That feeling you get when you read someone new and you are suddenly excited by the form and pop of someone doing something a little bit different. Ninefox Gambit was a space battle space opera, but had big ideas and a lot of maths and was perfect for me. Moonstorm - as its title might suggest - isn't quite so radical. Infact if it weren't for my previous knowledge of their work, I'd put this down as a competent but green young adult debut. It is still a space opera, set in a glorious Empire that our protagonist has been adopted into after her rebel moon is taken by the military when she was a child. But it comes off like an overeager fanfic adjacent run at Ender's Game, our orphaned lead Hwa Young ends up in military academy, firmly number two in her class behind the perfect, rich bully. She dreams of being a Lancer pilot, and a few coincidences and war escalation along, that's exactly what she becomes. There is a very YA sequence where the sentient Lancer ships have to bond with their possible pilots, Hwa Young goes last and just after another candidate has died in the process. Will she get a ship, will she bond with the mysterious but most powerful one? The thing is, this isn't a book big on surprises. If it teases something unusual, hard or exceptional, it will probably happen to Hwa Young.

There is something bigger bubbling underneath after all. Our orphan is desperate for the acceptance of her new side, and has so happily accepted that the Empire are the good guys that its quite clear that they probably aren't (its an Empire you idiot). So this sets up an easy reading trilogy, which I think I can safely map out from here. Its YA, you can happily play with some of the oldest tropes in the book. But I wanted something a little bit more like Ninefox Gambit.

Me ha decepcionada bastante la última novela de Yoon Ha Lee, no porque esté destinada a un público juvenil, porque por ejemplo Phoenix Extravagant me hizo más gracia, si no porque me parece simplona y previsible. Incluso el comienzo suena a algo que ya hemos leído del autor, ya que la premisa de que las oraciones y creencias de las personas alteran la gravedad en determinados lugares nos remite y mucho al sostén principal de la trilogía The Machineries of Empire, versión reducida y simplificada.


La novela sigue las peripecias de Hwa Young, criada hasta los diez años por los rebeldes, pero que acaba entre los imperiales tras un ataque devastador a la luna donde habitaba en el que pierde a todos sus conocidos. O eso creía ella.

A pesar de su orfandad y quizá como reacción a la pérdida de todos los que conformaban su familia, decide dedicarse en cuerpo y alma al imperio para alcanzar su sueño de pilotar un mecha (en vez de Soñando, soñando triunfé patinando… Peleando, peleando triunfé pilotando). Pero es que todo el libro es tremendamente previsible, desde la marca que le dejará su mecha para que se distinga bien de los demás personajes, no vayamos a confundirnos a su atracción / odio por su mayor competidora.

Me cansa mucho que se reduzca siempre el papel del hackeo y la infiltración en sistemas informáticos a un “don natural” que hace que con cuatro pulsaciones y dos clicks superes cualquier barrera. Es un recurso muy manido y muy poco convincente que por desgracia parece ser que ha venido para quedarse.

Las escenas de acción, son pasables como mucho, y las habilidades de pilotaje necesarias para controlar los mechas más avanzados del universo, prácticamente seres sintientes, son risibles. ¿Para qué necesita un piloto si lo hace todo solo?

Lo que si está bien representado es el alienamiento que sufre un representante de una cultura minoritaria cuando se ve absorbida por otra cultura, por más que intente adaptarse siempre habrá una dualidad en su interior que le hará sentirse extraño en cualquier parte. Eso creo que Yoon lo ha reflejado estupendamente, pero el resto del libro no merece para nada la pena. Una lástima.

I really loved the premise of this book and really wanted to like it but unfortunately there were just one too many things letting it down.

First the main character decides to join the military to turn against her own people and actively works hard so that she's picked to have the most destructive weapons. It just seems so strange and she barely seems to blink and eyelid at it.

Second the two main characters had a miraculous set of convenient skills which just didn't make sense. Why is a teenager better at designing computer systems than every adult? I think YA books need to have some kind of explanation as to why the adults aren't saving the world which this lacked.

The characters also felt a bit flat. It doesn't help that another, highly successful, YA sci Fi book has a crazy irresponsible pilot with her best friend engineer but they just felt very carbon copy in this book.

All in all, though I read the book and wanted so badly for it to work, it just didn't for me

3.5. I quite liked aspects of this and I'm intrigued enough that I will read the second book. Very cool world building, especially.

An exhilarating sci-fi adventure featuring a teenage girl striving to become an Imperial pilot. Hwa Young, once a resident of a rebel moon home, dreams of becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using advanced tech. An attack on their boarding school forces Hwa Young and her classmates to be fast tracked to train as a Lancer. Amidst the whirlwind of combat preparations, layers of intrigue unfold as Hwa Young navigates through a labyrinth of secrets. She is drawn into a web of conspiracy that threatens the stability of their entire civilization. This journey compels her to weigh the remnants of her insurgent roots against an empire whose loyalty she questions.

Fans of Iron Widow and Skyward will be hooked on this adrenaline-fueled story, perfect for readers of all ages.

My thanks to Netgalley for providing me an advance copy of the book for my unbiased review.