part 1 of 2! ( )

No sabia que esperarme pero desde luego no me esperaba este novelón.

Al principio quizá cuesta entender que esta pasando ya que te suelta sin mucho contexto, pero enseguida se pilla el hilo. Me ha gustado el mix cultural que hace en la Luna y que además no es la típica americanada, todo lo contrario, los que han triunfado en la Luna no son los típicos.

Aviso a navegantes, obviamente es una trilogia y el final es totalmente abierto (ya estoy buscando la segunda parte). Por lo demás, entrad y enamoraos de los Corta y de la critica al capitalismo más voraz que hace este libro.
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[a:Ian McDonald|25376|Ian McDonald|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1372533252p2/25376.jpg] is one of my favorite authors, and Luna did not disappoint. As with [b:River of Gods|278280|River of Gods (India 2047, #1)|Ian McDonald|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388256017s/278280.jpg|2440580], [b:The Dervish House|6993091|The Dervish House|Ian McDonald|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1257600283s/6993091.jpg|7235789], and [b:Brasyl|278281|Brasyl|Ian McDonald|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925633s/278281.jpg|269900], McDonald weaves a rich tapestry of culture. This is my favorite of his talents. The plot and characters are enjoyable, too: lots of depth and surprises. As always, I look forward to McDonald's next book. ( )

I came across this novel by pure accident. While I am not person that gets triggered by cover blurb (of these most interesting for me was comparison with Godfather series) it sounded interesting enough so I decided to pick it up.

But oh boy did it leave me with mixed feelings.

First the good stuff. Lunar society is presented extremely well. Cringe moments like music/jazz effects on this dystopian but oh so musically mature world aside writing is excellent and story flows very fast. We are introduced to neo-feudalistic society on the Moon, five families controlling entire world and for all means and purposes enslaving the populace to involuntary life in debt where rich get rich and can do almost anything possible while others live in ghettos and fight for life while working for the same rich guys. Technology does not play main role in the story (but when it pops up it is in a very organic way and extremely amazing) and focus is on members and interaction of the five families. Our main protagonists (although I did not find one likeable character anywhere) is family of Cortas that finds itself on the crossroads, generational change - one that could prove to be deadly for the entire family. This is where parallels with Corleone family can be made, old godfather retiring and passing the "business" to Sonny (hothead). Action (when it happens) is fast and deadly. Having fights concentrated on use of blades (projectile weapons being very dangerous in environments that rely on pressure enabled by thin protection domes) everything is very much up close and personal. Characters are very well fleshed out (to the level of completely useless information) and one can feel the unease and sometimes open hostility between families but also within the families themselves. This is world where no-one is 100% ally and everyone is opponent (in smaller or greater degree). Mentioned families are mix of nationalities from China, Africa, Brazil, Russia, Australia and New Zealand. Although majority of the story is linked to families coming from what today might be called nations that preach all the utopian-like ideals (Africa, Brazil, to a degree Australia and New Zealand), author shows that human nature is same everywhere. No matter how mystical or enchanting are the customs if given opportunity people will grab the power with all the excuses as previous power holders. It is also in very stark contrast how these same families talk about freedoms Lunar society enjoys which is very much like code of honor among gangsters - they have freedom to live while their vassals have exclusive freedom to die when their masters decide. And have no mistake - vassals remain vassals because after certain time there is no going back to Earth - physiological changes are at that point complete in a way that even just coming under Earth's gravity is deadly for Lunar colonists. Social engineering - be it through AIs, secret societies or Afro-Brazilian church was very Dune-like and sounds like a very interesting development for other books in the series (where I hope it will play a role).

The bad stuff. All of the bad stuff I came across seem to be pure page filler. First thing - sex. I am not puritan by any means but this is ridiculous. I understand that Lunar society is open to anything (read everyone is aiming to nail anything that has pulse, marriages are not marriages but contract-level relationships for a specific duration of time and monogamy needs to be specified in contract itself or else :)) but do I need to know all escapades of Lucinho Corta or his aunt's SMBD-like auto-sex-pleasuring or how almost every female on Luna experiences orgasms when suiting up for Lunar surface actions? I understand importance of character building but when it comes to Lucinho (for example) I can see from chapter #1 that he is horny teenager who has no idea what he wants in his life and basically abuses his family power for his escapades. I have a feeling Lucinho is to pay the role of Michael Corleone but here we have major difficulty here because while former knows who his family is and uses the power of the family for his own purposes, latter was a person aiming to disassociate himself from his criminal life and live normally away from gangster/feudal way of life. It will be interesting to see how story goes for him.
Second filler are almost psychedelic parts of book like Lucinho's luster for making cakes (what?), juvenile behavior and almost never-ending orgies of Lunar youth (again - sex). It is not that cyber-punk-dystopian novels like this dont have sex (just check Richard K Morgan), it just needs to be in support of the story not present for its own sake.
Also what is the point of listening about Lucas Corta proposing to a musician, building beautifully sound isolated room when all of this plays no role at all? I still see his very dark side in the novel. Knowing he is touched by music is plain ridiculous especially since that same music does not stop him from slaying his opponents in a most brutal and merciless ways. This marks my second part - useless information. We watch Lucinho baking cakes, obsessing about cakes and paying his debt to friends and family by them. Cakes, people! For at least two chapters! We see Raffa Corte ending up in bed with so many different woman that it becomes stupid (I understand need to be macho but come on). Third part is the court of law on Luna. This is so cringy and seems to be ripped out of 2000AD comics or like proposal from president Camacho from Idiocracy. Court in which lawyers use their champions (professional fighters) in combat to death to decide on the verdict because they do not accept decision from judges. This type of setting feuds is so much better handled in Dune (Wars of Assassins) not to mention actual historical records (from where Dune got the inspiration).
Entire Brazil colony is presented in samba/jazz/capoeira light - this becomes tiring after a while. Very tiring. I understand culture and its impact but after a while descriptions of how people just melt away while listening to bossa nova while discussing beheading of opponent grows as stale as watching Italian gangster dipping his food into oil olive and drinking red wine in rural area in the Mediterranean. Ok, we got it, they come from dancing knife-fighters land, can we continue with the story. Same applies to Australian/New Zealand company, ore diggers and hard man all - with a curious propensity for under aged boys. Very twisty, perverse and oh so cliche.

So much filler data is here that I have a feeling author wanted 400 pages book. With main plot, character side-events and Adriana Corta's story this would be much slimmer and more intense read.

All in all very good book. If it weren't for these page filler and utterly unnecessary parts it would be excellent book. Whenever I think of books on this subject (mighty families duking it out) Glenn Cooks Starfisher trilogy comes to mind. Now there you had no page filler (at least IMHO).

To be honest I got hooked and I recommend it to anyone wanting to read about corpo-level-conflicts, feudal lords of tomorrow, high tech and mercenaries fighting it out for their lords. If you can go over the page filler stuff I mentioned above and understand that cover blurb is always something to be taken with grain of salt I highly recommend this book.

It is very good entry to a new series [that hopefully gets better as it gets going]. ( )

recenzia mea aici: https://bloguldesefe.ro/2021/01/24/dragonii-sangerosi-ai-lunii-despre-luna-noua-... ( )

485 ( )

The “Game of Thrones” comparison works for me: it shares the same mix of having some neat world-building ideas but failing to make the world feel like it actually worked. The violence and sex aren’t enough to distract from so many “how does that even work?” questions or even basic things like how there are weird loan words from all sorts of languages but not a single word of “Globo”, the ostensibly universal tongue, etc. ( )

My feelings towards this book changed a lot while reading, but in the end, it comes down to this: It started out and ended very strong and disappointed in the middle, especially in one regard. And in not just one way, it didn't quite deliver what it had promised.

What I liked:

- I love me some different POV characters.
- Corporations, dynasties and their conflicts ... IN SPACE.
- It's not US-centric, which is basically a guarantee I'll read it.
- The technology is interesting and believable.
- Knife fights ... IN SPACE.
- Great worldbuilding.

So, this book should have been right up my alley. Sadly, it wasn't.

- The beginning and the ending were very good. In fact, the ending is the best thing about this book, but it does not quite make up for all the rest.

What didn't work?

- I feel like I never really got to know the POV characters, except for one (Adriana Corta, and she doesn't really have impact on the current events). I think it was because their chapters were too short and there was too much switching between characters, so they never developed beyond their respective stereotypes and I couldn't empathize with them. Thus, I didn't really care about what happened to them. I only started caring about Lucasinho right before the book ended.

- There was a lot of unnecessary stuff in there that didn't contribute anything to the story (Wagner!) I do think it might be important in one of the next books, but I don't like this whole 'You have to read all the books to really appreciate them' thing. Get my attention with your first book!

- The writing is bloated, with repetitions. Too many repetitions, always repetitions.

- I did not like the narrator of the audiobook. He speeks too slowly and flatly, even in emotional scenes. Didn't work for me at all, even after I sped it up.

What disappointed me

The author tried to write strong, female characters (I think), but wrote 'strong, female characters'(TM) instead. Every one of them is either a mother or a sex object or both. Even Ariel, who is a POV character, and is presented as an independent woman with a great carrier who knows what she wants, is treated this way. I can't think of one decision she made for herself thorough the whole book. Every decision is made for her by someone else, usually a man.
Like, there are really cool ideas in there, and interesting female characters, but they rarely ever get the chance to be more than a mother or a body.

Additionally, this author is weirdly fascinated by women having sex and likes to describe it in excruciating detail. Almost every woman (who is not clearly 'just' a mother) talks or thinks about having sex (sometimes in the least probable situation, like when Marina nearly died and thinks about having sex with Carlinhos while still recovering) or is described having sex. And the description doesn't even try to be from her perspective, but is written for the onlooker, the voyeur.

I actually went back and confirmed when this book was written, because it reads like something from the 70s or 80s, and I do not have this kind of patience with male authors writing female characters in this day and age anymore. It usually makes me angry, but here, it just disappoints, because I really wanted to love this book, it had such a great premise.

Let me give you some examples: (Spoiler tags ahead)

The Ariel scene. I get why it's in the book, it establishes her as an autoerotic person. But then why do we need all this detail about what exactly she does? And why does the author feel the need to add a mirror, so he can describe what she looks like from the outside, if it is about her feeling inside? In the end, the scene reads like a cam-girl scene and not remotely like something about a person who's only aroused by themselves.
Also, she orgasm'd for the first time when she put on a really tight space suit? Seriously? It's 2020 (or 2015, in the case of this book). If you don't know how women work, ask them!

Rafa, a main character, goes down on his wife, but only the woman's (a side character's) body and (re-)actions are described in excruciating detail. The only thing said about Rafa is how amazing he is at it.
Also: 'He didn't even pressure her for a blow job afterwards.' - How bloody nice of him! Yeah, maybe that's just his character, but it was established how much they love each other, so ... which one is it?

In contrast to that, Lucasinho having sex is a big part of his character, and he is never described in this kind of detail. (Which I am thankful for, he is a teenager after all!) Every single one of the male characters gets a '...and they fell into bed. Several hours later...' kind of scene and it seems to be sufficient for establishing their characters. Not once does the author describe a man's body while he is having sex in any detail.

...................................

I feel like the author wanted to write this huge, epic 'A Song of Ice and Fire in Space', something I would have loved. But sadly, it isn't quite that.

I was torn between two and three stars, but I actually had to force myself to finish this book because of the bloated writing, so it will be two stars.
I don't know yet if I am going to read the next book in the series. ( )

I was anxious about reading this book when I saw the long list of characters, thinking I would forget who was who and that would spoil the story, and had hopes it would be a mindless thriller set on the moon. However I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was actually quite easy to follow the characters as McDonald focusses on just a few at a time. Indeed the story of the families, their feuds, their inheritances, their powers, their histories, and their relationships are strung together very well. I understand the author wanted to create a situation similar to The Godfather, which I feel he has achieved. The fact that the setting is on the moon is what I really enjoyed the most - the imaginings of how humans live there, eat, drink, move around, work, play. They have "familiars" - like a cross between the daemons in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials book and a mobile phone, who not only talk to you, but can also keep an eye on your statistics (eg Oxygen levels), and communicate with other familiars, sending and receiving messages. As one character was about to die on the surface of the moon, her familiar said "Your chances of survival are zero. Goodbye, Rachel". I loved McDonald's choice of works to described footprints on the moon: "The regolith is a palimpsest of every journey made across it." ( )

This is basically "Game of Thrones" style political drama set on a colonized moon, with fighting between 5 families (which are sort of parodies of various ethnic groups from Earth -- Australian/European, Brazilian, Chinese, Russian, Ghanaian). It's reasonably interesting but much more intrigue/political/family drama vs. hard SF, so not really to my taste. There is a strong libertarian slant to the whole thing, with basic commodities of life (including oxygen) billed, contracts executed digitally and instantly, and most strikingly, a highly politicized ("post-truth", basically) legal system which allows for trial by combat.

Overall interesting, but not my favorite Moon colonization novel -- far behind Heinlein or Corcoran. ( )

Complex, well-written sci fi with fully developed and detailed society, political history, economic system, and technology. Wonderfully full of ethnic, linguistic, and sexual diversity. The final chapter is stunning - it made my stomach twist and I mourned the beauty Ian McDonald had built until then. (GoT spoiler ahead) Red Wedding on the moon!

Obligatory summary that hopefully sells you on it if you're on the fence:
On the moon there are five dynasties, known as the Five Dragons: the Cortas, the Mackenzies, the Suns, the Asamoahs, and the Vorontsovs. The book follows mostly Corta characters as well as Marina Calzaghe, an engineer fresh from Earth trying to make money to pay her mom's medical bills. Reexperience the Cortas rise to power through the ruthless and driven matriarch's retelling, take a jaunt through the thrilling sexual scene of the moon with young runaway Lucasinho Corta, struggle to adapt to the harsh environment and society of Luna with Marina, practice the uncivilized-compared-to-Earth-yet-more-demanding-of-skill-and-shrewdness contractual law of the moon with Ariel Corta, navigate rocky and often fatal-for-the-unlucky business relationships with Lucas and Rafa Corta, and when the decades old bad blood between the Mackenzies and the Cortas starts to boil over? Just hope you're on the other side of the moon. Do yourself a favor and read the book. ( )

This is a great book that only gets better on the rereads. ( )

All right! What an ending! I won't spoil it, but it's one hell of a satisfying ride.

As I read it, I kept saying to myself, "Damn! This was MADE for HBO. (Or Showtime.) This could be done Brilliantly as a well-funded high-quality production. Hell, this would be even better than GoT, and not only because it's SF instead of F! It's full of glitz, sex, the weight of history, capitalism, and tradition, not to mention all the sprinkling of assassinations and attempted assassinations to liven the party. Plus, it has all the glory of THE MOON. Heinlein, eat your heart out."

First off, expect nothing less than a huge story of dynastic families struggling for control of the moon. There's tons of characters and a great many of them get stage time. That's not really a problem if you're used to some of the great epics. Hell, Even SOIAF (or GoT for everyone else) is rife with it. Tons of characters, lots of build, lots of tearing down, and a sense of something truly grand being laid out before us.

Now, I have to be honest. I've never read [a:Mario Puzo|12605|Mario Puzo|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1379918709p2/12605.jpg], but I am, like most red-blooded males and females, quite familiar with the Godfather. I've enjoyed the character builds, the struggle for family, business, and love. I've loved the struggle so much that I get giddy even at the flashbacks and the humble beginnings. All these things rambled in my mind as I read Luna. Gloriously.

But.

Ian McDonald's wonderful novel is not a retelling or a knock-off of the Godfather set on the moon. But it is just as deep and complex and wonderfully fleshed out as if I was growing up in New York City, carving and empire out for myself in Adriana's reminiscence, or living in modern day Luna, seeing all the fruits of your labor and feeling a deep pride in your accomplishments, knowing that family, whether by flesh or sentiment, is the most precious thing in either world. Earth is the old world, literally, and the Moon is the New World. It flows very naturally, and all of these wonderful lives made a stunningly detailed tapestry.

I generally don't prefer epic dynasties in my reading habits, but when I do get through them, I'm generally floored by the amount of care and precision placed into every line, every word. There's something truly brilliant about the effort placed into this novel in precisely the same way.

So: Total Respect.

Soon after starting it, I did have to scale back a few expectations. I've read a few of his novels, before, and I've learned to relax into the characters, never expect grand revelations early or even mid-novel. On the other hand, I've learned that I can always expect a huge revelation or an action at the end.

I've learned to be patient. Trying to discover a plot in his books is like digging for clues of a lost civilization in ten meters of sand.

Fortunately, the civilization always exists. We did buy the shovels and dustpans and brooms. And McDonald even provided us a wide cast of characters (read archeologists and interns) to do all the heavy sifting. All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the process in mute admiration. Things have a way of unearthing themselves.

And what a story! I find myself itching all over to pick up the next novel, setting google alerts on his writing status for it, bemoaning the fate that I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO READ IT FOR SOME HORRIBLE FUCK OF A TIME. Gaaahhhhhrrrrgggghhhh!

Did I love this book? You better fucking believe it.

Did this manage to make my list of the best SF of the year? Yes. In fact, I would not be disappointed if it earned itself the Hugo for 2015 for Best Novel. It's hellaimpressive. It's a great epic read. It's also filled to the brim with imminently plausible science. Not a single thing was out of place. No handwavium for 68 thousand kilometers. That's also pretty damn impressive. But the bad? It doesn't break new SF ground EXCEPT in how it teaches SF to fear an awesomely new height in epic familial dynasties. I've seen things like this in Fantasy, too, but this happens to rooted deliciously and consummately in our Earth.

This was totally worth it.
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there's a lot that's good here, but I found it hard to get invested in the characters and/or the story ( )

first in a trilogy. write quicker. cause wow, this was gripping, and it just flew by. set on a (just barely) colonized Moon, in an unforgiving environment, in which there is very little law (all of it contract law), and the Five Families and their corporate empires control everything. the author is new to me, and now i have to start in reading much more of him. ( )

Great ideas, astonishingly boring execution. A third of the way through, almost nothing had happened. That was as far as I got.

Lenta, con paginas de sobra... ( )

It’s become difficult for me, in recent times, to find a science fiction novel I can truly enjoy: there are exceptions of course, like the works of undiscussed masters as Iain M. Banks (just to name one), or more recent space opera series like John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War or James S.A. Corey’s The Expanse, but on the whole, new works I’ve come across are either slanted toward military sf (not my cup of tea), or rely heavily on the more romantic aspects of a story – something that holds little interest for me.

So when I came across Ian McDonald’s Luna, I was delighted to find so many of the elements I appreciate in the genre, combined in such a way as to make this novel as close to perfection as possible.

Full review at SPACE AND SORCERY BLOG ( )

Great space saga involving a colonized Moon and feuding families. The story mostly follows a Brazilian family, self made by the now old matriarch along her long life. The family now is composed of her several grown-up children and nephews. The characters are very well described, they evolve and interact credibly and they have to face interesting choices. The science part is not described in detail but is believable and the whole world of the Moon has a grandiose/heroic feeling attached to it. The social system is not explored enough as the book contains a lot of action, but it is an interesting idea. Overall a very pleasant lecture. ( )

Interesting and original setting. Ok, not the setting per se (it's the Moon after all :P) but its cultural, social and political aspects, and to a lesser degree, the technology . Well developed characters. Good pace.
( )

3.5 stars, rounded up.

The comparisons for Luna: New Moon are seemingly endless: [b:Tai-Pan|42933|Tai-Pan (Asian Saga, #2)|James Clavell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1437266246s/42933.jpg|1755754], [b:Noble House|390711|Noble House (Asian Saga, #4)|James Clavell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1365185986s/390711.jpg|1486259], [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436732693s/13496.jpg|1466917], [b:The Godfather|22034|The Godfather|Mario Puzo|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394988109s/22034.jpg|266624], [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1434908555s/234225.jpg|3634639], [b:The Moon is a Harsh Mistress|16690|The Moon is a Harsh Mistress|Robert A. Heinlein|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348768309s/16690.jpg|1048525] (although instead of Heinlein's lunar utopia, Luna is a lunar dystopia). Just like these classics, the Mafia-styled families are doing all they can to increase their wealth and holdings at the expense of everyone else.

As in his book, [b:Brasyl|278281|Brasyl|Ian McDonald|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925633s/278281.jpg|269900], which is set in a future South America, McDonald uses Brazilians as his main characters, but this time, they are mining the Moon for raw material. Luna is an in-depth tour inside the now-honeycombed Moon with the rich people living deeper under the surface (it’s safer) and the poorer people living closer to the surface, much riskier due to the solar radiation and hazardous lunar dust. The scenes set on the surface were among the best in the book.

Even though I see dozens of 4- and 5-stars reviews, I struggled to get into this book. I didn't connect with most of the characters, with the exception of Marina Calzaghe. She’s one of the first characters introduced, and is struggling to survive in an extremely harsh physical and economic environment. She’s a highly sympathetic character, but unfortunately, very little time is devoted to her story, which only occasionally pops in for an update. Most of the other characters are completely unsympathetic, simple cutthroats with no morals or purpose other than to grab more than the next guy.

The book constantly jumps from viewpoint to viewpoint of the sons and daughters of the Corta family. The thing that bothered me most is that while the Corta siblings are the ones we are supposed to care about, there is little in the story to make me want to care about them. I understand they are competing against each other for the family mining company, while attempting to protect each other from other competing families that want to destroy them, but they really had no redeemable characteristics that drew me to them.

As expected from this author, the world-building is spectacular, which actually increased my rating. McDonald really created an exceedingly harsh, believable world. It reminded me a lot of Los Angeles as depicted in the brilliant movie, Blade Runner.

The writing is interesting, especially considering that it is written in third-person present tense. That took some getting used to, but ultimately, the book is well-written and well-developed. If you enjoy complex storylines that employ mafia-style generational families and all that entails, this one is right up your alley. ( )

This is an ambitious novel (& I daresay it succeeds in much). I was intrigued with the colony on the moon and the houses who run it, the Five Dragons (Corta, Swan, Mackenzie, Asamoa & Gregoire). The world-building was quite well done and kept me hooked but I did feel that characterisation lacked a bit. That may be because there are so very many people who are introduced and cycle in and out with rapidity. I have to hand it to McDonald, the permanent exits he give these characters is vivid. Rachel Mackenzie was one of my favorites but there is so much going on with so many others, I can't say I was truly sad when she exited (honestly, it was one less person to keep track of in this huge cast). There was a thread of some sort of werewolf thing going on with Wagner Corta and I still don't understand it or have any idea where that's going. I'm not a fan of paranormal in my science fiction but I'm still open to this being important and necessary in the future.

Most of the novel was fairly quiet and there seemed a lot of information to take in with a set up to make sure the reader knows there are higher stakes coming and it builds to a fantastic end. I definitely will read the next. Recommended for anyone who loves a good multi-family saga in a science fiction setting. ( )

Luna: New Moon was marketed as “Game of Thrones set on the moon”, and that seemed pretty accurate to me. The Moon has finally been colonized, primarily by the Five Dragons, five powerful industrial families that are constantly battling for supremacy. We’re following the upstart Cortas, led by matriarch Adriana Corta, who’ve made a fortune mining Helium-3, but are finding that their ascension to Dragon stature comes with a whole bunch of complications.

There’s no one protagonist, as is the case with many of McDonald’s novels. We follow pretty much all of the Cortas, and some others, like Marina Calzaghe, a “Jo Moonbeam” (a recent arrival from Earth) who gets thoroughly tangled in the Cortas’ affairs. There doesn’t seem to be plot at first, we dive head first into the Cortas’ lives, what they do, who they love, their struggles with each other, but it’s all extremely compelling. We also learn more about the early days of the moon and its colonization through Adriana’s memoirs, which adds a lot of context to the story and is a lot of fun. There is plot though, and it all makes sense when it comes to fruition.

Some of the other highlights were the evolution of world/national culture (something McDonald specializes in), the development of interesting AI, and the brutal economics of living on the moon. My only complaint was that I didn’t realize that this was a duology until I reached the end and realized there was no way this story had ended. I’m looking forward to the sequel, though. CBS is also developing a TV show based on the books, which I really hope goes to series. ( )

Takes a quarter of the way to acclimate to the huge amount of information that confronts you, and then It settles and you speed through the devastation that ensues. Brilliant! ( )

Five families (Five Dragons) control the Moon. They are in constant competition to have more influence, more control.

A trip to the Moon, if you stay long enough, becomes one-way as your bones and body won't stand Earth's gravity well. So there is no leaving, unless you choose to leave early. After that, you swear allegiance to one of the Five Dragons and are swept into the politics and everything short of open combat between the families.

Characterization and society are detailed and complex. You can understand how this all came about, even if it seems so very alien at the same time as completely human.

I listened to the audio book and am very glad I did, as the singsong of Brazilian Portuguese was lovely. ( )