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Moonbound
Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.
In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.
It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.
In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.
It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.
Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2024
About the author
Robin Sloan
26 books30.3k followersRobin Sloan is the author of the novels Sourdough, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and Moonbound, all published in the U.S. by MCD. He grew up in Michigan and now splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley of California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
February 19, 2024
Sloan's third novel, "Moonbound," follows in the footsteps of his first book, "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore," which I adored. Naturally, I eagerly seized the opportunity to delve into his latest work. "Moonbound" by Robin Sloan is a delightful fusion of science fiction, fantasy, Arthurian legend, and epic quest, whisking readers away into a world ruled by dragons.
The story revolves around Ariel, a 12-year-old boy residing in a small town governed by a wizard. Narrated by the chronicle, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence, the tale unfolds 11,000 years into the future, where humans are scarce, and the planet is dominated by talking animals.
Ariel's encounter with the chronicle during one of his explorations proves transformative. When he fails to fulfill the wizard's agenda—extracting a sword from a stone—he must flee for his life. Thus begins Ariel's quest to save his home from the clutches of the malevolent wizard and liberate the universe from the control of the dragons. Along the way, he forges new friendships, brave numerous adventures, and unravels mysteries about his world.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Revealing more of the plot would spoil the fun, as half the joy lies in discovering it firsthand. I relished the nods to Arthurian legend, the clever humor, the expansiveness of the author's imagination, and the intricate world-building. Despite a few sluggish moments, they scarcely detracted from my overall enjoyment. Although my copy lacked maps, I anticipate their inclusion will enrich the narrative. As a fantasy tale, it occasionally ventures into whimsical realms, a delightful aspect! The narrator's voice is vivid and effortlessly draws you in.
Particularly memorable were the beavers' unique decision-making process, the realm of Eigengrau and its inhabitants, and the diverse array of quirky characters. The storytelling and writing style are distinctive and skillfully executed. Sloan adeptly intertwines all the narrative elements. This well-crafted and imaginative adventure tale will hold your attention captive. Sloan has conjured a mystical world that effortlessly ensnares the reader. As with the finest tales, the protagonist becomes a cherished companion, and you can't help but root for him as he navigates the most thrilling of locales. All in all, "Moonbound" is a delightful read and highly recommended!
* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.
* Review in my blog: https://galibookish.blogspot.com/2024...
The story revolves around Ariel, a 12-year-old boy residing in a small town governed by a wizard. Narrated by the chronicle, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence, the tale unfolds 11,000 years into the future, where humans are scarce, and the planet is dominated by talking animals.
Ariel's encounter with the chronicle during one of his explorations proves transformative. When he fails to fulfill the wizard's agenda—extracting a sword from a stone—he must flee for his life. Thus begins Ariel's quest to save his home from the clutches of the malevolent wizard and liberate the universe from the control of the dragons. Along the way, he forges new friendships, brave numerous adventures, and unravels mysteries about his world.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Revealing more of the plot would spoil the fun, as half the joy lies in discovering it firsthand. I relished the nods to Arthurian legend, the clever humor, the expansiveness of the author's imagination, and the intricate world-building. Despite a few sluggish moments, they scarcely detracted from my overall enjoyment. Although my copy lacked maps, I anticipate their inclusion will enrich the narrative. As a fantasy tale, it occasionally ventures into whimsical realms, a delightful aspect! The narrator's voice is vivid and effortlessly draws you in.
Particularly memorable were the beavers' unique decision-making process, the realm of Eigengrau and its inhabitants, and the diverse array of quirky characters. The storytelling and writing style are distinctive and skillfully executed. Sloan adeptly intertwines all the narrative elements. This well-crafted and imaginative adventure tale will hold your attention captive. Sloan has conjured a mystical world that effortlessly ensnares the reader. As with the finest tales, the protagonist becomes a cherished companion, and you can't help but root for him as he navigates the most thrilling of locales. All in all, "Moonbound" is a delightful read and highly recommended!
* Thank you NetGalley and (publisher) for the opportunity to read this arc. All opinions are my own.
* Review in my blog: https://galibookish.blogspot.com/2024...
January 25, 2024
I remarked of the author's previous book,
Sourdough
, "Someday Robin Sloan will write a perfect book. This isn't it." I'd like to repeat that sentiment regarding Moonbound, but switch "will write" to "may write"; for me, this one is slightly further from perfection than his earlier work, mainly because it lacks the central narrative drive of a mystery or constant pursuit of a specific goal. It also turned out to be post-apocalyptic, which isn't a genre I enjoy, and that probably impacted my evaluation. As well as that, I felt that the worldbuilding was in a fight between what was likely and what fitted the feel the author was going for, and that there were missed opportunities for deeper meaning and significance overall. Still, it's not a candidate for my Most Disappointing Book of the Year award, even though I was disappointed; that award is for bad books by authors who are capable of writing good books, and this is a good book by an author capable of writing a great book.
Of the author's previous novels, the lesser-known Annabel Scheme is definitely science fiction, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is marginally science-fictional at best, and Sourdough is mostly only science-fictional inasmuch as San Francisco is inherently science-fictional (it's there in the abbreviation), though both of those last two are set in a milieu where technology and its impact are important, and Sourdough does have a mystical element. This book looks at first like a high-concept far-future SF novel, set 11,000 (actually closer to 12,000) years in the future, though as it went on I felt it was more like a fantasy novel with an SF excuse; there are talking animals, quests, wizards (so called; they're genetic-manipulation wizards, but they also feel like fantasy wizards), seven-league boots, and entities called dragons.
The background is that a future version of our civilization, known, for unexplained reasons, at its height as the Anth, has been destroyed by its own creations, the "dragons." These were AIs sent out to explore via an experimental FTL technology who came back changed, took over the moon, defeated the Anth in a war, cloaked the Earth in a screen of particles, and forbade the use of radio. To me, that obviously implies that they'd found something out there that was a huge threat and didn't want broadcasts drawing its attention, but nobody in the book seems to tumble to this (or, at least, to say it out loud that straightforwardly), and the dragons don't seem to have offered this explanation; they just came out swinging. One of them implies that the threat is too complex to explain, but that doesn't remove the option of saying, "A complicated threat is out there, and this is how we need to hide from it." To be fair, encountering whatever it is seems to have driven some of the dragons mad.
The Anth's response to the fact that they were losing the war was to hide the human genome in the other living things of earth and (though it's not put this way) commit mass suicide, so that the dragons won't wipe the earth to get rid of the humans, but they can eventually come back. For handwavy reasons, this kills all the birds (except that it unexplainedly doesn't) and uplifts all the mammals (hence talking animals), and apparently some other creatures (the first to become a wizard and convert/restore themselves to human form is a salamander). There have been multiple civilizations in the thousands of years since then, but when a couple of characters turn up who are, contrary to all likelihood, survivors of the Anth, they appear to have no language difficulties. That was a speed bump for me; I doubt there's a language spoken today that would be easily comprehensible to speakers from even 1100 years ago, and 11,000 years ago humans may not have had language at all - plus there's been a complete cultural break from the Anth, except via archaeology, because genome is not culture. If it had been me, I would have had the AI assistant (who jumps from the tomb of a crashed Anth pilot to Ariel, a boy-with-a-destiny who fortunately happens to find that tomb) learn the boy's language from within him and create a transmissible translation matrix of some kind to give to the other Anth person (Durga) who later joins the cast; but then, I think about language a lot.
That (unnamed) AI assistant is the narrator, and reminds me very much of the AI assistant in the author's earlier book, Annabel Scheme , except that AI observed via an earring worn by the protagonist, while this AI observes directly through the senses of the protagonist. It's a clever variation on close third person, and works well, particularly because the AI is able to bring a broader perspective to the boy's experiences that he himself could not have. It's certainly not an unbiased narration, though; the AI, a product of the Anth, melodramatically and, to my mind, inaccurately refers to the fall of the Anth as "the end of history," despite the fact that plenty has happened in the intervening 11,000 years.
The author, like the character Durga, does have an unfortunate tendency to say things for rhetorical effect that make no logical sense if you think about them. For example, a storage device is "stuffed so full of entertainment, it didn't even have room for an encyclopedia". I get the symbolism there - Durga is all about performance rather than reality - but in terms of facts it doesn't work; the whole of English Wikipedia takes roughly the same amount of storage as a single movie. They could have fitted an encyclopedia in if they wanted one. (And earlier the same device is said to hold "every book, movie and song produced by the Anth since the 19th century," which would, if remotely literal, include several encyclopedias. I'm not sure why the many fine works of pre-19th-century culture didn't make the cut, either.)
The AI assistant figures out, based on what seems to me to be inadequate evidence, that they're somewhere on the west coast of what used to be Ireland, but a west coast that's somewhat further out because the sea level has dropped substantially (due, presumably, to the filling of the sky with a screen of particles that's produced an effect like a nuclear winter). But... doesn't that mean they're in an ice age? And shouldn't Ireland, therefore, be much colder than it's depicted (it seems about the same as current temperatures)? The worldbuilding sometimes feels like a bricolage of handwaving, incompletely thought-through speculation, whimsy and geekery; there are a ton of Easter eggs, many of which I know I missed, salted through the text. It's not so obtrusively bad that I'd give it my "weak-worldbuilding" tag, which I've been using a bit lately (mostly on books that are so busy being socially conscious about a very narrow part of today's world in particular that they have no idea how worlds work in general), but it's not particularly strong, and certainly not "hard". It's not all the way towards the C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy end of things, but it's on that side of the spectrum - which, to be clear, I have no problem with as such; "soft" SF is often more humane and therefore more interesting to me. I'm just pointing out that the worldbuilding is a bit janky in places from a strict science point of view. There are other things that don't make much sense to me, too, such as the presence of electricity and electronics (excluding radio), and yet, apart from a couple of mentions of immersion blenders, little evidence of the use of electric motors - a simple and highly useful technology. People walk everywhere, and most work seems to be done by hand, which fits the mythic feel and ambiance but, as I say, doesn't make a whole lot of sense pragmatically.
The editing is mostly good, though it does need another quick pass before publication (I received a review copy from Netgalley). The author does have an idiosyncratic way with colons, sometimes using them where I would use a semicolon, a comma, an ellipsis, a dash, or no punctuation at all, but it's not wrong, exactly, just: unusual.
I enjoyed the beavers' method of arguing, where the two disputants finish up by summarizing each other's arguments in good faith, and in which they build a sculpture together (representing the argument, or its subject) which is what the community examines to make its decision. The collaborative-sculpture part is, of course, too mystical to be practical, at least for intelligent beings who aren't beavers, but I think the part where you summarize each other's arguments in a way that the other party will agree is fair is well worth adopting in the real world. I'm sure I've read about it in a book on negotiation, in fact.
What I was left with overall, though, was a sense of missed opportunities. Sourdough is, in part, a critique of Bay Area startup culture; this could have been a critique, as well as a celebration, of our culture as a whole, but because the narrator is an Anth chauvinist, the late Anth is seen as blameless and utopian, having solved all of the problems of the Middle Anth (our era). A charge of hubris against them is specifically denied. I would have liked to see this position interrogated, and more doubt cast on the narrator's reliability; more made of the risks of AI, given that it was rebel AIs that ended the Anth; and, in general, more contemplation of the human/posthuman condition. The protagonist undergoes a coming-of-age transition, and his original intended role is transformed into something finer, but that happens very much at the end of a story in which he mostly doesn't show a lot of focus or have much of a goal, apart from "don't be used in the wizard's scheme, whatever that is". The plot, inasmuch as there is one, is helped along several times by the sort of coincidence that can sometimes, just, be sold as "fate" in a more fantasy-type setting, but that doesn't really work when you've established the setting as a science-fictional one, however much it feels like fantasy. Also, there's a last-moment rescue which, while it isn't truly a deus ex machina - it's a Cavalry Rescue, which has, in retrospect, been foreshadowed - nevertheless feels like a deus ex machina because it's so perfectly timed, when the exact time that it happened was arbitrary. It does at least give Durga a moment of agency in the story that, up to that point, she was sorely lacking.
I've taken the time to critique it in detail because I think it's a good novel, but that with more work it could have been great. I know the author is capable of excellent writing; there's some of it here, at a sentence level, with observations like "Humans were always waking up from some dream, each individually, over the arc of a life, and also together, in the larger arc," and "More people dilute the poison of yourself, so it doesn't kill you," but I felt that I needed to be shown those things more and not just told them. It probably needed to be a longer book, and spend less time on the vibe and more on insight and theme and plot (and character; most of the characters are the one-trick characters of fairy tale), if it was going to feel fully successful to me.
Of the author's previous novels, the lesser-known Annabel Scheme is definitely science fiction, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore is marginally science-fictional at best, and Sourdough is mostly only science-fictional inasmuch as San Francisco is inherently science-fictional (it's there in the abbreviation), though both of those last two are set in a milieu where technology and its impact are important, and Sourdough does have a mystical element. This book looks at first like a high-concept far-future SF novel, set 11,000 (actually closer to 12,000) years in the future, though as it went on I felt it was more like a fantasy novel with an SF excuse; there are talking animals, quests, wizards (so called; they're genetic-manipulation wizards, but they also feel like fantasy wizards), seven-league boots, and entities called dragons.
The background is that a future version of our civilization, known, for unexplained reasons, at its height as the Anth, has been destroyed by its own creations, the "dragons." These were AIs sent out to explore via an experimental FTL technology who came back changed, took over the moon, defeated the Anth in a war, cloaked the Earth in a screen of particles, and forbade the use of radio. To me, that obviously implies that they'd found something out there that was a huge threat and didn't want broadcasts drawing its attention, but nobody in the book seems to tumble to this (or, at least, to say it out loud that straightforwardly), and the dragons don't seem to have offered this explanation; they just came out swinging. One of them implies that the threat is too complex to explain, but that doesn't remove the option of saying, "A complicated threat is out there, and this is how we need to hide from it." To be fair, encountering whatever it is seems to have driven some of the dragons mad.
The Anth's response to the fact that they were losing the war was to hide the human genome in the other living things of earth and (though it's not put this way) commit mass suicide, so that the dragons won't wipe the earth to get rid of the humans, but they can eventually come back. For handwavy reasons, this kills all the birds (except that it unexplainedly doesn't) and uplifts all the mammals (hence talking animals), and apparently some other creatures (the first to become a wizard and convert/restore themselves to human form is a salamander). There have been multiple civilizations in the thousands of years since then, but when a couple of characters turn up who are, contrary to all likelihood, survivors of the Anth, they appear to have no language difficulties. That was a speed bump for me; I doubt there's a language spoken today that would be easily comprehensible to speakers from even 1100 years ago, and 11,000 years ago humans may not have had language at all - plus there's been a complete cultural break from the Anth, except via archaeology, because genome is not culture. If it had been me, I would have had the AI assistant (who jumps from the tomb of a crashed Anth pilot to Ariel, a boy-with-a-destiny who fortunately happens to find that tomb) learn the boy's language from within him and create a transmissible translation matrix of some kind to give to the other Anth person (Durga) who later joins the cast; but then, I think about language a lot.
That (unnamed) AI assistant is the narrator, and reminds me very much of the AI assistant in the author's earlier book, Annabel Scheme , except that AI observed via an earring worn by the protagonist, while this AI observes directly through the senses of the protagonist. It's a clever variation on close third person, and works well, particularly because the AI is able to bring a broader perspective to the boy's experiences that he himself could not have. It's certainly not an unbiased narration, though; the AI, a product of the Anth, melodramatically and, to my mind, inaccurately refers to the fall of the Anth as "the end of history," despite the fact that plenty has happened in the intervening 11,000 years.
The author, like the character Durga, does have an unfortunate tendency to say things for rhetorical effect that make no logical sense if you think about them. For example, a storage device is "stuffed so full of entertainment, it didn't even have room for an encyclopedia". I get the symbolism there - Durga is all about performance rather than reality - but in terms of facts it doesn't work; the whole of English Wikipedia takes roughly the same amount of storage as a single movie. They could have fitted an encyclopedia in if they wanted one. (And earlier the same device is said to hold "every book, movie and song produced by the Anth since the 19th century," which would, if remotely literal, include several encyclopedias. I'm not sure why the many fine works of pre-19th-century culture didn't make the cut, either.)
The AI assistant figures out, based on what seems to me to be inadequate evidence, that they're somewhere on the west coast of what used to be Ireland, but a west coast that's somewhat further out because the sea level has dropped substantially (due, presumably, to the filling of the sky with a screen of particles that's produced an effect like a nuclear winter). But... doesn't that mean they're in an ice age? And shouldn't Ireland, therefore, be much colder than it's depicted (it seems about the same as current temperatures)? The worldbuilding sometimes feels like a bricolage of handwaving, incompletely thought-through speculation, whimsy and geekery; there are a ton of Easter eggs, many of which I know I missed, salted through the text. It's not so obtrusively bad that I'd give it my "weak-worldbuilding" tag, which I've been using a bit lately (mostly on books that are so busy being socially conscious about a very narrow part of today's world in particular that they have no idea how worlds work in general), but it's not particularly strong, and certainly not "hard". It's not all the way towards the C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy end of things, but it's on that side of the spectrum - which, to be clear, I have no problem with as such; "soft" SF is often more humane and therefore more interesting to me. I'm just pointing out that the worldbuilding is a bit janky in places from a strict science point of view. There are other things that don't make much sense to me, too, such as the presence of electricity and electronics (excluding radio), and yet, apart from a couple of mentions of immersion blenders, little evidence of the use of electric motors - a simple and highly useful technology. People walk everywhere, and most work seems to be done by hand, which fits the mythic feel and ambiance but, as I say, doesn't make a whole lot of sense pragmatically.
The editing is mostly good, though it does need another quick pass before publication (I received a review copy from Netgalley). The author does have an idiosyncratic way with colons, sometimes using them where I would use a semicolon, a comma, an ellipsis, a dash, or no punctuation at all, but it's not wrong, exactly, just: unusual.
I enjoyed the beavers' method of arguing, where the two disputants finish up by summarizing each other's arguments in good faith, and in which they build a sculpture together (representing the argument, or its subject) which is what the community examines to make its decision. The collaborative-sculpture part is, of course, too mystical to be practical, at least for intelligent beings who aren't beavers, but I think the part where you summarize each other's arguments in a way that the other party will agree is fair is well worth adopting in the real world. I'm sure I've read about it in a book on negotiation, in fact.
What I was left with overall, though, was a sense of missed opportunities. Sourdough is, in part, a critique of Bay Area startup culture; this could have been a critique, as well as a celebration, of our culture as a whole, but because the narrator is an Anth chauvinist, the late Anth is seen as blameless and utopian, having solved all of the problems of the Middle Anth (our era). A charge of hubris against them is specifically denied. I would have liked to see this position interrogated, and more doubt cast on the narrator's reliability; more made of the risks of AI, given that it was rebel AIs that ended the Anth; and, in general, more contemplation of the human/posthuman condition. The protagonist undergoes a coming-of-age transition, and his original intended role is transformed into something finer, but that happens very much at the end of a story in which he mostly doesn't show a lot of focus or have much of a goal, apart from "don't be used in the wizard's scheme, whatever that is". The plot, inasmuch as there is one, is helped along several times by the sort of coincidence that can sometimes, just, be sold as "fate" in a more fantasy-type setting, but that doesn't really work when you've established the setting as a science-fictional one, however much it feels like fantasy. Also, there's a last-moment rescue which, while it isn't truly a deus ex machina - it's a Cavalry Rescue, which has, in retrospect, been foreshadowed - nevertheless feels like a deus ex machina because it's so perfectly timed, when the exact time that it happened was arbitrary. It does at least give Durga a moment of agency in the story that, up to that point, she was sorely lacking.
I've taken the time to critique it in detail because I think it's a good novel, but that with more work it could have been great. I know the author is capable of excellent writing; there's some of it here, at a sentence level, with observations like "Humans were always waking up from some dream, each individually, over the arc of a life, and also together, in the larger arc," and "More people dilute the poison of yourself, so it doesn't kill you," but I felt that I needed to be shown those things more and not just told them. It probably needed to be a longer book, and spend less time on the vibe and more on insight and theme and plot (and character; most of the characters are the one-trick characters of fairy tale), if it was going to feel fully successful to me.
April 20, 2024
I predict this will be my favorite read of 2024. IT IS SO GOOD!!! I feel like it was written specifically for me?! One of those magical books that just feels perfect and correct?!
If your DNA is comprised of pieces of The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, various upbeat Studio Ghibli movies, some [redacted] legends & fairytales - if you love a quest, an adventure, found bosom companions, a nebulous evil - if you like your fantasy with a healthy dose of science fiction, and your science fiction with a healthy dose of whimsy - if you love a well-constructed argument, different epistemologies, or the concept of multi-dimensional thought - if you just want to go on an epic adventure and have fun - this book is for YOU.
I am so sad it’s over and I can’t wait to read it again.
If your DNA is comprised of pieces of The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, various upbeat Studio Ghibli movies, some [redacted] legends & fairytales - if you love a quest, an adventure, found bosom companions, a nebulous evil - if you like your fantasy with a healthy dose of science fiction, and your science fiction with a healthy dose of whimsy - if you love a well-constructed argument, different epistemologies, or the concept of multi-dimensional thought - if you just want to go on an epic adventure and have fun - this book is for YOU.
I am so sad it’s over and I can’t wait to read it again.
December 15, 2023
In a word, charming. It’s weirder and woolier than the earlier ones but it’s fun heart-filled adventure.
July 7, 2024
Strange and imaginative! Didn’t really gel with me
February 19, 2024
Review: This was like Alice in Wonderland dropped acid with Ayahuasca. What begins as a fairly normal SciFi novel, quickly morphs into something that bridges the past into the fantasical present. It just seems plausible with the back story rendered in the sublime, that talking societal beavers and huge moths used for travel is granted freedom to happlily co-exist within your mind. Wizards that can craft a human body for a talking possum is a logical process when you accept the inception event that made it possible.
The diverse character presentation was the most riveting part of this novel. Every turn in the story line is met with a different persona/being and culture. The twists are sudden and delightful.
The writing is superb. Most of the novel is written from the perspective of the Chronicler. An AI that resides within Ariel, gathering knowledge and providing insights. The world building is like a better version of Alice that embraces the authentic. There is some blah, blah carbon counting science speculation. Most of Earth would have to be bog for that theory to work.
This novel is a fantastic read. GET IT!
Rating: 4.7/5
The diverse character presentation was the most riveting part of this novel. Every turn in the story line is met with a different persona/being and culture. The twists are sudden and delightful.
The writing is superb. Most of the novel is written from the perspective of the Chronicler. An AI that resides within Ariel, gathering knowledge and providing insights. The world building is like a better version of Alice that embraces the authentic. There is some blah, blah carbon counting science speculation. Most of Earth would have to be bog for that theory to work.
This novel is a fantastic read. GET IT!
Rating: 4.7/5
May 23, 2024
This was amazing. I feel like it is a love letter to Terry Pratchett. There were so many lovely bits in it. I am working to put some of the silly words into my memory. Bagelness is how I will describe the way i am feeling.
May 7, 2024
I like the world building, and the characters, and am looking forward to more in the series. It reminded me of some other favorite authors: T Kingfisher and Jasper Fforde.
Read
June 16, 2024Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC.
DNF @ 14%
This is a DNF for now. It was too weird for my brain at the moment, and audio wasn't the way to go for me, even though I really like Gabra Zackman as a narrator. I need a hard copy and a fresh brain to get down with this one. Not sure when I'll get to it again, and this is totally a me thing. I hope this finds its audience. Not rating.
DNF @ 14%
This is a DNF for now. It was too weird for my brain at the moment, and audio wasn't the way to go for me, even though I really like Gabra Zackman as a narrator. I need a hard copy and a fresh brain to get down with this one. Not sure when I'll get to it again, and this is totally a me thing. I hope this finds its audience. Not rating.
Read
June 6, 2024This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
LET'S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY RIGHT NOW
This is not like the Robin Sloan books you may have read. This is not Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (even if everything I've seen from the publisher says it's part of the Penumbraverse) and this isn't Sourdough. If you're looking for something like that, I can't help you by talking about this book.
And yet...some of the same themes, the same kind of ideas, the same oddball ways of thinking, the same characters that will fascinate and (sometimes) frustrate you, the same quality of writing are present. So it is like the Robin Sloan books you may have read. But not really.
WHAT'S MOONBOUND ABOUT?
Maaaannnn....I don't know, I really don't know. In case those semi-contradictory paragraphs above didn't give you a clue. Also, to really talk about it would involve a few pages on my part and several spoilers.
Let's start with this: the events of the book begin in the year 13777. The number of things that the human race has gone through—cultural, technological, societal, scientific, and political changes (revolutions, really) are impossible to describe. Civilizations have come and gone—the planet Earth looks little like it does now, and humanity isn't much like it is now (except humans are going to be human—it's like Doctor Who's far future episodes that way—just without the space travel). Even the Moon—the Moon, for crying out loud—isn't the same.
In William Goldman's The Princess Bride (and the movie does something very similar), Goldman talks about his father coming in while he's sick to read him a book by S. Morgenstern.
Similarly, let me tell you a little about what Moonbound contains:
Knights. Brothers. Talking swords. Dragons. Friendship. Robots. Bogs (which are very different than swamps). Raiders. Wizards. Bees that give direction. Gleaning coffee shops. Climate Warrior Beavers. Constructive debates (literally). Genetic engineering. Legendary warriors. Forty-three million dimensions.* Pizza rolls. Trash-pickers.
* Not really like Marvel's Multiverse, more like the mathematical concept of three-dimensional or four-dimensional space, but much, much more expanded.
I'm not sure that's helpful, but it's something.
We begin when our protagonist, a boy named Ariel de la Sauvage, finds the remains of one of the greatest warriors in human history. This discovery ends up starting a chain of events that will lead to Ariel being on the run from the Wizard who rules the valley Ariel and his brother have grown up in—not just grown up in, but have never left. They have no knowledge of anything outside this valley—if anything exists beyond it, really. But to overthrow the Wizard and save his brother, Ariel will have to go into the wider world and learn about it. He needs experiences that his valley cannot give him. Equipped with this education and experience, Ariel should be able to confront the wizard and rescue his brother and the rest of the people he grew up surrounded by.
