Red Moon

by Kim Stanley Robinson

Overview

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

It is thirty 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 that 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316262378
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	10/23/2018
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	826,885
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Kim Stanley Robinson is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the bestselling Mars trilogy and the critically acclaimed Forty Signs of Rain, The Years of Rice and Salt, and 2312. In 2008, he was named a "Hero of the Environment" by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. He lives in Davis, California.

Editorial Reviews

09/03/2018
Although the premise of Robinson’s disappointing latest near-future novel—that by 2047 the moon has been colonized by the U.S. and China—is classically science-fictional, the focus remains on projecting those countries’ economic and political futures back on Earth rather than on exploring the implications of extraterrestrial human societies. Fred Fredericks, an American, has been sent to the moon to deliver a “mobile quantum key” phone to the Chinese, but when he shakes the hand of Gov. Chang Yazu, both men are poisoned, Chang fatally. American State Department agents try to keep Fred out of Chinese custody as an investigation is launched into the murder, which may implicate a super-secret branch of Chinese intelligence whose desire to militarize the moon was opposed by Chang. Fred ends up fleeing to Earth along with Qi, a woman who illegally got pregnant on the moon. Their narrow escapes become repetitive, and neither character is well-developed, while Robinson’s speculations about a future for blockchain governance are interesting but not well integrated into the plot. This dry work is didactic and unremarkable. Agent: Chris Schelling, Selectric Artists Literary & Talent. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"New York may be underwater, but it's better than ever."
—The New Yorker on New York 2140

"Relevant and essential."—Bloomberg Businessweek on New York 2140

"Massively enjoyable."—The Washington Post on New York 2140

"Science fiction is threaded everywhere through culture nowadays, and it would take an act of critical myopia to miss the fact that Robinson is one of the world's finest working novelists, in any genre."
—Guardian on New York 2140

"An exploration of human resilience in the face of extreme pressure...starkly beautiful and fundamentally optimistic visions of technological and social change in the face of some of the worst devastation we might bring upon ourselves."
—The Conversation on New York 2140

"As much a critique of contemporary capitalism, social mores and timeless human foibles, this energetic, multi-layered narrative is also a model of visionary worldbuilding."
—RT Books Reviews (Top Pick!) on New York 2140

"The thriller Robinson unspools in that flooded city is gripping on its own merits. But it's the radical imagination of the book that makes it so hard to put down."
—Business Insider on New York 2140

"In this both heartening and dismaying vision of a peri-apocalyptic world, human greed (of course) is the villain, to which the only counteragent is the tenacity and resolve of the human spirit."
—Financial Times on New York 2140

"[A] near-perfect marriage of the technical and the psychological."
—NPR Books on Aurora

"Intellectually engaged and intensely humane in a way SF rarely is, exuberantly speculative in a way only the best SF can be, this is the work of a writer at or approaching the top of his game."
—Iain M. Banks on 2312

"This book proves once again that Robinson's fascination with the human condition and mankind's journey transcends easy genre labels...Despite all his previous accolades, this may be Robinson's best work to date, focused so sharply as it is on the simplest way of being human."
—Library Journal on Shaman

From the Publisher

2018-08-21

The murder of a Chinese politician on the moon in the mid-21st century sends a mismatched couple on the run and signals a looming crisis on Earth.

American Fred Fredericks is delivering a secure quantum-entangled phone to Chang Yazu, chief administrator of the Chinese Lunar Authority, but the two have barely shaken hands when Chang slumps to the ground, dead by poison. The confused Fred is accused of the crime, a pawn in a power struggle among various Chinese government factions, who also seek control of Chan Qi, the pregnant daughter of a top party official and the leader of a migrant workers rights movement. The two bounce between the Earth and moon and back in search of a safe refuge, aided at times by poet and "cloud star" Ta Shu, a friend of Peng Ling, the strong contender to become China's first woman president. The title initially seems like a call back to the first entry in Robinson's terraforming trilogy, Red Mars, but while the lunar landscape is a source of beautifully described detail and the lower gravity acts as obstacle and asset, this is not a hard sci-fi novel. Rather, it's a political thriller where the moon is a backdrop and game piece for both China and the United States, two powerful nations facing significant political and economic unrest. A white man writing about Chinese politics and mainly Chinese characters could seem questionable in a publishing milieu that still lacks sufficient diverse voices; all one can say is that as per usual for Robinson, it seems well-researched. It is unfortunate that Chan Qi's primary qualities are being pregnant and cranky; while tough and passionate, there's little sign of the charisma typically associated with a populist leader. The more well-rounded Ta Shu is still mostly a plot device: He writes the occasional profound-seeming poem, but he's mainly there to rescue our heroes at various moments and provide the author's desired infodumps on physics and Chinese politics. Fred Fredericks (the white man) is the most intriguingly drawn character. While no explicit diagnosis is given, the author offers a vivid and relatively plausible depiction of a man on the spectrum, with social difficulties and a sensory processing disorder.

Not Robinson's (New York 2140, 2017, etc.) strongest work, but not without interest, either.

Kirkus Reviews

A trio of narrators tackles a look at the future of humanity in which the technical details overshadow the drama. In the near future, the moon has been colonized jointly by the U.S. and China. An American accused of murder and caught up in a power struggle flees with the help of an illegally pregnant woman and a poet/celebrity. Maxwell Hamilton, Joy Osmanski, and Feodor Chin capably breathe life into the characters with heart and levity, even across genders and races. Character intonations and accents shift effortlessly between Chinese, English, and more, and the narration as a whole is perfectly balanced between lighthearted and sinister. In the end, the narration outshines a dry sci-fi story featuring a lot of economic and political speculation. J.M.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile