

In learning about Robinson’s newly-released book, "Red Moon,” my initial reaction was one of simultaneous excitement and concern. The book is set thirty years in the future, with an emphasis on China.

We’re at one of those turning points in the world order, where one imperial power is eclipsed by another—the fall of America and the rise of China. Due to to this, I have a newfound fascination with understanding China and Chinese culture. On the other hand, I have a sense of foreboding—“can a white, US-based American produce a work that accurately reflects the essence of another country?” My internal jury is still out on this question, and I wonder what kinds of subconscious racism (or simply ignorance) have been carried through in Robinson’s work.

One candidate for the potential racism of this work—Robinson’s thesis that China is incomprehensible, necessarily too complex to understand. This sounds to me like the dejection of a jaded Westerner. At least it is safer than classifying China in an iconic or stereotypical manner, but leaves much to be desired. What is the essence of China? This is not a question “Red Moon" will sate.

Reservations aside, the questions explored in the book—How can capitalism and socialism evolve to serve people and planet? Is there a radical populism that can transcend the East/West divide? Can civilization mature to integrate the lessons that climate change has to offer? How can the social technology we call money build (rather than degrade) ecosystem health?—are some of the questions I spend my time pondering.

In some ways, the experience of reading this book brought me back to my time with “Moby Dick.” In this other book, maybe two percent of the book is spent in the presence of the whale—the other 98% involves the arduous preparation and search. To follow the analogy through to the subject at hand, “Red Moon” spends the bulk of its pages with its two main characters in hiding. This creates a simultaneously boring and anxious tone. Although Robinson’s treatment of this material is compelling in its own right, it makes for a sometimes arduous reading experience, and has one wondering if there might have been a more riveting and interesting story arc that might have been crafted.

Wrapping back around to the questions above: might there have been away that Robinson might have explored these topics more deeply while still utilizing an authentic story arc (as opposed to descending too far into blatant dogmatism, such as that illustrated by the work of Daniel Quinn)? I think so. There’s more than a little déjà vu sourced from my reading of “New York 2140”—the subtext of which involves an overhaul of the capitalist system, which yet fails to lay out any concrete exploration of what this means or how it happens.

Those of you whom are cryptocurrency and permaculture enthusiasts—Robinson drops a few deliciously crumbs in “Carbon Coin” and “Virtual USD.” Unfortunately, these ideas are left mostly undeveloped in the text.

In conclusion, Robinson is a science fiction author with a soft spot for financial and ecological speculation. I wish this balance was flipped on its head; I long for some meaty financial and ecological fiction.

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

Classic Stan

Just the right amount of technical information and dramatic story. Once again KSR takes us back to the Earth...what’s the next chapter?

0 of 1 people found this review helpful