Oh, and he's guided throughout this by an AI who has the accumulated knowledge of most of human history and is currently residing in a microorganism that has implanted itself in Ariel's body.
Clear as mud, right?
STORY
More than anything else—and there's a lot of "anything else"—this is a novel about Story. The power of story to shape reality, to shape our expectations, the way we go about our lives, and the way we need others to go about their lives. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. The stories we tell others about ourselves. The stories that others tell us about themselves—and us. The stories that societies, governments, and other groups tell us and others about themselves and us.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Moonbound about the way we can re-write our stories, the way we can take control of them (once we realize the story being told) and change things.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MOONBOUND?
That's a great question, and one I've been chewing on for more than a week now. I want to read this at least two more times before I think I'll be ready to answer that. Maybe the fact that I want to read this at least two more times in the next year or so gives you and me both a hint about what I think about it.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book since I started reading it two weeks ago. Part of that is to think about what I read and decide what Sloan was doing and what I thought about it. Another part of that thinking is just reveling in just how strange and wonderful it was.
While reading, when I was able to stop thinking things like, "what is going on here?" or "What is Sloan trying to accomplish?" and just enjoy it and get caught up in the story—I was able to lose myself in the book. And that got easier the further into the book I got. But I also spent an awful amount of time just trying to suss things out and overthinking things.
I don't think that's a bug when it comes to this book—it's a feature. Sloan has given the reader so much to take in, that if you're not chewing on almost every idea, you're doing the book and yourself a disservice. But it's also the kind of book you can relax with and enjoy. At a certain point in the book, Ariel learns to lay back and float in water—which is both one of those things that takes effort and can be incredibly relaxing at the same time. Like him, the reader has to learn how to "float" in this book. And when you do, you'll be rewarded. How greatly you'll be rewarded, I'm not sure—but you will be.
I'm not going to give this a star rating—sorry if that's what you're looking for. I just don't know (in case I haven't used that phrase enough yet in this post)—I can both defend every rating from 3-5 Stars, and I can wage a better argument against each of those. I encourage readers who find anything I've rambled about above intriguing, fans of Sloan, or people who read what the Publisher's site says to give it a shot. And then let's get together and talk about it, because I'd love to bounce some spoilery ideas off of someone.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley—thanks to both for this.
---
LET'S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY RIGHT NOW
This is not like the Robin Sloan books you may have read. This is not Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (even if everything I've seen from the publisher says it's part of the Penumbraverse) and this isn't Sourdough. If you're looking for something like that, I can't help you by talking about this book.
And yet...some of the same themes, the same kind of ideas, the same oddball ways of thinking, the same characters that will fascinate and (sometimes) frustrate you, the same quality of writing are present. So it is like the Robin Sloan books you may have read. But not really.
WHAT'S MOONBOUND ABOUT?
Maaaannnn....I don't know, I really don't know. In case those semi-contradictory paragraphs above didn't give you a clue. Also, to really talk about it would involve a few pages on my part and several spoilers.
Let's start with this: the events of the book begin in the year 13777. The number of things that the human race has gone through—cultural, technological, societal, scientific, and political changes (revolutions, really) are impossible to describe. Civilizations have come and gone—the planet Earth looks little like it does now, and humanity isn't much like it is now (except humans are going to be human—it's like Doctor Who's far future episodes that way—just without the space travel). Even the Moon—the Moon, for crying out loud—isn't the same.
In William Goldman's The Princess Bride (and the movie does something very similar), Goldman talks about his father coming in while he's sick to read him a book by S. Morgenstern.
“Does it have any sports in it?”
“Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True Love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest Ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.”
“Sounds okay,” I said and I kind of closed my eyes.
Similarly, let me tell you a little about what Moonbound contains:
Knights. Brothers. Talking swords. Dragons. Friendship. Robots. Bogs (which are very different than swamps). Raiders. Wizards. Bees that give direction. Gleaning coffee shops. Climate Warrior Beavers. Constructive debates (literally). Genetic engineering. Legendary warriors. Forty-three million dimensions.* Pizza rolls. Trash-pickers.
* Not really like Marvel's Multiverse, more like the mathematical concept of three-dimensional or four-dimensional space, but much, much more expanded.
I'm not sure that's helpful, but it's something.
We begin when our protagonist, a boy named Ariel de la Sauvage, finds the remains of one of the greatest warriors in human history. This discovery ends up starting a chain of events that will lead to Ariel being on the run from the Wizard who rules the valley Ariel and his brother have grown up in—not just grown up in, but have never left. They have no knowledge of anything outside this valley—if anything exists beyond it, really. But to overthrow the Wizard and save his brother, Ariel will have to go into the wider world and learn about it. He needs experiences that his valley cannot give him. Equipped with this education and experience, Ariel should be able to confront the wizard and rescue his brother and the rest of the people he grew up surrounded by.
Oh, and he's guided throughout this by an AI who has the accumulated knowledge of most of human history and is currently residing in a microorganism that has implanted itself in Ariel's body.
Clear as mud, right?
STORY
More than anything else—and there's a lot of "anything else"—this is a novel about Story. The power of story to shape reality, to shape our expectations, the way we go about our lives, and the way we need others to go about their lives. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. The stories we tell others about ourselves. The stories that others tell us about themselves—and us. The stories that societies, governments, and other groups tell us and others about themselves and us.
Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Moonbound about the way we can re-write our stories, the way we can take control of them (once we realize the story being told) and change things.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT MOONBOUND?
That's a great question, and one I've been chewing on for more than a week now. I want to read this at least two more times before I think I'll be ready to answer that. Maybe the fact that I want to read this at least two more times in the next year or so gives you and me both a hint about what I think about it.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book since I started reading it two weeks ago. Part of that is to think about what I read and decide what Sloan was doing and what I thought about it. Another part of that thinking is just reveling in just how strange and wonderful it was.
While reading, when I was able to stop thinking things like, "what is going on here?" or "What is Sloan trying to accomplish?" and just enjoy it and get caught up in the story—I was able to lose myself in the book. And that got easier the further into the book I got. But I also spent an awful amount of time just trying to suss things out and overthinking things.
I don't think that's a bug when it comes to this book—it's a feature. Sloan has given the reader so much to take in, that if you're not chewing on almost every idea, you're doing the book and yourself a disservice. But it's also the kind of book you can relax with and enjoy. At a certain point in the book, Ariel learns to lay back and float in water—which is both one of those things that takes effort and can be incredibly relaxing at the same time. Like him, the reader has to learn how to "float" in this book. And when you do, you'll be rewarded. How greatly you'll be rewarded, I'm not sure—but you will be.
I'm not going to give this a star rating—sorry if that's what you're looking for. I just don't know (in case I haven't used that phrase enough yet in this post)—I can both defend every rating from 3-5 Stars, and I can wage a better argument against each of those. I encourage readers who find anything I've rambled about above intriguing, fans of Sloan, or people who read what the Publisher's site says to give it a shot. And then let's get together and talk about it, because I'd love to bounce some spoilery ideas off of someone.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley—thanks to both for this.
July 11, 2024
"Moonbound" by Robin Sloan is speculative fiction set thousands of years in the future in 13777. The story begins confusingly from the point of view of an artificial intelligent recorder device inside the boy. Actually, they are are the narrator of the whole story.
The main character of the book, though, is Ariel de la Sovage (sp.?). He's a boy about 12 years old. He has a feeling he is destined to do something big in his life, but no idea what.
There are wizards, archetypal heroes, quests, talking bees and beavers, spaceships, and even dragons (kind of).
If you like sci-fi/ speculative fiction and light fantasy, check this one out!
Characters - 4/5
Writing - 5/5
Plot - 4/5
Pacing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 3/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Narration - 4/5 by Gabra Zackman
Cover - 5/5
Overall - 32/8 = 4
Thank you to Netgalley, Brilliance Publishing, and Jo Leevers for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
The main character of the book, though, is Ariel de la Sovage (sp.?). He's a boy about 12 years old. He has a feeling he is destined to do something big in his life, but no idea what.
There are wizards, archetypal heroes, quests, talking bees and beavers, spaceships, and even dragons (kind of).
If you like sci-fi/ speculative fiction and light fantasy, check this one out!
Characters - 4/5
Writing - 5/5
Plot - 4/5
Pacing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 3/5
Enjoyment - 3/5
Narration - 4/5 by Gabra Zackman
Cover - 5/5
Overall - 32/8 = 4
Thank you to Netgalley, Brilliance Publishing, and Jo Leevers for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
June 19, 2024
A wonderful, whimsical sci-fi/fantasy tale that takes inspiration from many of the classics—The Sword in the Stone, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Hobbit, Dune!—while clearly subverting tropes and riding its own flair.
Somewhat illusive, very creative, and a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in reading a sciencey-fairytale with adult complexities or reinvigorating their inner sense of childlike wonder. Robin Sloan does it again!!!!! 9.25/10.
___
2024 RATING SCALE:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 9.25-10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 8.25-9.25
⭐️⭐️⭐️6.25-8.25
⭐️⭐️4.25-6.25
⭐️ 0-4.25
*Overlap is to allow for subjective
differences in borderline ratings.
Somewhat illusive, very creative, and a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in reading a sciencey-fairytale with adult complexities or reinvigorating their inner sense of childlike wonder. Robin Sloan does it again!!!!! 9.25/10.
___
2024 RATING SCALE:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 9.25-10
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 8.25-9.25
⭐️⭐️⭐️6.25-8.25
⭐️⭐️4.25-6.25
⭐️ 0-4.25
*Overlap is to allow for subjective
differences in borderline ratings.
March 28, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ultimately, this book just wasn't for me. I haven't read anything by this author before, but I had one of his books on my 'to read' list, so when this popped up on NetGalley I thought I'd try it. For me, this book just tries to do too many things at once. It's a scifi story of the distant future, with AI, robots, and genetic engineering, and also a fantasy story with wizards, Arthurian legends, magic, and talking animals. It's a mashup that just didn't work for me. I've read scifi/fantasy mixes that have worked well before, but this one just kept tossing off explanations for how the world became the way it was that didn't make much sense. It's more a fairy tale than anything else, so on some level I don't think we're supposed to care how and why things are the way they are, but it had enough scifi elements to warrant explanation.
