{4.5\/5} “Spinning slowly around, trusting I can recover my balance if I lose it, or just get back up, I see the hills look odd too. Not tectonic action, nor rain, nor riverbeds, nor glaciers, nor wind shaped these hills. They are uncanny. You can see something is different here, and it’s hard not to feel it’s wrong. The uncanny is always wrong, always frightening.”<\/p>\n
Red Moon<\/strong> by Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2018<\/p>\n Fred Fredericks goes to the moon to help activate a communications system for the Chinese Lunar Authority. When he meets Governor Chang Yazu both of them fall on the floor. Chang is dead and Fred was also poisoned but survived. Now he’s accused of murder. When Agent Valerie Tong asks to see Fred they take her to where he’s being held — but he’s not there.<\/p>\n It’s a look at what China might be like in the near future, both here on Earth and in its colony on the moon.<\/p>\n Robinson has, unsurprisingly, mastered the art of keeping things interesting even when not much is happening in the plot — ie. when people are hiding or on the run. The ending is a bit abrupt.<\/p>\n It’s about different factions fighting over a change in dynasty, simultaneous political crises in the superpowers, and being on the run from people who want to arrest and\/or kill you.<\/p>\n One more quotation: “We lean against other people, and thus we all stay somewhat upright. You have to be able to trust your friends. If an old person dies, that’s natural, and a good long life is all you can ask. But if you are betrayed by a friend, that’s not natural. Then you have to wonder what’s really real. It hurts.”<\/p>\n