NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
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
Publishers Weekly
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.)
From the Publisher
"...fresh and exciting. Another stellar effort from one of the masters of the genre."—Booklist (starred) on Red Moon
"Enjoyable and thought-provoking...[Robinson] is one of contemporary science fiction's great scene-setters."—SF Chronicle on Red Moon
"...as convincingly textured and observant as we've come to expect from one of the finest writers of his generation."—Locus magazine on Red Moon
"...as nuanced a portrait of connection between two people - two people who may never admit out loud that they've come to care for each other even the slightest bit, even if only as partners in survival — as we've seen in science fiction in quite some time. Robinson nails the dynamic. Bravo."—SCI-FI magazine on Red Moon
"New York may be underwater, but it's better than ever."—The New Yorker 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
NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile
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
Kirkus Reviews
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.
