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

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.

1 of 2 people found this review helpful