Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Orbit (2018), Edition: First Edition, 464 pages
Description
"It is twenty-five years since China established the first colony on the moon, and the lives of three people are about to collide. American Fred Fredericks is making his first trip there, 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 to the moon 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. 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 home to China, in secret, the events that unfold will change everything - on the moon, and on Earth"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member dukedom_enough
Kim Stanley Robinson's best-known work is probably his 1990s Mars series - Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars - about the settlement and terraforming of Mars from the points of view of its first 100 settlers. Toward the end of the trilogy, someone says that the people of Mars have eliminated
Earth's Moon is figuratively red in 2047 because China has built much the largest base there, at its South Pole. Lunar development by China and other nations is peaceful and collegial, but no place is free of politics. An American, Fred Fredericks, is tasked with delivering a quantum-entanglement communications device to the chief of the Chinese station; the gadget will permit untappable communication with the unknown person at the device's other end. The chief is assassinated and Fred is framed for the murder, setting off a series of captures, escapes, and chases both on the Moon and on Earth.
Fred's fate becomes linked to Chan Qi, a Chinese "princessling". Her father, the "tiger" who heads up the Finance Ministry, is one of China's most powerful men, and she could inherit his power. But Qi has radical, dangerous ideas about transferring power from the Chinese Communist Party to the people. She is pursued or aided by various factions within the country. The two are observed, and helped, by Ta Shu, an elderly poet and media personality whose popularity as a broadcaster gives him a small measure of political power. Ta Shu also counts another powerful "tiger" as a former student. Meanwhile, an anonymous, powerful intelligence operative is training an AI to be an agent among the world's networks. Everyone's personal story is connected to a worldwide economic and governmental crisis in both China and the United States; civil unrest is rising in both societies, and may be put down with military violence. The quantum entanglement devices and computers, where Fred's expertise lies, serve as metaphor for the social, economic, and political entanglements connecting every human being. Can friendship compete with panopticon social media, capitalism, and governmental structures in refiguring a great nation? Fred is on the Asperger's spectrum, giving him an outsider's viewpoint on society that serves as an entryway for the reader. The Moon's lifeless, deadly surface reminds us of the fragility of the human world - as does Qi's pregnancy, progressing throughout the course of the story.
This novel feels like the author's attempt to get a handle on modern China and its march toward becoming the next world hegemon. We see a lot of China, and a lot about how things work there three decades from now. The sleek technology of the Moon settlements is contrasted with Ta Shu's older, more poetic sensibility - yet he, too, is involved in the modern world. Robinson is a utopian writer, but also a realist about history, seeing its complexity and rejecting easy tales of renewal. His utopian hopes are still there, but more shaded than in his 1990s books. His imagined "carboncoin," a blockchain-based money minted by removing CO2 from the biosphere, is a fun idea. If money is a socially constructed illusion, can we substitute a better one? But in the end carboncoin is satirical, and not fleshed out in any way.
The book ends rather abruptly, with Fred and Qi on the run, aided by powerful allies but still in peril. I fear this may indicate an unannounced sequel to come; a publishing practice we need less of. The story as it stands reads perfectly well; no such sequel is needed. I think Red Moon doesn't give us a real understanding of China here, but then what novel could?
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patriarchy and capitalism, over a couple of centuries. In this book, Robinson's latest, those goals appear much further off.Earth's Moon is figuratively red in 2047 because China has built much the largest base there, at its South Pole. Lunar development by China and other nations is peaceful and collegial, but no place is free of politics. An American, Fred Fredericks, is tasked with delivering a quantum-entanglement communications device to the chief of the Chinese station; the gadget will permit untappable communication with the unknown person at the device's other end. The chief is assassinated and Fred is framed for the murder, setting off a series of captures, escapes, and chases both on the Moon and on Earth.
