Very disappointing. Great premise, heroine with terrific potential, but after a promising opening, Moon doesn't know where to go with it.
Some spoilers below, but these are only details that are revealed in the cover blurb and summary ...
I think this would have made a good novella -- stretching it out to full novel length just doesn't work, as the challenges that Ofelia faces (either before or after she encounters the native species) just aren't that interesting. It's all too easy: unlike Robinson Caruso, who had to build his survival strategy on his desert island from the ground up, Ofelia inherits a fully functioning colony town, where goods and equipment have conveniently been left for her to take over and, conveniently, she remembers pretty well how to handle it all. The native aliens -- who have slaughtered a group of new colonists -- offer no real threat to her. The company representatives are cardboard cut-out villains, and pretty dumb with it (which is hardly surprising when you think that this is the Company that twice missed all signs of a native species with enough technology to slaughter a group of colonist upon arrival ... Good work, guys!!)
Moon is no Ursula Le Guin. (I would cheerfully give my right arm to see what Le Guin would have done with this.) That's my shorthand for the fact that's Moon is no stylist, that after the initial novelty of Ofelia as protagonist, and her (could have been) interesting situation, the writing is clunky and repetitive. But Moon is no anthropologist either, and the aliens, the People, come across as implausible and ... well, twee. The potential of the situation -- the ethics of terraforming "empty" worlds, and the fact that some people, both human and alien, are treated as disposable -- is never dealt with in a satisfying way.
A missed opportunity for a novel with an unconventional heroine.
Some spoilers below, but these are only details that are revealed in the cover blurb and summary ...
I think this would have made a good novella -- stretching it out to full novel length just doesn't work, as the challenges that Ofelia faces (either before or after she encounters the native species) just aren't that interesting. It's all too easy: unlike Robinson Caruso, who had to build his survival strategy on his desert island from the ground up, Ofelia inherits a fully functioning colony town, where goods and equipment have conveniently been left for her to take over and, conveniently, she remembers pretty well how to handle it all. The native aliens -- who have slaughtered a group of new colonists -- offer no real threat to her. The company representatives are cardboard cut-out villains, and pretty dumb with it (which is hardly surprising when you think that this is the Company that twice missed all signs of a native species with enough technology to slaughter a group of colonist upon arrival ... Good work, guys!!)
Moon is no Ursula Le Guin. (I would cheerfully give my right arm to see what Le Guin would have done with this.) That's my shorthand for the fact that's Moon is no stylist, that after the initial novelty of Ofelia as protagonist, and her (could have been) interesting situation, the writing is clunky and repetitive. But Moon is no anthropologist either, and the aliens, the People, come across as implausible and ... well, twee. The potential of the situation -- the ethics of terraforming "empty" worlds, and the fact that some people, both human and alien, are treated as disposable -- is never dealt with in a satisfying way.
A missed opportunity for a novel with an unconventional heroine.
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