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Moon Rising

(Luna #3)

Ian McDonald

really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 944 ratings · 137 reviews

The continuing saga of the Moon's Five Dragons, already under option from CBS, a fast-paced, intricately plotted space opera pitched as Game of Thrones meets The Expanse

A hundred years in the future, a war wages between the Five Dragons—five families that control the Moon’s leading industrial companies. Each clan does everything in their power to claw their way to the top ...more

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Hardcover, 437 pages

Published March 19th 2019 by Tor Books

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Apr 05, 2019 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, worldbuilding-sf, 2019-shelf

Ian McDonald is one hell of a writer. I've been following his career rather closely and I've loved the kinds of intricate people-centric webs he weaves. They always appear rather rambling and exploratory but more than that, they're deeply about the characters.

Fascinating doesn't begin to describe them. And these three popular Luna novels give us the full run of the five families on the Moon and the gory feud that culminated in mass death in the first book and ending with a fully brilliant ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 Silvana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-google, diversified, mine-mine-mine, reading-with-friends, sl-laser-challenge-2019, sci-fi, space-the-final-frontier, sff-2019-reading-challenge

What an ending!

This is one of my most awaited books for 2019, as I absolutely adore New Moon and Wolf Moon. I already sang praises on the characters and the writing in my previous reviews, in this final review I will focus on the worldbuilding aspect.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised that the author actually expanded the world by adding new settings, new characters, and even new subplots. As with the previous books, the pacing is fast, details might be missed, yet everything came up nicely What an ending!

This is one of my most awaited books for 2019, as I absolutely adore New Moon and Wolf Moon. I already sang praises on the characters and the writing in my previous reviews, in this final review I will focus on the worldbuilding aspect.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised that the author actually expanded the world by adding new settings, new characters, and even new subplots. As with the previous books, the pacing is fast, details might be missed, yet everything came up nicely at the end.

When in the previous books the power struggle was between the Dragons (with some civil war in between) and some hints about conflict between the Earth nations/corporate with the Moon, the scale has become much bigger. Each family has their own agenda, own plan on the moon's future, what humanity would become. Oh I love these kinds of stuff, since I love reading about societal experimentation, different forms of governance and the likes. The book's political plots reminded me of the excellent The Moon and the Other and The Dispossessed; every time a new agenda was mentioned, it made me wonder. Which one would work best? A utopia of a post-labor society with no want for resources? A full-blown exploration in the deep space? There were lots of possibilities. And the families fought for it. It was no longer a war between the Cortas vs the Mackenzies vs the Suns vs the Asamoahs vs the Voronsovts. No, it has become more complicated. Old regimes fell, new regime rose. But even the political assassinations and all the grisly revenge were just setting up the stage for something bigger.

The expanded worldbuilding, however, also brought some distraction when it came to new characters and added subplots. I wished more focus were given to the main POVs as this is the last time we'll ever read about them and I love them so much I just wanted to be in their heads much longer. That's why I gave this four, not five stars, I guess. (Well, and there's the factor of typos and errors, there were more than a dozen of them it is ridiculous. Seriously, who was the proofreader? I'd do it for free!)

All in all, it has been a marvelous, gut-wrenching, exhilarating journey on the moon and their ambitious, gorgeous, arrogant, resilient and tenacious citizens. I highly recommend the trilogy to all SF fans. ...more

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Nov 22, 2019 The Captain rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Ahoy me mateys! Grab yer grog! Here be book 3 of the seventh installment of the 3 Bells trilogy showcase. While I try to post no spoilers, ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . .

luna: moon rising (Ian McDonald)

Whew! It was certainly a rush down to the wire to finish this trilogy and write me review in time. This review is going to be super short because of a) the time crunch and b) I can't explain much without massive spoilers. I did think this book was much stronger than the ...more

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May 17, 2019 Carlex rated it really liked it

Four stars for the novel
Four and half stars for the trilogy

Really, this is a very good trilogy, brilliant in some aspects, as usual in Ian McDonald's novels. I enjoyed it a lot. However, I have read (or reread) the three novels in a row and for now -and for some time I think- I have enough of Cortas and McKenzies.

For me, highly recommended.