Fred's fate becomes linked to Chan Qi, a Chinese "princessling". Her father, the "tiger" who heads up the Finance Ministry, is one of China's most powerful men, and she could inherit his power. But Qi has radical, dangerous ideas about transferring power from the Chinese Communist Party to the people. She is pursued or aided by various factions within the country. The two are observed, and helped, by Ta Shu, an elderly poet and media personality whose popularity as a broadcaster gives him a small measure of political power. Ta Shu also counts another powerful "tiger" as a former student. Meanwhile, an anonymous, powerful intelligence operative is training an AI to be an agent among the world's networks. Everyone's personal story is connected to a worldwide economic and governmental crisis in both China and the United States; civil unrest is rising in both societies, and may be put down with military violence. The quantum entanglement devices and computers, where Fred's expertise lies, serve as metaphor for the social, economic, and political entanglements connecting every human being. Can friendship compete with panopticon social media, capitalism, and governmental structures in refiguring a great nation? Fred is on the Asperger's spectrum, giving him an outsider's viewpoint on society that serves as an entryway for the reader. The Moon's lifeless, deadly surface reminds us of the fragility of the human world - as does Qi's pregnancy, progressing throughout the course of the story.
This novel feels like the author's attempt to get a handle on modern China and its march toward becoming the next world hegemon. We see a lot of China, and a lot about how things work there three decades from now. The sleek technology of the Moon settlements is contrasted with Ta Shu's older, more poetic sensibility - yet he, too, is involved in the modern world. Robinson is a utopian writer, but also a realist about history, seeing its complexity and rejecting easy tales of renewal. His utopian hopes are still there, but more shaded than in his 1990s books. His imagined "carboncoin," a blockchain-based money minted by removing CO2 from the biosphere, is a fun idea. If money is a socially constructed illusion, can we substitute a better one? But in the end carboncoin is satirical, and not fleshed out in any way.
The book ends rather abruptly, with Fred and Qi on the run, aided by powerful allies but still in peril. I fear this may indicate an unannounced sequel to come; a publishing practice we need less of. The story as it stands reads perfectly well; no such sequel is needed. I think Red Moon doesn't give us a real understanding of China here, but then what novel could?
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LibraryThing member willszal
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
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.
We’re at one of those turning points in the world order, where one imperial power is
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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.
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LibraryThing member stellarexplorer
More often than not a Kim Stanley Robinson book is on my list of yearly favorites. This is both a tribute to his productivity as a writer, and to his poetic and thoughtful style. I’ve been hooked ever since his acclaimed Mars Trilogy from the early 1990s beginning with Red Mars, the long tale of
But Robinson has written many other worthy and delightful books, all with fidelity to the science, linguistic experimentalism, and an introspective narrative voice, distinct and unmistakable.
In Red Moon, he turns his attention to the near-future politics of lunar life, China having gained ascendancy there. It is no surprise that his vision of the human experience on the moon is convincing and informed, from the challenges of locomotion to the perception of Sun and Earth from the lunar surface. As with many of Robinson’s novels, his utopian aspirations and concerns for the future of humanity rest close at hand. This inspires some and tires others. I’m in the former camp. This book also feels like the author’s attempt to grapple with the rise of the world’s future hegemon. Chinese society thirty years hence is energetic and vibrant, riven and restrictive. I found the grand stew that is Red Moon quintessential Robinson.
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the terraforming of that planet.But Robinson has written many other worthy and delightful books, all with fidelity to the science, linguistic experimentalism, and an introspective narrative voice, distinct and unmistakable.
In Red Moon, he turns his attention to the near-future politics of lunar life, China having gained ascendancy there. It is no surprise that his vision of the human experience on the moon is convincing and informed, from the challenges of locomotion to the perception of Sun and Earth from the lunar surface. As with many of Robinson’s novels, his utopian aspirations and concerns for the future of humanity rest close at hand. This inspires some and tires others. I’m in the former camp. This book also feels like the author’s attempt to grapple with the rise of the world’s future hegemon. Chinese society thirty years hence is energetic and vibrant, riven and restrictive. I found the grand stew that is Red Moon quintessential Robinson.
