Ian McDonald

The Moon wants to kill you. Whether it's being unable to pay your per diem for your allotted food, water, and air, or you just get caught up in a fight between the Moon's ruling corporations, the Five Dragons. You must fight for every inch you want to gain in the Moon's near feudal society. And that is just what Adriana Corta did. As the leader of the Moon's newest "dragon," Adriana has wrested control of the Moon's Helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies... and each other.

Luna: New Moon

Stephen Campbell

Kept trying to describe the economic system of these books to friends and eventually landed on "bisexual lunar feudal-capitalism".

altlovesbooks

This one didn't click at all with me. I normally like my complicated fantasy/sci-fi political maneuverings and family dramas, but I didn't really care about any of the characters. There's no real main character, instead you follow members of the Corta family as they pit their business, money, and prestige against other families who are gunning for what Corta has. The point of view bounces around so much between the 5 or 6 family members that you really don't spend a lot of time with any one of them, which I think takes away a lot of the story's impact. Compounding my disconnect with the story were the continued usage of unfamiliar terms, which I ended up having to write down to keep track of what they meant using context clues.

I think my favorite point of view ended up being the matriarch's retelling of how the Cortas got to where they are, while my least favorite by a long margin was Lucasinho. The author has a really good writing style and I can see why others like this series so much, but it didn't do anything for me and I likely will not be continuing with the series.

Wynter

Somebody, throw this book at an HBO executive. It must be made into a critically acclaimed tv series with all the gratuitous sex and violence that comes with the network. 

The story takes place on the moon in the near future, where five family-owned corporations control all resources and infrastructure, and scheme for total dominance. The majority of the plot revolves around the Corta and MacKenzie families whose dispute over Helium-3 production takes the conflict out of the boardroom and into the streets. It's not an easy read at first, since the politics and family ties are complicated and require some time to get used to, but they bring great richness to the narrative. The book opens with a character list, but I would suggest to skip it, as it would probably just overwhelm you at first. Read one or two chapters, then get back to the list and review. It puts everything into place. The author also borrows vocabulary from different languages to assign terms to relations and titles, so refer to the glossary in the back for those. It's not as difficult to grasp as it might sound.

To explain it in a few sentences, I really enjoyed this book for it's approachability. Though futuristic, the setting is believable. There are no aliens or grand intergalactic wars that I usually have a hard time connecting to. The events in Luna books might as well happen in a span of a few generations. The plot focuses on human emotions and corporate chess play, rather than blasters and droids. New Moon is often compared to The Game of Thrones or The Godfather set in space. I think it's a very accurate description.

Shona Tiger

3.5 stars. Lots of elaborate ideas; fantastic world-building. Too many of the characters are really unlikeable for me :( Really wonderful climax.

Danny Engström

I could not stand the writing style. The Borgias on the Moon. I read maybe thirty pages before I gave up. This was not for me.

Fraser Simons

Very solid. Inclusive of cultures, sexual orientations, gender, and speculative technologies. Fun, in terms of both a hybrid political thriller and action sequences and the strange and interesting construction of lunar society. Ian is always a solid read, I find. River of Gods was a also a fantastic cyberpunk book.

Cindy Lieberman

How much sex is too much sex in Sci-fi? More than halfway through this book I just can’t continue to indulge the author’s mostly irrelevant fantasies of sexual combinations and contortions. Sure there are some relevant consequences, but the overall emphasis on sex (individually, in pairs of either/both sex, in 3+ and larger groups, and at more formal family- and corporate-sanctioned parties/orgies described in detail) became too much for this reader after a while. As this is a multi-book series, I must be in the minority. On to a book with twists and turns from plot and characters, not just from sex in zero-g.

Ben Nathan

Good story, well thought out world, quality characters... Most importantly, it often reads as a love letter to Gin. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to the other two.

A Dragon is dead. Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed . The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward--virtually a hostage-- of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey--to Earth. In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts. Luna: Wolf Moon continues Ian McDonald's saga of the Five Dragons.

A Novel

Luna: Wolf Moon

A good character piece that filled in a lot of understanding, but definitely felt like a bridge to the next book more than it's own thing

Phil James

Michael Cowell

Cadel Watson

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed. The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent's violent deaths, is now a ward - virtually a hostage - of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished from the surface of the moon. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and - more to the point - that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was a schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey - to Earth. In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war between the families erupts.

Luna 2. Wolf Moon

Isabella

Matthew Rasnake

Ell T

A Dragon is dead. Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed . The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward--virtually a hostage-- of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey--to Earth. In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts. Luna: Wolf Moon continues Ian McDonald's saga of the Five Dragons. Luna 1. Luna: New Moon 2. Luna: Wolf Moon 3. Luna: Moon Rising At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Luna: New Moon

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