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Jun 13, 2019 Charles rated it liked it

A telenovela themed Dune-esque trilogy set on a colonized Moon comes to an end.

Full disclosure, I'm a fanboi for this author. I also have a recent fetish for all science fiction set on the Moon.

This book was the conclusion of the series. It was well written and richly detailed. The near-future world building was exceptionally good. Of the three (3) books in the series it was the most Dune-like , whereas the middle book in the trilogy (my review) had more of an old fashioned cyberpunk feel ...more

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Apr 22, 2019 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, 2019-read

Oh man! The Mackenzies may " pay back three times", but damn, don't get ever on the Corta's bad side!
This hasn't been the easiest series to get into, and I remember struggling mightily in book one to keep track of everyone and the different motives, and once the violent overthrow of the Cortas began, the deaths were numerous and often horrible, which continued into book two. This book has its share of sudden, violent death, but the Cortas are in a different place at the story's open, with ...more

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Apr 03, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: awesome-characters, 7k-challenge, sci-fi

These books are epic on the scale of Game of Thrones, gory on the scale of Stephen King, clever on the scale of Kaz Brekker, and diverse to boot. I recommend this series every chance I get.

But that isn't to say the books aren't without their flaws. There are definitely some things I would have liked tightened up. The primary one being the amount of reading between the lines that's needed to fully grasp these books. I happened to read this with buddies, who were wonderfully patient with me, and I These books are epic on the scale of Game of Thrones, gory on the scale of Stephen King, clever on the scale of Kaz Brekker, and diverse to boot. I recommend this series every chance I get.

But that isn't to say the books aren't without their flaws. There are definitely some things I would have liked tightened up. The primary one being the amount of reading between the lines that's needed to fully grasp these books. I happened to read this with buddies, who were wonderfully patient with me, and I like to think I would have understood better if my time wasn't so stretched and I could really sit down and pay attention, but the truth is you have to infer quite a bit of information from these books. I had to re-read things a few times to figure out what I was witnessing.

I'll be the first to tell you I'm really not that reader. I like books that make me think about life, current events, philosophy, religion you name it, but I'd prefer if the events of the book are pretty straight forward. This isn't something I detract a lot of points for, because readers deserve to have books that challenge them. (As an aside- another beloved series, Terra Ignota is written a lot like this. Maybe it's something I like more than I think I do.)

The second thing I would have changed is that, reading this, I felt like a lot of information was purposefully withheld from readers in the earlier books just to make them more suspenseful. That does annoy me. One example is Wagner and his "lycanthropy". It does finally get an explanation in this book but the explanation was so simple that the big reveal felt very anticlimactic.

Finally, there were some characters whose storylines I hadn't really invested in in books one and two because their storylines take awhile to get ramped up and they never really felt like the focus. Those storylines get some pretty thrilling conclusions in book three and I was cursing myself the whole time for not paying better attention to them. Likewise, I found myself missing some of the characters who were more important players early on and sort of faded to the background here.

But in the end, these books are some of the most entertaining books I've ever read. The world building is solid, and it's never told in boring info dumps. It throws you head first into this dark, ugly world with little more than a short dictionary to guide you. The characters are whole and three dimensional, motivated by their own desires, with unique voices. They're colorful and vibrant and pop off the page. I adore the "heroes". I love the justice dispensed to the villains. I read the last 150 pages almost all in one sitting because the conclusion was so perfect, I couldn't look away for even a moment.

I'm sad it's over, but I'm excited to jump into another McDonald book knowing what he's capable of, and even more thrilled by the possibility of a new series to sink my teeth into. Perhaps most telling, is that I'm sincerely looking forward to re-reading them all when I have more time on my hands.

This review can also be found on my blog, Hamlets & Hyperspace ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 Emily rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-fi

This trilogy got weaker with each book. The final novel was just boring and repetitive. Many of the characters really had no point in the story at all - Robson, Wagner, Lucasinho, Luna - they're all in the story, they all had large parts of the book dedicated to them, but what was the point? It was tedious and dull.