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LibraryThing member rivkat
Robinson’s not afraid to take chances; he’s just such a cerebral writer, both in terms of landscape description and ideas, that it’s easy to feel like you’re reading something at a distance. This one is mostly about China, and its dominance of the moon during a time of domestic unrest as
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the current generation of leaders prepares to retire. Dramatis personae include a feng shui expert and minor celebrity who goes to the moon to explore its feng shui. He gets caught up with a pregnant political dissident (a princeling daughter of a Central Committee member who thus has powerful friends as well as enemies) and a non-neurotypical Westerner used as a pawn in an assassination plot and thus endangered by factions in the Chinese state. Robinson is interested in political change, this time with Chinese characteristics. I’m not sure it’s successful—instead of the Whitmanesque observations of his novel set at the same time in the US, he uses a Chinese AI’s musings to punctuate things throughout, and it feels more disjointed. Show Less
LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Moon focuses on political unrest in the United States and China amid a murder mystery on a Chinese lunar base in 2047. The main story revolves around four characters: Fred Fredericks, an American engineer working for a Swiss company who is implicated in a murder on the
The tone of the novel recalls the work of Philip K. Dick at times, with Fred Fredericks’ character and actions closely resembling Frank Frink from The Man in the High Castle. Fredericks, despite being at the center of the primary conflict of the murder, mostly moves through the story with things happening to him rather than playing much of an active role. Robinson may have intended this connection, however, as his Ph.D. research focused on Dick’s work. Robinson refers on multiple occasions to Ta Shu’s Antarctic experience, which may be a connection to his earlier novel, Antarctica, or simply Robinson’s way of further drawing upon his trip to Antarctica with the National Science Foundation in the 1980s. Like his Mars Trilogy, economic justice and ecology play a large role in the plot, with Ta Shu reflecting on several occasions about China’s efforts to repair environmental damage from the twentieth century and restore deforested areas. Disenfranchised workers in both China and the U.S. lead the global protests that occur throughout the last third of the novel, with Robinson exploring how a large enough uprising could secure economic justice.
The not-too-distant-future setting and themes will appeal to fans of Robinson’s work as well as those who appreciate more hard science fiction rather than space fantasy. The political thriller aspects of the story may help more general audiences find the science fiction approachable.
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moon; Chan Qi, a Chinese activist and the daughter of a wealthy politician who went to the moon to escape her father’s oversight and became pregnant there; Ta Shu, a poet, academic, and traveler who can easily move between the various factions; and Little Eyeball, an AI that’s part of China’s Great Firewall and follows its programming to help the activists in the U.S. and China. The narrative alternates between China and the moon, with Robinson’s exposition-heavy style helping to inform his readers not only about Chinese politics in the present, but then extrapolating that to a plausible future. His descriptions of various methods of lunar construction resemble his Mars Trilogy’s description of Martian colonization in that it’s easy enough for a layperson to understand while seeming technologically feasible given current technologies.The tone of the novel recalls the work of Philip K. Dick at times, with Fred Fredericks’ character and actions closely resembling Frank Frink from The Man in the High Castle. Fredericks, despite being at the center of the primary conflict of the murder, mostly moves through the story with things happening to him rather than playing much of an active role. Robinson may have intended this connection, however, as his Ph.D. research focused on Dick’s work. Robinson refers on multiple occasions to Ta Shu’s Antarctic experience, which may be a connection to his earlier novel, Antarctica, or simply Robinson’s way of further drawing upon his trip to Antarctica with the National Science Foundation in the 1980s. Like his Mars Trilogy, economic justice and ecology play a large role in the plot, with Ta Shu reflecting on several occasions about China’s efforts to repair environmental damage from the twentieth century and restore deforested areas. Disenfranchised workers in both China and the U.S. lead the global protests that occur throughout the last third of the novel, with Robinson exploring how a large enough uprising could secure economic justice.
The not-too-distant-future setting and themes will appeal to fans of Robinson’s work as well as those who appreciate more hard science fiction rather than space fantasy. The political thriller aspects of the story may help more general audiences find the science fiction approachable.
