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The Moon Goddess and the Son
Diana's ambition to get a job on the moon started the same day she learned from a child's book of mythology that her namesake was the moon goddess.
The time is the late 1980s. The Russians have secretly lofted a full-scale space station that dwarfs the one the U.S. hopes to build in the '90s. The American response - as it was in the late 1950s - is a crash program to overtake and surpass the Soviet effort.
And by 2010 their efforts have succeeded. Burgeoning space industry has resulted in an economic boom unprecedented in U.S. history - and man will never again be confined to Earth.
The time is the late 1980s. The Russians have secretly lofted a full-scale space station that dwarfs the one the U.S. hopes to build in the '90s. The American response - as it was in the late 1950s - is a crash program to overtake and surpass the Soviet effort.
And by 2010 their efforts have succeeded. Burgeoning space industry has resulted in an economic boom unprecedented in U.S. history - and man will never again be confined to Earth.
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 3, 2020
Real Rating: 3.5* of five
Entirely because, when I read this book in ~1988, I copied a quote into my commonplace book that went, "He wondered where French people kept their goats; {his Provencal friend} said Paris, but he wasn't sure if that was a joke."
Still makes me snicker. Even though I can't quote it 100% accurately from memory.
The book itself was a gift from a guy I was in love with at the time and I didn't finally lose it, despite many moves, until the 21st century! Amazing longevity for a crummy mass-market paperback.
Oh, and the story itself was perfectly fine for the times, male-gazey, heteronormative stuff. TBH, I'm perfectly happy not being able to access a copy and re-read it because it seems as though the worst reading mistakes I make are attempting to recapture nostalgic literary experiences.
Entirely because, when I read this book in ~1988, I copied a quote into my commonplace book that went, "He wondered where French people kept their goats; {his Provencal friend} said Paris, but he wasn't sure if that was a joke."
Still makes me snicker. Even though I can't quote it 100% accurately from memory.
The book itself was a gift from a guy I was in love with at the time and I didn't finally lose it, despite many moves, until the 21st century! Amazing longevity for a crummy mass-market paperback.
Oh, and the story itself was perfectly fine for the times, male-gazey, heteronormative stuff. TBH, I'm perfectly happy not being able to access a copy and re-read it because it seems as though the worst reading mistakes I make are attempting to recapture nostalgic literary experiences.
March 24, 2020
From my 2002 booklog:
A-, nicely done, a bit uneven & overlong. Brass bras!
A-, nicely done, a bit uneven & overlong. Brass bras!
April 28, 2014
The Moon Goddess and the Son, this anthology helpfully informs us, is a novella that was later turned into a longer novel (not all that uncommon an occurrence). And after reading this I wonder what the novel is like, because the novella, at least, demonstrates some of the shortcomings of the shorter-length form of fiction. Donald Kingsbury has an interesting story to tell, but even making this novella as long as he does, he still has to condense a great deal of it. As a result, he robs the story of some of its charm and potency. Maybe a novel could restore that.
Essentially this is about Diana, a girl who wants to escape her abusive family by going to the moon. She runs away from home and begins using men to get what she wants, all the while retaining her virginity until she meets Byron, an actual lunar engineer. He’s a manipulative bastard who isn’t happy that she turns out to be a minor and isn’t happier still when, after he rejects her, she takes up with his son. Charlie has spent his life attempting to foil his parents’ plans for him, but he soon grows besotted with Diana even though she keeps a candle burning for his dad.
Yeah, it’s … complicated.
And this is where the shorter format can’t do the story justice. The chapters within spend more time on exposition and narration than they should. We’re told things that would be better off being shown to us—but Kingsbury can’t, because if he did, this would be … well, it’d be a novel. No wonder he had to expand it. There is so much he wants to cram into here: international politics, space exploration politics, issues of child abuse and sexual maturity, parenting philosophies … though the characters and their actions never seem as complex as they should be, lurking beneath the surface is an intense and magnificent story, just waiting to have the space to stretch itself out and breathe.
As it is, though, The Moon Goddess and the Son feels more like a sketch of a story than a satisfactory story on its own. The characters, though given deep aspirations and attributes, never strike me as very real people. The resolution, compared to the amount of time spent on the setup, is a rushed affair that leaves a lot to be desired.
The writing and plotting is certainly on a higher level—akin more to Profession than Time Safari—and Kingsbury channels well a mythic atmosphere of fairytale-esque fate that cocoons his characters and influences their actions. I just wish that this had been something … more … though I can’t really blame it for having to work within the constraints of its form.
