Book Review: Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson

Hardcover, 446 pages

Published October 2018 by Orbit

KSR has been on a tear the last couple of years. I was not a huge fan of New York 2140, I believe 2312 and Aurora to be two of the best 21st-century sci-fi novels. No matter what it is important to check in with Robinson and see what ideas were getting him going this year.

Red Moon will probably not be as popular as the last couple books but I think there are a lot of important ideas being touched upon in this seemingly straight forward space adventure. The Setting is a Chinese moon colony in the year 2047, our main point of view comes from Fred Fredricks an American engineer working for a Swiss company. Things get messy with governments and jurisdiction when he is accused of poisoning a Chinese official.

Fred escapes the moon with the help of poet and celebrity travel reporter Ta Shu in the process he meets another renegade named Qi. She is the daughter of a famous Chinese political figure who illegally got pregnant on the moon. (for real that would be really dangerous - we have no idea how that would work) What Fred learns is that Qi is a political revolutionary working to change to the political system in China. The political ideas are central to the final act but certainly one of the shortcomings of the novel was that these ideas didn't come to the forefront until 370 pages in.

Certainly, KSR suggests some interesting ideas for how technology could help move democracy forward into a more effective space. As character points out "I think the idea that everyone's got a wrist pad and a connection to the cloud, everyone could participate in some kind of global governance."

Red Moon is a really thoughtful book and I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the last few books but it was not for the lack of ideas. I think it is a little bit more action orientated than most KSR books are. It has an international thriller feel like movies Like Syriana but updated to reflect China as an insurgent super-power and increased space presence.

It is a big deal that the Chinese were the first to solve the issue it would take to put a rover on the far side of the moon. This novel is less about moon issues as it is current political realities being explored into the future. How Chinese politics and economy will affect the future is the spine of this narrative. You might over look it with the back and forth to the moon and the first lunar pregnancy.

The novel is a pretty good experience over-all and I like the third act best. That said it ends really abruptly. I kinda felt like my library copy was missing ten pages.