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LibraryThing member fpagan
For this latest piece of storytelling craftsmanship from Robinson, the year is 2047 and the places are China and Luna, whose development and colonization are largely but not entirely Chinese. As in some of his other works written in the 2010s, politics, economics, and quantum-computer AI loom
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large. Unlike 2015's _Aurora_, it has an ending so tense and gripping that you can't put the book down umtil there are suddenly no more words to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tatoosh
“Red Moon” is an expansive literary tale that rests on the three pillars of science fiction: fanciful explanations of how future technology and societies work, superficial analyses of contemporary political systems and their foibles, and a plot involving protagonists caught in a web of
The plot is a slow-moving tale of political intrigue. The Chinese government is in the process of selecting a new President and General Secretary. Chan Qi is the daughter of one of the leading candidates. Qi is the leader of a faction dedicated to replacing the present form of government (with a never described alternative). She traveled to the moon on her own and dropped out of sight for five months. Qi is pregnant and now being forced to return to Earth because childbirth on the moon is forbidden. Fred is a manufacturer’s representative who was sent to the moon to deliver an “entangled” telephone to the governor of the Chinese settlement. The governor died while Fred was meeting with him and Fred is accused of murder. Ta Shu is a renowned poet and travel commentator who was planning to broadcast a series of features on the moon. Peng Ling, a former student of Ta, is another contender. Ta has been asked to escort Fred and Qi back to earth.
The location moves back and forth from the moon to earth, but the emphasis is on the characters and social setting rather than plot development. Mystery and intrigue are held in abeyance as locale after locale is visited and the weaknesses —but seldom the strengths— of the present governments are analyzed. Robinson provides detailed descriptions of every community the travelers visit, down to the streets they walk, the architecture and landscaping they observe, and the rooms they occupy. Just as you begin to wonder if anything will ever happen, Qi, Fred, and Ta move on to another location which is described in great detail, and the new setting provides another opportunity to debate political philosophy.
On the moon, for example, there are several settlements with differing approaches to community living and governance. Each is described in detail. Digressions embedded at points explain how the solar system, the earth, and the moon formed, the relative tilt of the Earth and moon, and how to walk on the moon. A six-page chapter provides speculations about the effects on human vision of the contrasting light and dark areas on the moon, and on how to walk on the moon.
“Red Moon” focuses primarily on Qi and Ta, and Fred tags along as an emasculated male whose role is to contrast and emphasize Qi’s strength of character and Ta’s wisdom and humanity. Fred was such a weak character I began to speculate that he would somehow be transformed into a heroic figure in the last 10 pages, and indeed, that occurs to some extent. However, it’s more accurate to say that the book just fades away with Fred and Qu leaving the moon on a rocket.
“Where are we headed?” Qu asks. “I don’t know,” Fred replies
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political intrigue. Its epic scope and literary emphasis on character and setting at the expense of plot no doubt make it a contender for the Hugo and Nebula awards. The plot is a slow-moving tale of political intrigue. The Chinese government is in the process of selecting a new President and General Secretary. Chan Qi is the daughter of one of the leading candidates. Qi is the leader of a faction dedicated to replacing the present form of government (with a never described alternative). She traveled to the moon on her own and dropped out of sight for five months. Qi is pregnant and now being forced to return to Earth because childbirth on the moon is forbidden. Fred is a manufacturer’s representative who was sent to the moon to deliver an “entangled” telephone to the governor of the Chinese settlement. The governor died while Fred was meeting with him and Fred is accused of murder. Ta Shu is a renowned poet and travel commentator who was planning to broadcast a series of features on the moon. Peng Ling, a former student of Ta, is another contender. Ta has been asked to escort Fred and Qi back to earth.
The location moves back and forth from the moon to earth, but the emphasis is on the characters and social setting rather than plot development. Mystery and intrigue are held in abeyance as locale after locale is visited and the weaknesses —but seldom the strengths— of the present governments are analyzed. Robinson provides detailed descriptions of every community the travelers visit, down to the streets they walk, the architecture and landscaping they observe, and the rooms they occupy. Just as you begin to wonder if anything will ever happen, Qi, Fred, and Ta move on to another location which is described in great detail, and the new setting provides another opportunity to debate political philosophy.
On the moon, for example, there are several settlements with differing approaches to community living and governance. Each is described in detail. Digressions embedded at points explain how the solar system, the earth, and the moon formed, the relative tilt of the Earth and moon, and how to walk on the moon. A six-page chapter provides speculations about the effects on human vision of the contrasting light and dark areas on the moon, and on how to walk on the moon.
“Red Moon” focuses primarily on Qi and Ta, and Fred tags along as an emasculated male whose role is to contrast and emphasize Qi’s strength of character and Ta’s wisdom and humanity. Fred was such a weak character I began to speculate that he would somehow be transformed into a heroic figure in the last 10 pages, and indeed, that occurs to some extent. However, it’s more accurate to say that the book just fades away with Fred and Qu leaving the moon on a rocket.
“Where are we headed?” Qu asks. “I don’t know,” Fred replies
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Moon will be different things to different people. Science Fiction fans will embrace this near future novel because so much of it takes place on the moon in the year 2047 – and because Robinson hits relatively heavily on the scientific aspects of exploring and
Fred Fredericks, to be kind, is a rather shy, naïve young American traveling to the moon to deliver some communications hardware to the Chinese colony for his Swiss employer. It is Fred’s first trip to the moon, making it easy for him to befriend the elderly Chinese poet/television personality who is also landing on the moon for the first time. The two men bond over their shared fear that their landing craft is approaching the moon’s surface much too rapidly for anyone to survive the looming crash. By the time that a landing so gentle that neither man felt it has been accomplished, the two are fast friends.
But Fred, unbeknownst to him, had more than a lunar landing to worry about because almost immediately he is caught up in a Chinese power struggle that leaves him on the run with Chan Qi, the pregnant daughter of an influential Chinese politician. Fred is accused of a crime he has no memory of, and Chan Qi is believed to be behind the massive political protests taking place on Earth. Now both of them are running for their lives, and neither Earth nor the moon is a big enough place for them to hide.
Red Moon has a lot going for it. Robinson always takes the “science” part of “Science Fiction” seriously, and among the other aspects of colonial life on the moon he explores, he has particular fun revealing the difficulties of moving around in a gravity only one-sixth of Earth’s – which proves to be a major problem for someone as unathletic as Fred. The book’s plot is certainly thriller-like, but Robinson never gets in a big hurry to move it along. Instead, he spends as much time developing his main characters – especially the budding relationship between Fred and Chan Qi – as he does moving them in and out of danger. The novel is highly atmospheric, even to the point that Robinson is never afraid to slow the action down long enough to describe an earthrise or some exotic lunar location Fred and Chan Qi are traveling through.
Bottom Line: Red Moon is science fiction with a message. It manages to combine philosophy, politics, and scientific speculation in a manner that remains entertaining from the first page to the last, and it moves along at just the right pace to do that. But if you prefer your thrillers to maintain a frantic pace from beginning to end, Red Moon may not be for you. My one quibble with the book is that it ended before I expected it to end, leaving me with a few unanswered questions to wonder about.
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colonizing the moon. Thriller fans will be equally entertained because of the long, involved chase of the novel’s two central characters by some very powerful and evil people, a chase that sees Fred Fredericks and Chan Qi in great danger whether they are trying to hide on Earth or on the moon. Fans of novels about political infighting are likely to be intrigued by Robinson’s insights into how the Chinese government functions and how tenuously it holds itself together in moments of succession at the top. And those who enjoy learning history via solid historical fiction, are going to be left with a lot to think about when they turn the final page of Red Moon.Fred Fredericks, to be kind, is a rather shy, naïve young American traveling to the moon to deliver some communications hardware to the Chinese colony for his Swiss employer. It is Fred’s first trip to the moon, making it easy for him to befriend the elderly Chinese poet/television personality who is also landing on the moon for the first time. The two men bond over their shared fear that their landing craft is approaching the moon’s surface much too rapidly for anyone to survive the looming crash. By the time that a landing so gentle that neither man felt it has been accomplished, the two are fast friends.
But Fred, unbeknownst to him, had more than a lunar landing to worry about because almost immediately he is caught up in a Chinese power struggle that leaves him on the run with Chan Qi, the pregnant daughter of an influential Chinese politician. Fred is accused of a crime he has no memory of, and Chan Qi is believed to be behind the massive political protests taking place on Earth. Now both of them are running for their lives, and neither Earth nor the moon is a big enough place for them to hide.
Red Moon has a lot going for it. Robinson always takes the “science” part of “Science Fiction” seriously, and among the other aspects of colonial life on the moon he explores, he has particular fun revealing the difficulties of moving around in a gravity only one-sixth of Earth’s – which proves to be a major problem for someone as unathletic as Fred. The book’s plot is certainly thriller-like, but Robinson never gets in a big hurry to move it along. Instead, he spends as much time developing his main characters – especially the budding relationship between Fred and Chan Qi – as he does moving them in and out of danger. The novel is highly atmospheric, even to the point that Robinson is never afraid to slow the action down long enough to describe an earthrise or some exotic lunar location Fred and Chan Qi are traveling through.
Bottom Line: Red Moon is science fiction with a message. It manages to combine philosophy, politics, and scientific speculation in a manner that remains entertaining from the first page to the last, and it moves along at just the right pace to do that. But if you prefer your thrillers to maintain a frantic pace from beginning to end, Red Moon may not be for you. My one quibble with the book is that it ended before I expected it to end, leaving me with a few unanswered questions to wonder about.
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LibraryThing member nossanna
As usual, KSR shines as a futurist. This fine tale injects many elements of geopolitics, government, China, and visionary science fiction for a complex story that is alarmingly insightful to the current world state. Where I had trouble was the many interspersed pods of lengthy ramblings of
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incongruous, incomplete, word salad. It felt like he was thinking faster than he could write and the words just fell over themselves. But, I love his prescient insights and stories, so I will continue my love hate relationship with his writing style and read anything he writes! Show Less
LibraryThing member Nodosaurus
Red Moon is an adventure story of two people thrown together and running for their freedom.
Fred Fredericks is an American businessman who sells secure quantum communications equipment. He flew to the Moon to meet with a Chinese gentleman who is poisoned during the meeting. The Chinese man was
The other is Chan Qi, the pregnant daughter of a rich and influential Chinese politician that leads the finance ministry. She is also taken by the authorities for her ideals about returning power in Chine to the people from the Communist party.
From here, it turns into an adventure story taking the two from the Moon to Hong Kong and back to the Moon. They survive by their wits, Qi’s friends and some unknown influences.
I found the book enjoyable up to the end where several plot points didn’t sit well with me.
First, the whole situation was explained by a US government agent who appeared and, after enabling their rescue, felt the need to explain what was going on.
Second, a woman who didn’t know the aforementioned agent, listened to an explanation of how the two (Fred and Qi) were to be extradited, they were rescued, someone is trying to kill them and then accepted the story and agree to cooperate without asking any questions or worrying about her own life.
Third, the story ended too soon. They escaped the Moon a second time in a programmed ship with no idea where they were heading. It felt like little was resolved, although there is plenty of information to find your own resolution.
I enjoyed the book, it is told well, the writing is enjoyable, but the end felt weak.
Fred Fredericks is an American businessman who sells secure quantum communications equipment. He flew to the Moon to meet with a Chinese gentleman who is poisoned during the meeting. The Chinese man was
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killed during the meeting and Fred detained by Chinese authorities.The other is Chan Qi, the pregnant daughter of a rich and influential Chinese politician that leads the finance ministry. She is also taken by the authorities for her ideals about returning power in Chine to the people from the Communist party.
From here, it turns into an adventure story taking the two from the Moon to Hong Kong and back to the Moon. They survive by their wits, Qi’s friends and some unknown influences.
I found the book enjoyable up to the end where several plot points didn’t sit well with me.
First, the whole situation was explained by a US government agent who appeared and, after enabling their rescue, felt the need to explain what was going on.
Second, a woman who didn’t know the aforementioned agent, listened to an explanation of how the two (Fred and Qi) were to be extradited, they were rescued, someone is trying to kill them and then accepted the story and agree to cooperate without asking any questions or worrying about her own life.
Third, the story ended too soon. They escaped the Moon a second time in a programmed ship with no idea where they were heading. It felt like little was resolved, although there is plenty of information to find your own resolution.
I enjoyed the book, it is told well, the writing is enjoyable, but the end felt weak.
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LibraryThing member iansales
Robinson’s first book was first published in 1984, and there are many sf reviewers and voters these days who won’t read him for that reason. It’s true that Robinson writes a particular type of science fiction, but after nearly forty years he’s got pretty damn good at it. Better than some
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random debut author, anyway. Not every Robinson book has impressed me, although he has consistently produced work that I think speaks more to science fiction than many sf writers. Red Moon is… mostly a good sf novel. It reads, in parts, like off-cuts from the Mars trilogy. And the whole set-up does seem somewhat… accelerated for being set thirty years from now. Red Moon is definitely techno-utopian, and I’d sooner see sf like that than some jack-booted interstellar slavery space opera, which is all too sadly common these days, but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticise its vision or the points Red Moon makes. A US engineer who works for a Swiss firm delivers a qubit-entangled phone to the head of the Chinese settlement about the south pole of the Moon. Except the Chinese official dies seconds after meeting the engineer, who himself is rendered seriously ill, and he’s charged with murder by poison. It’s all about factions within the Chinese government, and partly related to the daughter of one minister who is the figurehead of a movement to seek justice for internal migrants within China. There’s a whole lot of stuff going on here, mostly to do with China’s recent history and its government; but there’s also a lot about the colonisation of the Moon – not just by the Chinese, but also the Americans and a group of techno-utopian freethinkers who run their own lunar colony (whose precepts I don’t think actually work because they rely on defined identities). I think Robinson’s timeline for the novel is somewhat unrealistic, although I can see how his story forced him into that situation. And I can disagree with the political arc of the story. I likely can’t say this enough: Red Moon is a novel about politics, and the politics in the novel are laid out for discussion. Unlike far too many sf novels where the politics is baked into the world-building, and a rejection of the politics is by definition a rejection of the entire novel. Red Moon is not the best novel Robinson has written, but is ample demonstration of why his novels are worth reading. Each new one has added something to the genre ur-conversation, whether you like them, or agree with them, or not. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Not one of his best, although hard to say why exactly. I think it's probably just the attempt at portraying chinese culture without the necessary background - or at least not clear where that background has come from, because I'm equally not able to assess the validity of it, but it feels
A mildly autistic (stereotypes kick in from the first character) engineer is on his way to one of the chinese moon bases to aid with the installation of a quantum phone - entangled and guaranteed secure communication but only between the two arties with handsets, He meets and aged and famous chinese poet cum internet star but before they can really discuss much Fredericks the engineer is caught up in the death of the local base governor. Ta Shai investigates his disappearance and manages to arrange for his return to earth, on the same shuttle as another local problem, a pregnant daughter of the ruling Party hierarchy. These two Fredericks and Chaing spend the rest of the book together,but neither really develop any personality at all. She attempts to continue contacts with some dissident contacts to spite her father, and the two bounce between the moon and earth trying to find somewhere out of the reach of political arms.
It ends very very abruptly with much left untold and although it's clear where the action was going to lead KSR is normally more tidy than that. I can only assume a sequel is planned.
KSR bold and sweeping plans and idea remain every present, but these aren't the best characters he's ever used to showcase them, and the setting itself is likewise lacking in the inventiveness and grandeur that he cna manahge on his best work.
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stereotypical, even it it's attempts not to be. Somehow it also doesn't quite seem like the future technology and problems have advanced enough for the setting - always very tricky to do in 'near future' works - phones have been replaced by wristpads, and humanity (or at least China) has made it to permenant bases on the Moon, but hardly anything else has changed. A mildly autistic (stereotypes kick in from the first character) engineer is on his way to one of the chinese moon bases to aid with the installation of a quantum phone - entangled and guaranteed secure communication but only between the two arties with handsets, He meets and aged and famous chinese poet cum internet star but before they can really discuss much Fredericks the engineer is caught up in the death of the local base governor. Ta Shai investigates his disappearance and manages to arrange for his return to earth, on the same shuttle as another local problem, a pregnant daughter of the ruling Party hierarchy. These two Fredericks and Chaing spend the rest of the book together,but neither really develop any personality at all. She attempts to continue contacts with some dissident contacts to spite her father, and the two bounce between the moon and earth trying to find somewhere out of the reach of political arms.
It ends very very abruptly with much left untold and although it's clear where the action was going to lead KSR is normally more tidy than that. I can only assume a sequel is planned.
KSR bold and sweeping plans and idea remain every present, but these aren't the best characters he's ever used to showcase them, and the setting itself is likewise lacking in the inventiveness and grandeur that he cna manahge on his best work.
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LibraryThing member Paul_S
Unrealistic selection of characters makes everything else seem plausible by comparison. The ending was strangely rushed but maybe that's just in comparison to the rest of the book with its long political monologues.
The world is very interesting, as usual with Robinson and makes up for everything
The world is very interesting, as usual with Robinson and makes up for everything
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else. Show Less
LibraryThing member expatscot
Interesting perspective from a Western writer. Decent enough story though even if the ending left me a little deflated.
LibraryThing member pierthinker
Red Moon is set in the year 2047 and the action takes place primarily on the Moon. The Moon has been heavily colonised and is just beginning to be exploited for industrial purposes (mining, manufacturing and the like). The largest and most advanced colonists are the Chinese, based around the South
Fred Fredericks, on his first trip to the Moon, witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding with Chan Qi, daughter of an influential Chinese minister, and an outspoken advocate for political change in China. As these two evade capture they become catalysts for major regime change in both China and America.
As is often the case with Robinson the plot is rather nebulous and there are too many scenes with two people talking about some political or scientific theory. The main pleasure here is in the richly drawn and well thought out depictions of everyday life in this time and place. What we see today as future technical marvels have become mundane and quotidian, barely registered by the people using them. The cleverness here is that some things have moved on and some have stayed pretty much as they are today.
There are a couple of missteps where real history and Robinson’s vision are misaligned: he paints President Xi in a more benevolent light than appears to be the case today; he implies that China honours the agreements over the treatment of Hong Kong; and, he has no place for any mention, let alone resolution, to the Taiwan problem.
This is a thought provoking book with some interesting ideas about the future of lunar exploration and the future of the two largest political groups on Earth, if you can get to grips with the rather strange no action action of Robinson’s style.
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Pole. The Americans have a smaller presence around the North Pole. On Earth political unrest in both China and America is growing.Fred Fredericks, on his first trip to the Moon, witnesses a murder and is forced into hiding with Chan Qi, daughter of an influential Chinese minister, and an outspoken advocate for political change in China. As these two evade capture they become catalysts for major regime change in both China and America.
As is often the case with Robinson the plot is rather nebulous and there are too many scenes with two people talking about some political or scientific theory. The main pleasure here is in the richly drawn and well thought out depictions of everyday life in this time and place. What we see today as future technical marvels have become mundane and quotidian, barely registered by the people using them. The cleverness here is that some things have moved on and some have stayed pretty much as they are today.
There are a couple of missteps where real history and Robinson’s vision are misaligned: he paints President Xi in a more benevolent light than appears to be the case today; he implies that China honours the agreements over the treatment of Hong Kong; and, he has no place for any mention, let alone resolution, to the Taiwan problem.
This is a thought provoking book with some interesting ideas about the future of lunar exploration and the future of the two largest political groups on Earth, if you can get to grips with the rather strange no action action of Robinson’s style.
Show Less
LibraryThing member macha
revolution in China and the U.S., about the end of money as the driving force of political organization in the 2040s. the action shifts from China to the Moon and back again several times. a minor work for Robinson, and typically Utopian in view, but it features his profoundly humanist perspective
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and some sympathetic characters, muddling along while musing on Maoism and Daoism at the same time as they elect to change the world. Show Less
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2019)
Dragon Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2019)
Language
Original language
English