The Menace from Farside

by Ian McDonald

Overview

In The Menace from Farside, Ian McDonald returns to his elegantly wound solar system of the twenty-second century, full of political intrigue and complicated families.

Remember: Lady Luna knows a thousand ways to kill you, but family is what you know. Family is what works.

Cariad Corcoran has a new sister who is everything she is not: tall, beautiful, confident. They're unlikely allies and even unlikelier sisters, but they're determined to find the moon's first footprint, even if the lunar frontier is doing its best to kill them before they get there.

Praise for Ian McDonald's Luna series

“McDonald's never written a bad novel, but Luna: New Moon is a great one.”—Cory Doctorow

"With an action narrative driving this political commentary, Luna is actually a fantastically fun read as well as an important one. "—Los Angeles Review of Books

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250247797
Publisher:	Tor Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Series:	Luna
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

IAN MCDONALD was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He has won the Locus Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. His novels include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House, the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. In 2019, Ian was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the European Science Fiction Society. He now lives in Belfast.

Editorial Reviews

09/02/2019

The sophisticated worldbuilding McDonald presented in his Luna trilogy is sadly absent in this forgettable novella, presented in the form of a bratty teen’s recounting of an adventure to a therapist. In 2089, Cariad Corcoran, who was born on the Moon, is rattled by the arrival of a previously unknown stepsister, Sidibe Sisay, whose existence further complicates her messy family relationships. Intimidated by Sidibe’s height, beauty, and ability to fly (a nod, as the title suggests, to Robert A. Heinlein’s 1957 story “The Menace from Earth”), Cariad concocts a scheme that is somehow supposed to undermine Sidibe’s new prominence in the family. Cariad, Sidibe, and two others are to travel to the Sea of Tranquility to leave their marks next to Neil Armstrong’s footprint, a mission that proves unexpectedly perilous. The Luna novels feature a complex struggle for power among family-run corporations that have industrialized the Moon; this slight effort will disappoint readers hoping for more glimpses of those elements, as here the tangled dynamics come across as superficial and confusing. Heinlein fans might get a chuckle out of the parallels, but McDonald fans will find the story unimpressive. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Ian McDonald's Luna series

“McDonald's never written a bad novel, but Luna: New Moon is a great one.” —Cory Doctorow

“With an action narrative driving this political commentary, Luna is actually a fantastically fun read as well as an important one.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“McDonald creates a complex and fascinating civilization featuring believable technology, and the characters are fully developed, with individually gripping stories.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

From the Publisher