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

Another good from Kim

The four cheaps must go and humans should advance beyond letting the global economy determine people’s well being. Another relevant story from KSR the best writer of our time

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.

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.

What, no sequel

I enjoyed this very much until arriving at the end. It didn’t end. The obvious set up for a sequel?

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.

Pretty Good; Occasionally Insightful

The plot is interesting, the relationships are compelling, and occassionally the philosophy is insightful. It never pushes into greatness, but it is quite good. The narrator is good; engaging without overdoing it.

Takes a long time to get anywhere then just ends

Takes a long time to get anywhere then just ends. At least 20 chapters of nothing but very slow and inconsequential character building. Then when the pace does pick up and the character growth means anything the book abruptly ends with no resolution.

Poor pacing and poor climax.

Red Moon is worth reading

I happen to enjoy Robinson's mix of story with alot of science and geopolitics. And the AI monologues. The only thing that irked me was the abrupt ending. There had better be a sequel soon.