I'm really tired of reading about Wagner's dual light/dark sides, of Robson climbing all over the city, of Ariel's endless internal dialogs about fashion, of the extraneous ...more

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Apr 16, 2019 Efka rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, politics

A great book that finishes a great trilogy. Really, I have no doubts now that a tv-series, if it ever reaches that far, would be a great and popular show, enjoyed by many diverse and different people.

The annotations of these books often screams "Game of Thrones" meets "The Expanse" or something similar. While I can find vague similarities with both of these shows, the treachery, politics, absolute ruthlessness and even a few villains brings me up a whole different sci-fi mammooth - the ...more

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Apr 22, 2019 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-read

Well if you made it here to the end, then you know what to expect, and that's exactly what Moon Rising delivers: complicated, political, violent, and full of the expected unexpected.

One thing of exceptional note is the writing. In this final book in particular McDonald shows his mastery of language and structure. Many passages are poems in the guise of narrative, adding an extra experiential layer to the story.

She is never comfortable now. She has no comfort on this world. This chuckle of water, ...more

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Jun 11, 2019 Denise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-purchased-ebooks, 2019, 2019-may

Satisfying ending of the trilogy. 4.5 stars. Probably not perfect but I’m a sucker for happy endings!

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Mar 17, 2019 Kate rated it really liked it

Shelves: favourites-read-in-2019, out-in-2019-and-read

I loved the first two books of this series very much but found the third rather impenetrable, possibly because there are a great many characters and, despite the useful brief synopsis at the beginning, I found it difficult to remember all that has happened to them. I would definitely recommend reading this hot on the heels of book 2. Now the focus is on the future of the moon as the remaining dragons (chiefs of the key familes) scramble for influence, and control of the dominant Corta family. ...more

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Jun 19, 2018 Maja marked it as to-read

I can't believe that I have to wait until March 2019 for this book!

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Mar 09, 2019 Jeremy Szal rated it it was amazing

Shelves: urban-cities, favourites, science-fiction, dark-and-delicious, 2019

Phenomenal. The third act is absolute bonkers. Never before has the "Game of Thrones in space" comparison hit the mark as much as this one did.

Moon Rising was one of my most anticipated novels of 2019, and when my publisher offered me the chance to read a pre-proof copy of the third and final installment of Ian McDonald's trilogy, I dived right in. Knowing it would be a dense and fantastic read, but afraid my expectations wouldn't be met. They were. They were met in spades.

The prose is Phenomenal. The third act is absolute bonkers. Never before has the "Game of Thrones in space" comparison hit the mark as much as this one did.

Moon Rising was one of my most anticipated novels of 2019, and when my publisher offered me the chance to read a pre-proof copy of the third and final installment of Ian McDonald's trilogy, I dived right in. Knowing it would be a dense and fantastic read, but afraid my expectations wouldn't be met. They were. They were met in spades.

The prose is gorgeous, the world-building dense and wonderfully detailed, the politics razorsharp, and the narrative revelations are mindbogglingly good. It's quite different from the two books, before we had dynastic families fighting each other, then for control of the moon. This time, they're fighting for the future of the moon, and how it is used as an economic, political and industrial outpost. There's definitely a sense of finality here, and the dread piles on as we see how things start to wrap up. It went in some areas I was *definitely* not expecting it to go, with some characters making some very questionable decisions. If you felt the plot turns were a bit muddy in the previous books, they're almost obfuscated here unless you're really, *really* paying attention to the political layout of the moon. I'd have liked for things to be a little more clearer and have significant narrative turns to be standing out more, if only to make them hit that much harder, but as it as I'm very satisfied with how these characters ended up and the direction the world is going to take.

The Luna books have always been in-your-face and harsh, but things really go up to eleven here. The fate of some characters are well-earned, others downright tragic. But all of them (perhaps with the exception of one) feel satisfying.

While "Wolf Moon" remains my favourite of the series, I'm hugely pleased with how this trilogy comes to a close. Ian McDonald has outdone himself and I cannot wait to see what others think of this one. Furiously written and unflinchingly fabulous, this one is an easy five stars. ...more

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Mar 24, 2019 Nancy Shaffer rated it really liked it

Shelves: solar-system

I did not enjoy this book as much as the other two in the series, but Ian McDonald's writing is as gorgeous as ever, and his Byzantine Game of Thrones meets the 80's primetime soap Dynasty view of the Moon is as outrageous as ever. The story continues, and I will chomp at the bit for the next installment.

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Mar 30, 2019 Marylouise Dreibelbis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fantasy

I missed something here. Did Marina make it back to the moon or what?

This series is a wild ride especially with the whole Game of Thrones thing.

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Mar 27, 2019 Leseparatist rated it liked it

Shelves: earc, 2019

I read the novel courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

It's rare that cover copy is as accurate as in the case of McDonald's Luna trilogy; I was promised A Game of Thrones on the moon, and I got pretty much that, except with an ending. Moon Rising brings a few excellent plot developments and character beats and a good conclusion to the story, but there was something about the style - the narrative choices of what was and wasn't shown, the omissions and descriptions - that kept ...more

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May 12, 2019 NFG rated it did not like it

While the first two books were gripping and enjoyable, the third fell apart under the weight of its lore,
It is an unenjoyable slog through lengthy and often unbelievable prose about characters who've ceased being people and become magnified caricatures.

The first two books created a fascinating future with dynasties battling for control of the moon, and the third throws all of that away for a constant barrage of mystical, pointless proceedings that bloom into existence and die immediately ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Lori rated it it was amazing

Great conclusion to a soap opera set on the moon! It’s much more than a soap opera but Ian himself stated he was kind of inspired to write a Dallas set in space. Thankfully no It was all a dream with Bobby in the shower.

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Nov 05, 2017 Ophelia marked it as to-read

what??? I had no earthly idea this was happening and I'm crying a little rn

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May 22, 2019 Liam rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, owned-books, specfic-buddy-reads, bought-2019, 2019

"It is time for me to take the blade." - Lucas Corta

Finally. I've been waiting for the finale to this saga for four years. And the result? Slightly disappointing.

I'm probably being harsh, there's no way it could have lived up to my expectations. It's no secret I think that this series is the greatest piece of science fiction since sliced cyber-bread, and I recommend it to anyone who sits still long enough. In particular I recommend it to people who think GoT is overrated (my personal viewpoint), and I think it does a better job of showing a ruthless, believable dynastic struggle than ol mate George's unfinished magnum opus.

I said in my review of Wolf Moon that I felt like the end of the book was teetering on the edge of a precipice. As it turns out, in Moon Rising, it doesn't fall off the edge of the cliff so much as slowly coast down a gentle slope, before rising to a ski jump at the end.

Moon Rising definitely takes its time, and reading the books back-to-back as I did, I got some severe whiplash - Wolf Moon's pace ramps all the way up, and then Moon Rising brings you to a screeching halt while you meander through the cast of characters - Lucasinho and Luna beng transferred to Farside (a setting I wish was explored more, as the university and their ghazis seem incredibly interesting), Marina coming to terms with being back on Earth, Lucas struggling with his irrelevance in the top job, and Alexia... building a pipe system for the slums of Barra Ailto? What?

I can't say that the first half of the book is focused, because it isn't. It jumps around and the majority of plot threads are mostly unrelated to anything other than themselves, rather than the overarching plot of the book - Earth vs the Moon's independence.

The second half of the book however is where it begins to climb that ski jump I mentioned, and I couldn't put it down. It never quite reaches the level of the first book, but in the end I was satisfied with the conclusion - albiet a few threads weren't tied up.

As with the other books, there seemed to be very lax editing with the book - I noticed numerous little mistakes and the wrong names used, which still blows my mind. Maybe McDonald has a thing where he doesn't like people editing his books or something? No idea.

Regardless, I'm happy with the finale. I do hope that there are more books in this universe as it is legitimately one of the most unique and engrossing settings that I've experienced, and I don't wanna leave.

"The terrestrials think they are tough and can cut a shrewd deal but they haven't grown up negotiating every breath of air, every sip of water, every scrap of shelter scratched from the rock. They haven't argued for their lives with Dona Luna..." - Ariel Corta

...more

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Apr 21, 2019 Richard Read rated it liked it · review of another edition

I admit, my expectations for *Luna: Moon Rising* were high. Maybe they were too high. Whatever the case, the novel failed to meet them.

I came across the first book in the series, *Luna: New Moon*, by chance. I hadn't been much of a sci-fi reader before that, but McDonald painted such a vivid, compelling picture of the nearish-future and the families struggling for control of the moon that I was completely absorbed. I wanted to spend time with his well-drawn characters in their surprising, I admit, my expectations for *Luna: Moon Rising* were high. Maybe they were too high. Whatever the case, the novel failed to meet them.

I came across the first book in the series, *Luna: New Moon*, by chance. I hadn't been much of a sci-fi reader before that, but McDonald painted such a vivid, compelling picture of the nearish-future and the families struggling for control of the moon that I was completely absorbed. I wanted to spend time with his well-drawn characters in their surprising, dangerous, fascinating world. When I put down the book after its gripping conclusion, my heart was racing.

*Luna: Wolf Moon* didn't live up to the first novel, but I knew by then that Luna would be a trilogy. I was happy to cut the sophomore title some slack: I assumed it was like the second act in a play, the less-dazzling middle part of a story that joins a showy opening to its unforgettable finale.

Sadly, *Moon Rising* failed to deliver, too. The characters I'd gotten to know in the first couple of books felt different, muddier, less distinct, less interesting. The few characters who intrigued me seemed like afterthoughts. (More Abena and Dakota, please!)

I think the problem comes down to this: in *Moon Rising*, McDonald tries to show us that the fate of the moon is in the hands of the new generation--characters like Lucasinho and Luna. However, he tells the story through the eyes of its "old guard"--characters like Lucas, Lady Sun, and an indistinct mass of McKenzies. Insofar as there's a coherent theme running throughout the novel, it becomes more focused on nostalgia and loss than on the moon's exciting future. That could've been a viable option, but nostalgia depends on sadness, and I didn't feel sad for any of these people.

The novel also suffers from an abundance of superfluous characters. We could probably do without Darius McKenzie and the many permutations of Vorontsovs. And the less said about the deeply unsatisfying Marina Calzaghe subplot, the better.

One last thing: the Kindle version of the novel that I read was riddled with grammatical errors, like it had been rushed into production without the benefit of a decent proofread. Sometimes, character names were even jumbled--I remember Alexia and Ariel's names getting reversed on a couple of occasions, which is yet more proof that McDonald could've done with fewer characters.

Don't misunderstand me: McDonald is an excellent writer. His gift for language is extraordinary, his turns of phrase will stop you in your tracks, and his worldbuilding skills are top-notch. In this case, though, I think he and his editor could've spent more time shaping the story to transform it from one that was merely good to one that stood up to the very best of sci-fi. ...more

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Jul 16, 2019 Nick Lechler rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2019

Let me try to find words for this book, this whole trilogy. Ian McDonalds „LUNA“-series is inaccessible, even repulsive at times. Its highly complex story wrestles with you. Its grim, sharp-edged world does not want you in it. And the character’s soulless business (driven by a very own sense of ethics) doesn’t want any spectators. Or witnesses.

But if you let yourself in for these novels, you’ll discover ingeniously plotted and stunningly realized Sci-Fi. Pt. 3 is a near perfect (and ...more

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Sep 10, 2019 Radiantflux rated it it was ok

108th book for 2019.

A disappointing ending for what should have been a excellent trilogy. The first book was great and then, it just went down hill. Lots of characters are mentioned here, without much purpose. I strongly get the idea that McDonald had a lot of passion for this project but lost interest, or simply didn't know how to conclude things. Too bad.

2-stars.

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Apr 10, 2019 Mitchell rated it liked it

Shelves: library, fiction, science-fiction, series, liked-reviews

Overwhelming. Disappointing. Incoherent. And not especially well edited - especially in the first third of the book - there were missed words, misspellings and even the wrong name. I think the book just got away from the author. There's a lot here. And the world and the characters are interesting and fascinating. But also ugly. And violent in a quite uncomfortable way. I was hoping for a different book. I think this series is still worth reading, including this book. But not I was hoping for.

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May 14, 2019 Patrick St-Denis rated it liked it

If you've been following the Hotlist for a while, you are aware that every single Ian McDonald adult novel I've read since creating this blog has ended up in my Top 10 for that year. Hence, I was pretty excited when I learned that he was taking a break from his foray into the YA market to return to the more hardcore science fiction works that made him an award-winning author. And yet, although Luna: New Moon was another quality read, it wasn't quite as captivating as books such as River of Gods, ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Alexandra rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2019

This book was sent to me by the publisher, Hachette, at no cost. It's out now.

This is the third and final book in Ian McDonald's Luna series, and it really doesn't stand alone.New MoonandWolf Moon (which apparently I didn't review? must have been when I was stressed out) are both outstanding and terrifying and if you are interested in near-future, near-Earth speculation, with intensely human characters and scheming dynasties, you really want to read the whole series, so off you go.

There are This book was sent to me by the publisher, Hachette, at no cost. It's out now.

This is the third and final book in Ian McDonald's Luna series, and it really doesn't stand alone. New Moon and Wolf Moon (which apparently I didn't review? must have been when I was stressed out) are both outstanding and terrifying and if you are interested in near-future, near-Earth speculation, with intensely human characters and scheming dynasties, you really want to read the whole series, so off you go.

There are spoilers for those first books, kinda be default, in what follows...

One of the awesome (and, ahem, anti-Ian McEwan) things about this series (and it's not unique to it, of course) is the way that McDonald uses this alien, will-kill-you-in-a-moment place to work through human issues of greed, family, ambition, hope, friendship, pride... all of those things that storytellers have been mining for millennia. You've got battles happening with rovers and spacesuits in vacuum, and parkour in 0.6g, and as wide a range of marital and familial ties as can be imagined... and brutal corporate takeovers and arguments over inheritances and burgeoning romance. It's so full.

Perhaps the most intriguing speculation of a near-future type is the way that McDonald imagines the Moon being regarded by Earth. The Moon is not a political entity; it's a technological colony, for want of a better word, dominated by families who happen to come from different nations on Earth but who have little in the way of political or emotional ties to those places. But the Earth needs the resources of the Moon... but the families don't want Earth interference... So Lucas Corta's deal, to use Earth mercenaries and involve Earth politicians in the dealings of the Moon... that's really quite problematic. I LOVE IT.

A few characters I really enjoyed:

Wagner Corta, the wolf, and his sort-of-bipolar playing out differently on the moon from how it might on earth. I like that McDonald refuses to 'diagnose' him fully, although I would be very interested to hear what those with a better understanding of mental health descriptions and experiences think of this. I also greatly appreciated the enormous dilemmas and sacrifices he goes through in the series, in terms of conflicting priorities.

Luna Corta: I kept forgetting just how young she was because of how much she had gone through, escaping with Lucasinho and so on, and she continues to be buffeted by issues beyond her control in this book... although she begins to show that she can take some control.

Ariel Corta: continues to be one of the weirder and least predictable of all of the main characters. Ignoring family on the one hand and working hard for them on the other, never an easy person to get on with, driven by astonishing determination and stubbornness... I'm not saying I'd like to be friends with her, because I think she'd terrify me in person because she'd see all my weaknesses. But she's definitely someone to admire.

That makes it look like I'm all Team Corta, and I'm not really, it's just that they feel like they dominate the book, and indeed the trilogy, more than I expected from the events of the first book.

If you've read the first two books you know the issues that need to be resolved in the book. If you're anything like me, you won't anticipate how it will play out. I was surprised by most of what happened. I will admit that the very ending was... really not what I expected. I've had to think about it a bit, but I think I see what McDonald was doing. And I've decided I like it.

This is a magnificent series and I'm so glad it exists. Now I can't wait to see what else McDonald does. ...more

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Apr 09, 2019 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: sf

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 3.5 Would be my score. It is by far not as good as book 1 Luna: New Moon, but the story is good(not great). On top of this the editing was horrible, there were often character names used which are not consistent with the story the AI familiars which were inconsistent in one case. Spelling mistakes were a plenty. One which annoyed me as a space geek was the misspelling of Gagarin, more on this later.
A lot of the elements which I really liked about book 1, the Heinlein esque sexuality, the Dune 3.5 Would be my score. It is by far not as good as book 1 Luna: New Moon, but the story is good(not great). On top of this the editing was horrible, there were often character names used which are not consistent with the story the AI familiars which were inconsistent in one case. Spelling mistakes were a plenty. One which annoyed me as a space geek was the misspelling of Gagarin, more on this later.
A lot of the elements which I really liked about book 1, the Heinlein esque sexuality, the Dune like politics, and wolf culture were not as present in book 2 or 3. The only element which seemed to survive the writing/editing process was the Dune like politics which seemed to be the central message, that the moon was a test case for different social, political, and legal systems.
Another thing which bugged me was that the book seemed to be missing a link to Marina upon her return. There were a lot of pages spent on Marina's trials and tribulations upon returning to earth but this story element was left hanging, she left for the launch base and then the book was over. Given the number of chapters that had been developing her internal struggle and justifying her return to the moon it seemed to no end, what would have been the point. I see one clear plot element which was essencial which was Earth's hostility to the moon but the rest seems surpurfluous, given how the book ends.
Yet another thing which really bugged me was that the grand strategy of Ariel vs her brother was a repeat of her same tactic used in court during book 1. The evolution of such in a "family first" message was good, shattered blades and all. However, regardless of this the strategy was the same and lacked creativity.
Ok, that is a lot of complaining, what elements did I like, for me the highlight was the end of Bryce. This is probably more to the hommage to Barron Harkonen than anything else but I really liked the paralell. It seems like when the author did his character development he basically said Bryce=Baron-brains. The similiarities are everywhere, sometimes this would bug me being such a blatant copy but in this case I quite enjoyed. I also enjoyed the character development of Abena Asamoah, as she developed throughout the book into a well rounded character in this final novel.
All in all if you like space opera, you should read the luna series. I am sure the editing faults will be fixed by future publications.
OK a bit more on the poor editing, here is the list of mistakes I kept while reading:
- p30 housand instead of thousand
- p51 lune instead of Luna (familiar)
- p101 and p111 the name Ariel instead of Alexia
- p168 immense instead of intense (The sentence did not make much sense with the use of immense)
- p191 Maninho is not Abena's familiar, Tumi is
- Gagarin not Gargarin repeated p219, p220, p221,p286, p403 (probably more) - This one bugged me to the point that I was checking does Gagarin have a different spelling in different languages as typically names do not. In this case I then checked the context it was used Prospekt, which is Russian for Avenue, so if it is Russian for the name then I would expect the Russian for the name. Now Gagarin Prospekt is spelled Гагарин Проспект in Cyrillic. Perhaps the author just understood the cyrillic letter "г" as a roman "r." Regardless this one bugged me.
- p242 Jnr instead of Jr. Or junior
- p248 Robert was said instead of Duncan
- p285 her instead of er. Remaining consistent with the gender neutral approach.
- p343 Robson instead of Wagner
- p410 2.75 km/s is greater than orbital velocity for the moon, Moon escape velocity 2.375km/s and on top of this for a sub-orbital burn did not make sense.
- p419 senze instead of sense
- p422 eaily instead of easily
- p425 Robson and Haider are not in Theophilus but Hypatia.
So as you can see from the list above there is some corrections to do before the next printing. ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Pedro L. Fragoso rated it it was amazing

This trilogy falls into the "rarefied masterpiece territory" category, a thing of literary daring, achievement and accomplishment. A suitable comment is "wow".

Again, like in the reading of Hurley's The Light Brigade, it's clear, specially in this last tome, the dialogue with a Heinlein book, in the case The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Ian McDonald's trilogy is even more ambitious, and altogether better.

One picks this because of the characters and the plot, because of the Cortas and the remaining ...more

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Dec 01, 2019 Jim Mann rated it it was amazing

Moon Rising is the concluding volume in the Luna trilogy. In the future, the moon is controlled by five families, the Dragons, each of whom controls a major industry. It's a libertarian society crossed with the Godfather (which pretty much is what a libertarian society would quickly become), dominated by the ruthless rich, who protect their own riches and family while at times negotiating with and at times waging war against their rivals.

In the preceding two volumes, two of the five families, ...more

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About Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald

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Ian Neil 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 used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis’s childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. ...more