Read as part of The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels .
Essentially this is about Diana, a girl who wants to escape her abusive family by going to the moon. She runs away from home and begins using men to get what she wants, all the while retaining her virginity until she meets Byron, an actual lunar engineer. He’s a manipulative bastard who isn’t happy that she turns out to be a minor and isn’t happier still when, after he rejects her, she takes up with his son. Charlie has spent his life attempting to foil his parents’ plans for him, but he soon grows besotted with Diana even though she keeps a candle burning for his dad.
Yeah, it’s … complicated.
And this is where the shorter format can’t do the story justice. The chapters within spend more time on exposition and narration than they should. We’re told things that would be better off being shown to us—but Kingsbury can’t, because if he did, this would be … well, it’d be a novel. No wonder he had to expand it. There is so much he wants to cram into here: international politics, space exploration politics, issues of child abuse and sexual maturity, parenting philosophies … though the characters and their actions never seem as complex as they should be, lurking beneath the surface is an intense and magnificent story, just waiting to have the space to stretch itself out and breathe.
As it is, though, The Moon Goddess and the Son feels more like a sketch of a story than a satisfactory story on its own. The characters, though given deep aspirations and attributes, never strike me as very real people. The resolution, compared to the amount of time spent on the setup, is a rushed affair that leaves a lot to be desired.
The writing and plotting is certainly on a higher level—akin more to Profession than Time Safari—and Kingsbury channels well a mythic atmosphere of fairytale-esque fate that cocoons his characters and influences their actions. I just wish that this had been something … more … though I can’t really blame it for having to work within the constraints of its form.
Read as part of The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels .
April 3, 2014
A fascinating read in light of the current Russian interest in Ukraine and Crimea.
.
This book had two problems; there is not a moral character which I remember and the time line for Diana is much slower than for the rest of the characters. She ages ten years while Byron marries and has a son who graduates through college and beyond.
.
There are many intriguing concepts which are developed enough to put forward the high points yet leaving room for imagination. I enjoyed this. The LEOPort, the moon base, the social implications within the gaming world, and others.
.
That the Russians are written into a leading role in space exploration, in some ways ahead of America in technology, and operating as a pseudo capitalist government while being rooted in the horrors of the past is an interesting take on the politics of our day. We are made out of our past. It gives the quality of science fiction. Many of the story lines have a feeling of taking place in the future. Having been written in 1986, the future would have been the now we currently live in. Comparing the events as they unfolded in reality with the story is enlightening.
.
Is Putin behaving as a modern world leader? Is he behaving as a Stalinist? Is there any real difference?
.
In The Moongoddess and the Son there is enough history to give a real perspective into the behavior of modern political powers.
.
This book had two problems; there is not a moral character which I remember and the time line for Diana is much slower than for the rest of the characters. She ages ten years while Byron marries and has a son who graduates through college and beyond.
.
There are many intriguing concepts which are developed enough to put forward the high points yet leaving room for imagination. I enjoyed this. The LEOPort, the moon base, the social implications within the gaming world, and others.
.
That the Russians are written into a leading role in space exploration, in some ways ahead of America in technology, and operating as a pseudo capitalist government while being rooted in the horrors of the past is an interesting take on the politics of our day. We are made out of our past. It gives the quality of science fiction. Many of the story lines have a feeling of taking place in the future. Having been written in 1986, the future would have been the now we currently live in. Comparing the events as they unfolded in reality with the story is enlightening.
.
Is Putin behaving as a modern world leader? Is he behaving as a Stalinist? Is there any real difference?
.
In The Moongoddess and the Son there is enough history to give a real perspective into the behavior of modern political powers.
December 31, 2010
An expanded version of a 1979 novella (which was nominated for a Hugo), _Moon Goddess_ is the timeless tale of the ~2006 space race between the U.S. and Soviet Union as they teeter on the brink of nuclear war. Okay, maybe not timeless, per se...
While dated, the book is still well worth reading. Primarily character-driven, it focuses largely on game theory and attempting to understand the Russian mind and culture in order to find a solution to avert nuclear war, interweaving with the space race and need for space development. Kingsbury has a good ear for dialogue; or, at the least, he has an ability to write lines I find humorous.
The book does show signs of being a fixed-up novella--characters from one plotline are referenced in the other, but you could fairly easily chop the novel into two novellae. Still, this is the kind of book that makes me irritated that Kingsbury only puts one out every decade or so, and _Psychohistorical Crisis_ only came out in 2001.
While dated, the book is still well worth reading. Primarily character-driven, it focuses largely on game theory and attempting to understand the Russian mind and culture in order to find a solution to avert nuclear war, interweaving with the space race and need for space development. Kingsbury has a good ear for dialogue; or, at the least, he has an ability to write lines I find humorous.
The book does show signs of being a fixed-up novella--characters from one plotline are referenced in the other, but you could fairly easily chop the novel into two novellae. Still, this is the kind of book that makes me irritated that Kingsbury only puts one out every decade or so, and _Psychohistorical Crisis_ only came out in 2001.
September 8, 2020
This is dated, and if you choose to read it, you will be forced to filter it all through the cold war mentality. The weight of detail and the density of ideas is both daunting and inspiring. I recommend it, though you have to be patient, and the fictional elements are secondary to the conceptual framework. Be prepared to cogitate furiously!
March 2, 2024
Most of this book impressed me. By the standards of American sf, it’s a superior piece of writing, set in the fairly near future, in the context of a continuing arms race which is becoming destabilised by developments on Earth and in space. It has plenty of good, distinctive characters of both sexes (more men than women, though). The author, although an academic mathematician by profession, seems well clued-up on space technology, and even has a new idea to propose (new to me, anyway). He’s done a lot of research into Russian history and Marxism, and makes good use of it in an ambitious and atmospheric exploration of the Russian mentality and Russian society—for which he uses a memorably eccentric think-tank organisation.
He seems to have visited the Middle East. He’s familiar with computers, and tips his hat in passing to sf fandom, rock and electronic music, and role-playing games.
However, for me the last part of the book (perhaps the last 50 or 100 pages) was disappointing. The plot fails to climax satisfactorily, its credibility deteriorates, and the tone seems to sour a little, as if the author is aging along with his characters (in fact he was 57 at the time of publication, older than I’d have guessed initially).
He seems to have an uneasy love/hate relationship with women. All male-female relationships in the book are troubled, and most of his main characters are suffering from personality defects or hangups of one sort or another. The teenage girl chasing after father figures, so popular in American films, reappears here; do American teenage girls really do this, or is it just a male fantasy?
He has the space bug badly enough to think that living on the Moon is an inherently desirable objective. Thus, when a few of his characters finally make it to an early lunar colony, they seem satisfied just to be there, and content to remain there for an indefinite period of time. However, he makes little attempt to disguise the fact that living in an early lunar colony would be rather like spending your life in a nuclear submarine.
Although I’ve always been in favour of the move into space, a lot would have to be done to the Moon before I’d contemplate permanent emigration.
In summary, this is an ambitious book that doesn’t quite come off, by a man who can write very competently and has some interesting things to say, but isn’t always convincing or likeable.
(Review written in 1987)
He seems to have visited the Middle East. He’s familiar with computers, and tips his hat in passing to sf fandom, rock and electronic music, and role-playing games.
However, for me the last part of the book (perhaps the last 50 or 100 pages) was disappointing. The plot fails to climax satisfactorily, its credibility deteriorates, and the tone seems to sour a little, as if the author is aging along with his characters (in fact he was 57 at the time of publication, older than I’d have guessed initially).
He seems to have an uneasy love/hate relationship with women. All male-female relationships in the book are troubled, and most of his main characters are suffering from personality defects or hangups of one sort or another. The teenage girl chasing after father figures, so popular in American films, reappears here; do American teenage girls really do this, or is it just a male fantasy?
He has the space bug badly enough to think that living on the Moon is an inherently desirable objective. Thus, when a few of his characters finally make it to an early lunar colony, they seem satisfied just to be there, and content to remain there for an indefinite period of time. However, he makes little attempt to disguise the fact that living in an early lunar colony would be rather like spending your life in a nuclear submarine.
Although I’ve always been in favour of the move into space, a lot would have to be done to the Moon before I’d contemplate permanent emigration.
In summary, this is an ambitious book that doesn’t quite come off, by a man who can write very competently and has some interesting things to say, but isn’t always convincing or likeable.
(Review written in 1987)
February 3, 2024
This was a hard one to read for me. A lot of the histories, sciences, and (old) computer talk went over my head. I did enjoy what I did understand of it. I'll have to pick it up again later in life after brushing up on those subjects.
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October 23, 2025science fiction
February 9, 2014
a very multi-dimensional story! Greatly sumed up at the end. Definitely worth a read! Interesting considering the time period -Space Race and Cold War and precautions and attitudes toward Russian culture.
March 17, 2009
Alas, the cover looked so interesting but what can you do? I will say that this book was well researched. =)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews