Some of these books are just so weird. I can't quite get into them but I won't be forgetting them either. Second in sprawling scifi series set on the moon. Scope is large but the characters aren't engaging.

Absolutely adore everything Ian McDonald. His writing, his characters and his stories are all top-notch. You always feel like you're seeing something you've never seen before with him.

Just wonderful! I read this without having previously read the first book in this series, but I picked up the story very quickly, and really enjoyed it. Great characters, great setting, and all around great read!

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advanced e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
This is 2nd in series and follows up well. Series is geared toward young, *adult* readers. A good read and I particularly enjoy the style of writing - where you are taken to different characters/situations instead of one person POV. I expect there will be more to follow in this series.

Ian McDonald's new series, Luna (review copies from Gollancz), has all the red-in-tooth-and-claw politics and excitement of I Claudius, the Borgias and the Medicis rolled into one glorious bundle of politics, wealth and violence.  Both of the first two books, Luna: New Moon, and Luna: Wolf Moon (just published) are fabulous. 
In McDonald's world, the Moon has been colonised, and it is controlled by five powerful families, known as the Dragons.  These families control resources that an increasingly fragile Earth is dependent on, but they are bitter rivals, jockeying for position.  Many of those families are now on their third generation, with the physical changes wrought by the Moon meaning that individuals are trapped within its environment.  After two years someone from Earth is no longer able to return, but those born there are unable to survive elsewhere.  The Dragons are fabulously wealthy, but the gap between rich and poor is wide, with other individuals eking out an existence, competing for contracts to make a life.  This is a place run by contract, where there is no other civil or criminal law and disputes can be settled by trial by combat. 
Both books follow the fortunes of the Corta family.  Founded by Brazilian matriarch Adriana Corta, the family has a monopoly on the production of helium, essential to power a failing Earth's fusion reactors.  But the Corta family are seen as upstarts by their chief rivals, the Mackenzie family, which dominates the mining of rare metals, but is jealous of the more profitable helium industry.  The rivalries between the five Dragons are kept in careful balance by the Eagle, the representative of the Lunar Development Corporation, the governing entity in charge of the Moon, but the collapse of a planned dynastic marriage between Corta and Mackenzie triggers a chain reaction of events and reprisals that threatens to destroy the fragile lunar society.  It's difficult to say more without spoiling a complex plot that is a roller-coaster ride of violence, destruction, adventure and heroism.
In McDonald's hands, the Luna books are a powerful exploration of frontier life.  There are chances for great wealth and opportunity for those with the wisdom and determination to spot an opportunity and take advantage of it.  But existence is fragile, and small events can wreak drastic changes in the circumstances of an individual.  The Moon does not discriminate in who it offers opportunities to, or how it punishes them for their missteps. 
McDonald's Moon is a real melting pot of Earth culture and nations, all interwoven and viewed through a lunar lens.  The five Dragons represent Australia, Russia, Ghana and China as well as the Cortas' native Brazil.  Sexuality is free and fluid within lunar society, and diversity is embedded in society.  That leads to a broad range of fantastic characters, from powerful matriarchs, to playboy heirs straight from Made In Chelsea, to roughnecks out on the lunar surface.
Chief among that cast of characters is the fabulous Ariel Corta.  High-flying divorce lawyer and society darling, she is charismatic, arrogant, vain and an alcoholic with a Martini habit.  From her vintage Dior to her vertiginous heels she exudes sophistication, but underneath she is fragile.  Her attention-grabbing professional persona conceals emotional neediness underneath it all.  It's wonderful to see such a fully-realised and flawed character taking such a leading role in a novel. 
Goodreads rating: 5*

The Luna series is set in a futuristic version of our own world where the moon is ran by 5 family owned companies. These books focus on the Corta family whose business; Corta Helio mines helium which is sent to Earth and “keeps the lights on”. The end of Luna: New Moon saw Corta Helio collapse and family members scatter all over the moon. Wolf Moon is the story of these characters trying to rebuild their lives.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the sense of scale. Everything feels epic. From the descriptions of the underground cities, to events like a massive foundry explosion and satellites raining down on the Moon. Then you have the more abstract things like a character born on the moon going to Earth despite this being technically impossible and describing what it’s like to stand on another planet and look up at their home. That was cool.

My only problem with this book is it felt like the first half was you checking in with each character to see what they had been doing over the 2 years since the last book ended. It felt like the plot took a long time to get going. But I would still highly recommend this book. Also you should definitely start out with Luna: New Moon if you haven’t read it yet.

What the blurb may not make clear is that Luna: New Moon left the story on a major cliffhanger – nothing at all was resolved. So if you haven’t read it, then my firm advice would be to go away and track down the first book before tucking into this one, because there is no ‘Story So Far’ and with the large cast of characters, multiple viewpoints and odd names, I think anyone coming cold to this world is going to flounder.

The gamechanger that flung everything up in the air at the end of the first book continues to have consequences. Major consequences. And as ever, when turmoil and catastrophe occurs, it is often surviving children who suffer more than anyone else. McDonald is very good at showing rather than telling and in this fast-moving, action-packed epic, he starkly portrays the ravages of war and violence. I could see this being made into a cracking film.

And there would be nothing wrong if he left it at that, but what elevates this book to something more than a slice of escapist enjoyment, is that he continues to show what happens after the initial violence dies down. Because the people involved don’t forgive and forget. That drive and aggression that drove them to forge industrial empires on the Moon morphs into something a lot darker and vengeful when their own families are attacked and their homes and businesses gutted.

Inevitably, in such a wide-ranging story with a scattered cast of characters, this is more of an action-driven story. However there are a handful of protagonists who have lodged in my head – Marina, a ‘Jo Moonbeam’ who came up from Earth in the first book to make her fortune gets pulled right into the heart of the conflict and then has to make an agonising decision. Does she stay on the Moon for the rest of her life, or return to Earth? There is a window in which she can return – but after then, her body will have adapted to the lighter gravity such that it will be impossible without massive and expensive medical intervention. Two children particularly tugged at my heart – Robson, who ends up living on the streets and Darius, another boy caught in the middle of the ruling family feuds, is manipulated into perpetuating their ongoing war…

Apparently McDonald has described this epic political power struggle set in space as the ‘Game of Domes. I’ve found myself often thinking about the first book and the brilliant, fragile infrastructure he wrought – and this book is every bit as thought-provoking and disturbing. Highly recommended.

While I obtained the arc of Wolf Moon from the publisher via NetGalley, this has in no way influenced my unbiased review.
9/10

Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald

Wolf Moon follows directly on the heels of its predecessor New Moon, and is the middle book of what is probably a trilogy. You really need to have read New Moon first. This review assumes that you have and also that you don’t mind hearing a little about the repercussions of the events of the first novel. Because they have been huge.

Five family corporations rule the Moon – five dragons. They are instinctively competitive and suspicious of each other, despite (perhaps even because of) the inter-marrying among these immensely powerful families. The Moon they control is a harsh place, its citizens living underground and undercover, the poorest in the stinking lower levels, and every one must pay for the air they breathe, however poor its quality. Everything about the Moon is hostile to mankind. It does all it can to kill the people who dare to live on, in or under it. But anyone who has lived there for two years or more has no choice but to risk it. Returning to Earth is not an option. The body has been so transformed by living on the Moon that the gravity of the Earth would be agonising and fatal. So people scramble to scratch a living. Except for the five dragon families who have it all. Or so they thought.

One of the five dragons is dead. The Corta Helio family has been destroyed, several of its members killed, its children scattered and its leader, Lucas, lost in space, presumed dead. Eighteen months have passed since the slaughter and the remaining dragons are jostling for supremacy and power, the Mackenzies mercilessly close to winning. But it isn’t that simple, there are divisions within the families, the Corta children are wriggling their way free from control, and it appears Lucas isn’t dead at all. Far from it, and there are things that he and his surviving children and nephews and nieces will do to survive that beggar belief. War is inevitable. It’s already here.

Luna: New Moon was one of the science fiction highlights of 2015 and I couldn’t wait to dive into Wolf Moon. It’s been eighteen months but New Moon remains as vivid as ever and Wolf Moon picks it up at full speed. It’s great to see some of these characters again, notably crotchety old Ariel Corta, the food- and sex-loving beauty Lucasinho, the fearless Robson (known for spectacular reasons as the boy who fell to Earth – although it was the surface of the Moon, not the Earth to which Robson fell), and then there’s Wagner, the moon wolf, possibly the most memorable of them all. But to counteract the warmth of some characters, others emanate cold evil, not least the revolting and predatory Bryce Mackenzie.

Amongst all the intrigue and plotting, there are some fantastic set pieces within Luna: Wolf Moon – there is the drama of some major catastrophes, there are nail biting scenes played out on the hostile surface of the Moon, on which life can be measured in seconds, there is Lucas’s almost suicidal determination to endure a journey to Earth that should kill him. And there are moments of great tenderness. In this society, where marriage is often a political or business tool, affection still survives and we see it here at its most kind, as well as as its worst. I did find it difficult to keep up with some of the novel’s more complicated developments, but knowing that another great scene or moment was just around the corner, around every corner, ensured I paid close attention.

There are a couple of things that I had issue with, mostly involving Lucasinho. At one stage he reels off a monologue about cake that seems to go on forever and I could have done without hearing all the explicit details of his sex life. This is a society in which attitudes towards gender, love and sex are fluid and that I found fascinating and sensitively handled, but Lucasinho did test my patience, despite my affection for him. His transformation is a particular strength of the novel. The book closes with a full dramatis personae and I found this very useful indeed, so much so that I copied it out and stuffed it in my kindle case. It is hard keeping track of the family members and their ties to the other families. This list helped with that enormously.

Luna: Wolf Moon is a fabulous, richly-layered vision of life on the Moon in the not too distant future. This is worldbuilding at its finest and the locations, whether in the Moon habitants, or on the surface of the Moon, or travelling to and from Earth, are drawn so well. It’s immersive and very rewarding. Although Wolf Moon is a middle novel, it didn’t really feel like that, possibly thanks to its strong ending, which allows for more storytelling but doesn’t insist on it. But knowing that there is more on the way is a very good thing indeed.

Other review
Luna: New Moon

The long awaited sequel to New Moon, Wolf Moon starts off a couple of months after the fall of Corta Helio. The few remaining Cortas are scattered around the Moon under the protection of several families and, of course, they are planning revenge.



I read New Moon when it just came out back in 2015 and even though I remembered the world and the cliffhanger a the end, the cast of characters is so immense and the relationship between the different characters are so complex that I was completely thrown off at the start. For the first 20% of this book, I had trouble remembering who was who and what the hell was happening. I even mixed up some characters (Lucas and Lucasinho for example) which led to pretty confusing scenes where I couldn't understand why a character was acting in this way until I realized that I wasn't reading it the right way.

However, getting back into this bloody world full of political intrigues was a real pleasure. In this series, the Moon isn't a pleasant place to live it, Lady Luna isn't sweet Earth, she wants to tear you down and all mistakes can be deadly. And if the Moon doesn't kill you, one of the Dragons probably will.

Wolf Moon is an very good sequel to New Moon. I found it even more political intrigue heavy than the first book and I really enjoyed this aspect once I remembered who was who. It was really fascinating to see all the players reacting to the events of New Moon and basically trying to destroy everyone around them (family included). Some of the new characters introduced were as interesting, if not more so, that some of the old ones and I cannot wait to see the parts they are going to play in the next book.

Speaking of next book, I don't know why but, back in 2015, when I read New Moon, I thought this series was going to be a duology so, when I was reading Wolf Moon, I was expecting some kind of conclusion that just didn't come. I don't know how long this book series is going to be but with that ending we readers deserve at least a third book.

I liked Wolf Moon quite a bit however, I didn't find it as mindblowing as New Moon. I wasn't bored while reading but thinking about it, not a lot actually happened in this installment which was surprising after the first book. Also, it had a tad to many weird sex scenes, I don't mind sex in books but I couldn't see their point at all in this book. I mean sometimes I had to skim read them because a) they were a bit cringy and b) I just didn't care about them. I like the fact that in this world, bisexuality is the norm and that a lot of characters are gender fluid but still, you can speak of sexuality without writing abunch of weird ones especially in the middle of suspenseful action sequence.



Anyway, I think that if you enjoyed New Moon, Wolf Moon is going to be an exciting read, just bear in mind that it isn't a conclusion. Also if you don't remember books well, try to find a recap of the first book online, I think it might help a lot!

Recommended.

The main plot is very interesting because I enjoyed the political tensions created by McDonald. I enjoyed the concept of different families inhabiting different places in the solar system and how this affects their physicality, mentality, relationships, behaviour, and even politics. This book is very clever and complex.

I liked certain characters; mainly the Corta family who have been split up onto different worlds after their home was destroyed and taken over by another family, the Mackenzies. I liked that Robson was taken in by the Mackenzie family but he is still a Corta at heart. Lucas is perhaps my favourite character because he’s strong-willed, determined, resourceful, and unrelenting. Despite his setbacks he is determined to take back what once belonged to him and restore his family to their rightful place.

The writing style of this is sometimes off-putting because you have long passages that don’t seem to contribute to the overarching plot but this is not the final novel in the series and I expect all of these subplots to be tied up later. It does feel like a middle book rather than one that could stand alone. However, I did enjoy the fast paced nature of this novel. There’s enough action in the novel to keep you entertained but the overwhelming tension between the characters is what kept me reading until the end.

I could have done without the excessive amount of sex in this novel. It didn’t add anything at all to the book in my opinion and I mostly skipped through these scenes because I found them boring. I just can’t see the point of them at all. However, I was impressed that not all of the relationships were heterosexual. Sexuality doesn't seem to matter at all in this series as male, female, and non-binary characters take on multiple lovers of any gender orientation. That was pretty cool.

Overall, this book was a very interesting read but I realise now that I should have read the first book in the series before taking on this book. I would like to go back and read the first book because this one has intrigued me but I think I’ll be skipping any sex scenes that appear in Luna: New Moon too.

Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald
Publisher: Gollancz
Release date: 23 March 2017

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This review contains major, earth-shattering spoilers for the first book, Luna: New Moon, but is spoiler-free for Luna: Wolf Moon.

After the destruction of Helio Corta, nothing will be the same. Scattered across the moon's cities and beyond, the surviving members of the Corta family fight for survival as they are hunted by their enemies. From Lucas, who is planning an impossible journey to save the company, to Ariel and Marina, who have fallen so far so fast, The stakes are raised as war comes to the moon.

Luna: New Moon was a revelation for me. Beautiful and brutal, it was an incredible and unique work of science fiction filled with complex characters in a complex world. Wolf Moon manages to feel like a direct continuation of the same book -- it is just as elegantly written as its predecessor. It picks up immediately after the horrible events of New Moon and then leaps forward eighteen months. The narrative follows the remaining Cortas and members of the now Four Dragons much as it did before -- the story jumps from person to person in what can feel like vignettes that are strung together in the end. Much like in the first book, the strongest storylines follow Lucas and Ariel Corta, however some of the more minor members of the Corta family get their moment to shine. Wager gets some serious character development and McDonald explains and develops the concept of the wolves a little more. I was incredibly apprehensive about the idea of the wolves in New Moon, however they make a lot more sense now and are a fascinating component to the story. Robson -- the one I honestly kept forgetting about -- gets a good story arc in this book. Lucashino grows up a lot, and it's about time. We even get a new character that I am so excited about and absolutely cannot wait to learn more about.

There is so much more depth to the other Dragons and powerful people in Wolf Moon as well. We see the plotting, the underhandedness, and the turmoil of the families as they struggle to deal with the consequences of New Moon. The Mackenzies get a spotlight here and it's fascinating to see how they react to the changing political situation around them. I really love the complicated politics of the moon that McDonald captures in these novels. The rules are so unfamiliar, yet they make sense. We find out more about the founding of the lunar government and laws it upholds, as well as the situation back on Earth.

Everything changes in Wolf Moon. It manages to be incredibly satisfying, yet leaves the reader with more questions that need to be answered. If you're a fan of New Moon, you'll love its sequel.

Rating: 4/5

A quick note, my advice for reading both New Moon and Wolf Moon is to avoid the e-book version if you can. The glossary of terms in the back is so much more accessible in the physical copy and I found myself referring to it often.

I enjoyed this one more than the first one. Great job.

Review in english: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/03/luna-wolf-moon-ian-mcdonald-english.html
Review in spanish: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/03/luna-wolf-moon-ian-mcdonald.html

If you read my review of the first book in the series: Luna: New Moon, you will know that I enjoyed it - but I wasn't really its biggest fan. The same goes for this book - which is the second book - however, I felt like it suffered from the middle-book-syndrome.

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed.

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward--virtually a hostage-- of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished off the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey--to Earth.

For me, I was excited to read this book because of how the first one ended: everything had gone wrong, war had broken out, an entire family was in serious trouble, and I really wanted to find out what happened to the Corta family. I also thought that it would be very interesting to see whether Lucas Corta actually made it down to Earth and survived.

Luna: Wolf Moon is a very dense book - like its counterpart. There is so much information packed into a paragraph that you have to read every line very closely to make sure that you don't miss any information. Also, keep that character guide close by because you will need it. Even though I had already come across most of the characters before, I kept having to go back to the character list, just to remind me of who was married to who, who had a certain job role... It got very tiring and that's one of the major downfalls of this series so far. There is just too much information for me to comprehend. I know that people may not find it as difficult as me to keep up with the families on the Moon but I really did struggle.





"We are such self-absorbed creatures. We think ourselves the measure of everything. Time will take away everything we are, everything we have, everything we will ever build."

- Ian McDonald, Luna: Wolf Moon





I just felt like the plot was dragging and I just wanted to finish the book so I could get it out of the way - and I really hate feeling like that when I'm reading a book. I wanted to enjoy it and there were actually some good bits in this book. I loved the action (when I could keep up with it), I loved how Luna Corta got some major character development and I liked how we got to see more of Wagner Cora.

I can't say that I am excited for the third book in the series because it just means that I will probably have to re-read them so I can become even more aware of the characters and their relationships with each other.

Like I said in my review of Luna: New Moon, if you are into the big world-building books (like Game of Thrones), then you will probably enjoy this book because there are loads of elements to it. If you're like me and enjoy reading science fiction, then go into this series knowing that at times, this book will seem confusing, you will have to refer to the character list and the glossary of terms a lot to understand what it going on; but power through it!

Sin duda, uno de los títulos más esperados este año es Luna : Wolf Moon la continuación de la exitosa e injustamente ignorada en los premios Luna de Ian McDonald. Es normal tener altas expectativas, pero la pregunta correcta es ¿se han cumplido?

Luna : Wolf Moon es una continuación inmediata de los sucesos acontecidos en la primera entrega de la saga. Con esto quiero decir que no esperes una introducción pausada para volver a acostumbrarnos a los personajes, así que ten a mano la lista de los personajes y las familias de la Luna si tienes mala memoria (repite conmigo Corta, McKenzie, Vorontsov, Asamoah y Sun).

La ambientación sigue estando muy lograda y como ya conocemos los valores por los que se rige la sociedad lunar, podemos pasar perfectamente al desarrollo de la novela, aunque se observan ciertos paralelismos con la primera entrega, como una caída en gravedad lunar que recuerda al vuelo del Eagle of the Moon. Es una forma elegante de recordarnos que las reglas del juego son distintas cuando el escenario cambia. Es cierto que el factor novedoso de la escenografía lunar se diluye un poco, pero para compensarlo visitaremos también la Tierra, quizá la gran olvidada anteriormente.

El enfoque de la novela, que ya era coral, se amplia aún más, pues empezamos a conocer a miembros de las otras familias dominantes de nuestro satélite. En el primer libro estudiábamos a fondo a los Corta, pero ahora los distintos puntos de vista nos permitirán conocer la perspectiva de las cinco casas nobiliarias selenitas. Si bien es cierto que se agradece la diversidad, pocos de los nuevos personajes me han dejado una huella tan profunda como Adriana Corta. En este sentido algunos de los protagonistas han medrado a la sombra de sus mayores pero no consiguen llenar sus zapatos. De hecho, la más interesante a mi juicio de las nuevas incorporaciones sigue siendo una Corta.

Tenía mucho interés por descubrir a qué se refería el autor cuando hablaba de los lobos de la Luna y la explicación, aunque coherente, me ha decepcionado un poco.

En otro orden de cosas, el sexo en muchas de sus variantes sigue presente en la narración, como poderosa fuerza que es. Me temo que nada tan impactante como la sesión que se marca Ariel y que el propio McDonald leyó en el Celsius, pero tampoco es escaso. La variedad de términos con la que es capaz de denominar a los órganos reproductores merece una entrada en la Wikipedia.

En algunas ocasiones he dicho que hay autores capaces de hacer interesante una disertación sobre el mundo de las barbas pero el británico no se queda atrás con una dilatada disertación sobre la física y la química implicada en la elaboración de pasteles en la Luna.

A pesar de que me estaba gustando el libro se encaminaba a una valoración menor que el primero, quizá por la pérdida de novedad. No obstante, McDonald en el último tercio comienza a pisar el acelerador a fondo. Las intrigas políticas y las rencillas familiares alcanzan un punto de tensión del que parece no va a haber vuelta atrás. Y vuelve a dejarnos con la miel en los labios y en espera de la continuación.

Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC!

This is definitely the kind of series where you have to want to pay very close attention to the sharp, precise lines of text, enjoy truly convoluted political machinations, and not mind a lot of weird sex.

What a weird thing to say about a novel, right? But it's true! After so many brilliant and beautiful descriptions of tall towers on the moon, of falling from great heights, both literally and figuratively, we see the grandeur and the decadence and the hubris writ large and upon a grand scale.

It's not just the fall of the moon we have to deal with or it's families squabbling over the remains of a great house that isn't *quite* dead, it's the amazing breadth of the big tale and the sheer oddities of the characters that make this novel -- and the one before it -- shine.

That's not to say I wasn't horribly disgruntled with long passages were things weren't happening to the main plot or when we had to get into all the deviancies of our main characters, in grand detail, making me wonder when the quite ripe core of the tale was going to come to fruit.

I was already thirsting to hell for revenge at the end of the first novel.

The second takes its sweet time getting closer, but alas, even after so much new destruction and close-calls, including a rather traditional (and harrowing as hell) moonwalk in horrible circumstances, we're still not quite ready for the revenge.

Am I alone in wanting a bit of good bloodshed and the turn of the wheel? I hope not! :)

Still, middle novel or not, it's a grand continuance of the buildup of what ought to be a truly stunning tour-de-force of politics, ruthlessness, Great Families, and bloodlust. Godfather Style on the Moon. :)

I received an eARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. I really do love the near-future universe that Ian McDonald has set up with Lady Luna. So vivid and realistic, yet one thing he really specializes in is flawed characters. I've found that I even care about the ones I don't much like on a personal level.

This does have a middle-book feel, which does make it not quite as good as the first one, but it is still very good on its own too. And what a setup for the third it's leaving us with!

I think this is going to be a great series to reread once it's all available. I can see that there are lots of small nuances that will be more interesting as the whole picture is observed rather than this one chapter. I'll definitely have the third book on my highly anticipated radar.

After the events of the first book, the survivors of the Corta family are scattered among the other Dragons. They all react in different ways to the fall of their House, and this is what sets the book in motion. It's fast moving ride, and by the end there are major repercussions for the Moon, and for what I presume will be the next book (there's no official indication that this is a continuing series, but surely McDonald is savvy enough to realise there will be lynch mobs after him if he leaves this hanging).

It's not all slam bang action, although there is plenty of that. The depiction of life on the Moon focuses on sexuality and gender (in fact, with the emphasis on this as well as family and Wagner's wolf pack, you could make a case for saying that the whole theme of the book is <i>belonging</i>, not least expressed in the ties between the Earth and the Moon, but I digress...) as well as the brutal hyper capitalism that governs lunar society. There's also plenty of the nuts and bolts of just living on an inhospitable airless world - a bit like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, you get the feeling that this is how it will be.

McDonald is one of the very best SF writers around at the moment, and this book, while emphatically not a good jumping on point for newbies, does nothing to dissuade me from that opinion. The next volume has just gone to the top of my want list.

Luna: Wolf Moon is the second in Ian McDonald’s Luna series. I took a look at New Moon, the first in the series, back in 2015. Its portrayal of a Moon split between five family-run mega-corporations, where every breath has to be paid for, was stark, unforgiving, and captivating. The sequel thus had some fairly large shoes to fill.

The sequel brings us a world whose balance has abruptly changed. Where five families, the ‘Five Dragons’ ran the Moon, now there are four. Corta Helio, providers of helium used in Earth’s fusion plants, have fallen. Their holdings have been seized by another family, their staff appropriated, and the family that served as senior management either fled or brutally killed. The world is out of balance. The MacKenzie’s, one of the other Dragon families, have seized Corta Helio assets, and are now consolidating. The other Dragons are alternately nervous, and looking to shift matters to their advantage. This gives us a chance to see some of the Moon that we haven’t explored before. There’s the MacKenzie Metals HQ, lit by mirrors which also act as smelters. Or the mysterious court of the Sun family, with a similar penchant for light arranged through cunning engineering – but deployed with an eye toward manipulating power, rather than controlling it.

The moon is also still, well, the Moon. Everything has a price, and nothing is free. There’s something of an eye toward the underside of the world here, keeping track of how those who aren’t industrial magnates spend their time and money. There are sections set on the surface, for example, following prospecting teams – and they’re terrifying. That any pressure leak, any incident, any lapse in control, could be fatal – either instantly or, more horrifyingly, over several hours, is a common refrain. It leaves the text and the reader with a running thread of caution, an effective link into the world of Luna. The Moon is, it turns out, always trying to kill those that live on or in it.

This is a world of triple redundant systems, of airtight bunkers scattered in case of emergencies, a world where a gunshot is a catastrophe in the making. It’s lethal and beautiful at the same time, and if we saw that in New Moon, Wolf Moon emphasises the point once more, and gives us new ways to see the harsh, uncaring beauty of the Moon. This is especially so given that there are a few segues onto Earth, a world where oxygen is considered a right, and not a privilege – and the costs of travel in both directions are explored in detail, both the physical (shattered muscles, broken bones) and the more abstract. Wolf Moon gives us a world on the edge – either rof disaster, or of becoming something greater than before.

There’s a whole host of characters in play here, and everyone probably has their favourites from the first book. Watching the relationship between Ariel Corta and her bodyguard was a delight this time. Ariel is a woman learning to live with the consequences of the last book, struggling with her own lack of power, and the level of dependence she now has on others – a fish out of water on several fronts. Watching her bicker and backslide, fall into a hole and plan her way out of it – well, it makes for a gripping read.

Wagner, one of the other survivors of the Corta clan, is a ‘wolf’ – torn between extremes of personality, depending upon the calendar. Our time with Wagner gives us access to the odd world of the wolf pack, a space where human loyalty ties up in a rather odd, charmingly edged sociological expression. Wagner has to deal with the disruption of his habits by family, and by the change in circumstances – and that struggle, the desire to bring together or break apart from pack and family, is one of the central cores of the narrative – and one with tenderness, truth and pain at its heart. There’s more here – Mackenzie and Corta, Sun…all of the five families contribute heroes and villains of their own. It’s to the credit of the text that each feels human – even when we only dip into their loves and feuds for a brief period.

The plot – well, without spoilers, it’s a tense political thriller. There’s plots and counterplots happening here, with wonderfully byzantine complexity. There’s paradigm shifts in political geography here, alongside knife-fights and runs through hard vacuum. The prose hangs together well, with a tight narrative which compels the reader to keep reading, to see just how it’s all going to end.

Is it worth reading? New Moon was one of the most interesting sci-fi novels of 2015, with smart ideas on humanity and economies matched by street smarts, political brawls and murder in the streets. Luna: Wolf Moon turns that up to eleven – it’s a fascinating story, which is also a tense, enthralling read.

Luna: Wolf Moon is the second book of Ian McDonald's Luna series.I thought the first book was originally described as the start of a duology, but Wolf Moon does leave enough plot threads open to suggest that this is now intended as a long, epic series.

To recap: the moon has been colonised. It's a Wild West of sorts, a dog-eat-dog, cut-throat outpost, run by the Lunar Development Corporation and four/five family business dynasties, each of whom has effective monopolies on specific lunar industries. Transport is run by the Vorontsovs, rare earth mining is run by the Mackenzies, Food production is in the hands of the Asamoahs, energy production is in the hands of the Suns, and Helium3 harvesting was run by the Corta family. Except, the Corta family have fallen. Their empire has been destroyed and scavenged by the Mackenzies. Remaining Cortas are rare and isolated from each other. Some shelter under the protection of factions with some power, some are effectively hostages, and one is plotting his revenge...

The Luna series combines Ian McDonald's strengths with a new direction. As usual, he creates a convincing, credible future, populated with people from non-Western cultures. Luna, however, is a world much more similar to Game of Thrones than to other recent Ian McDonald novels. Dynastic families jostling for power, happy to spill blood and without any fear of repercussions? Outright battles and small wars? Betrayals, conspiracies, greed? It's hard to read Luna novels without thinking of GRRM's magnum opus. Ian McDonald differs from many GRRM derivative writers in that he is himself a stellar talent, producing an epic that is easily on a par with Song of Ice and Fire. Also, the family rivalries in Luna aren't focused on getting an iron throne / power over everything. Rather, they compete and battle for wealth, territory, income, and the occasional longstanding feud. Still, there are enough similarities for his books to have been picked up by TV companies, soon to be a major TV show...

I first heard of Luna at a convention, where Ian McDonald talked about the books, and the fundamental premise: that the moon has no law but contract law. The basis of the society he predicts is therefore not "feudal dark ages", but "hyper-capitalist, libertarian utopia". There is no government on the moon, only a corporation with a local figurehead who doesn't actually wield all that much executive power. There is a court, but it's a court of arbitration above all, since there isn't a criminal law system. Rich family dynasties have their private security forces, but there is no standing army or police force. What Luna illustrates, if you read it with all that in mind, is that there is actually no systemic difference between libertarian utopia and The Dark Ages. The only difference is the absence of the Black Death / disease and the presence of higher levels of technology. Everything else is pretty much the same: borderline slavery, warlords, feudal society etc. However, this aspect of the premise is quite subtly interwoven into the plot. It's not staring you in the face, and I think it's almost too hidden in the background of the Lunar world. Had I not heard the talk, I would probably have missed it entirely.

With a huge cast of characters, Luna: Wolf Moon was a bit bewildering at times, because I had forgotten much of the detail of Luna: New Moon. The things and characters I did remember (Adriana Corta, Marina) were much less central in Wolf Moon than the characters I had forgotten. Marina, for example, is absent for the first quarter of the book, and her story had been my favourite in the first novel because she wasn't born rich with a silver spoon in her mouth, unlike every other character. This is perhaps Luna's biggest flaw, that almost everyone is rich and powerful. Sure, there are falls from power and rises, but it's a stark contrast to Ian McDonald's other novels, where most characters are hustling a little corner for themselves from positions near the bottom of the power structures. Luna, instead, focuses on the very top. The hoi polloi are pawns and footsoldiers.

Unsurprisingly, Wolf Moon is well written, with good prose, compelling settings, authentic and believable science. However, it doesn't quite rise over the shadows cast by Song of Ice and Fire's influence. And, filled with characters too highborn to be easy to empathise with, the novel lacks some of the heart and soul and drive that Ian McDonald is capable of. It's a good book, well worth reading if you've read Luna: New Moon, but it's not the first book or series I would recommend to a reader new to Ian McDonald.

Rating: 4/5