I did like the "fairy tale" style of a boy resisting his "story" and then making it his own, but the fairy tale nature also meant we didn't get a lot of depth to the characters. The plot felt more like a series of random events that the author wanted to include, rather than an organic narrative. I did like some of the vignettes, and I appreciate that the author took risks and swung for the fences with something wacky, which is why I gave it three stars. That said, I was looking for a cozy fantasy, and the fact that the plot was "and next we went to this place and met these people and did this" became tedious after a while. If you like wild genre mashups and don't mind aimless wandering in your stories, I think you will enjoy this. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
Ultimately, this book just wasn't for me. I haven't read anything by this author before, but I had one of his books on my 'to read' list, so when this popped up on NetGalley I thought I'd try it. For me, this book just tries to do too many things at once. It's a scifi story of the distant future, with AI, robots, and genetic engineering, and also a fantasy story with wizards, Arthurian legends, magic, and talking animals. It's a mashup that just didn't work for me. I've read scifi/fantasy mixes that have worked well before, but this one just kept tossing off explanations for how the world became the way it was that didn't make much sense. It's more a fairy tale than anything else, so on some level I don't think we're supposed to care how and why things are the way they are, but it had enough scifi elements to warrant explanation.
I did like the "fairy tale" style of a boy resisting his "story" and then making it his own, but the fairy tale nature also meant we didn't get a lot of depth to the characters. The plot felt more like a series of random events that the author wanted to include, rather than an organic narrative. I did like some of the vignettes, and I appreciate that the author took risks and swung for the fences with something wacky, which is why I gave it three stars. That said, I was looking for a cozy fantasy, and the fact that the plot was "and next we went to this place and met these people and did this" became tedious after a while. If you like wild genre mashups and don't mind aimless wandering in your stories, I think you will enjoy this. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
May 8, 2024
Every time Robin Sloan publishes a new book, it becomes a reading highlight of my year—and his latest title is no exception. Moonbound is bonkers. It’s so out of control, I’m unsure how to summarize it well. Between the covers, you get a story that starts in the near future and then shifts 11,000 years forward into a world where creatures made of thought have seemingly extinguished the human race and set up a colony on the moon, and where earth is populated by animals that can speak, sentient weapons, “wizards” who can stitch together creatures that resemble humans, and a fungus that chronicles human history…see what I mean? Bonkers—and I loved every word of it.
For anyone who’s read Sloan’s previous books, this kind of story shouldn’t come as a surprise. His first (Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore) follows a bookstore clerk who uses 3-D mapping to decipher a secret the store and its clientele are hiding. His second (Sourdough) is about a sentient sourdough starter. He has a penchant for the odd, but it turns endearing and playful in his telling, and his writing feels effortless.
At the risk of setting the expectations too high, Moonbound read with the magic of whimsy of Narnia combined with the outlandish imagination of Jeff VanderMeer, and it’s my favorite read of 2024 so far.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers for the ARC.
For anyone who’s read Sloan’s previous books, this kind of story shouldn’t come as a surprise. His first (Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore) follows a bookstore clerk who uses 3-D mapping to decipher a secret the store and its clientele are hiding. His second (Sourdough) is about a sentient sourdough starter. He has a penchant for the odd, but it turns endearing and playful in his telling, and his writing feels effortless.
At the risk of setting the expectations too high, Moonbound read with the magic of whimsy of Narnia combined with the outlandish imagination of Jeff VanderMeer, and it’s my favorite read of 2024 so far.
*Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Publishers for the ARC.
June 17, 2024
This was a very enjoyable book to read. It tells a post-apocalyptic story in the far future (13,777) of Ariel de la Sauvage and what becomes his quest to free earth from the control of the Dragons.
Robin Sloan does a very nice job of world building for his vision of the future earth. Sloan provides some nice little references back earlier books such as Mr. Penumbra and Sourdough.
Ariel starts off with something of a King Arthur like story, but rapidly goes on his own new path leaving the tiny community of Sauvage and discovering the wider story of Earth. He soon finds that he is really quite different from everyone else, but he successfully makes friends and brings them to his cause. The characters are nicely formed and interesting.
It seems like this book could become the beginning of a series. I hope it does!
Robin Sloan does a very nice job of world building for his vision of the future earth. Sloan provides some nice little references back earlier books such as Mr. Penumbra and Sourdough.
Ariel starts off with something of a King Arthur like story, but rapidly goes on his own new path leaving the tiny community of Sauvage and discovering the wider story of Earth. He soon finds that he is really quite different from everyone else, but he successfully makes friends and brings them to his cause. The characters are nicely formed and interesting.
It seems like this book could become the beginning of a series. I hope it does!
June 17, 2024
Sloan writes whimsical, fantastic sci-fi, and I loved being along the ride for Moonbound. There are some callbacks to his previous novels here, but I haven't read those books for years and I think Moonbound would be just as much fun for the Sloan newbie. There are some images, scenes, and ideas that really enriched my imagination! I might just turn around and re-read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore again...
June 9, 2024
Moonbound is weird and wonderful in so many ways; a high concept mashup of fantasy, folklore, post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and Arthurian legend, with a bit of Narnia thrown in for good measure. It’s always a treat to get a peek inside Robin Sloan’s whimsically brilliant brain, and while this book had a lot of different elements happening all at once, I really enjoyed the story. The prose had that elusive fairytale quality, breezy and imaginative and true, and I found myself thinking of Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn” more than once while reading. I did have some trouble focusing on this book, as there is just so much happening all the time, but it is wildly unique and well worth exploring.
Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Thanks to Farrar, Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
June 24, 2024
I'm such a fan of Robin Sloan, and I adored his first novel, "Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore." It was weird and genre-bending in the best way. His latest novel, "Moonbound," has flashes of that same genius and tongue-firmly-in-cheek humor, but it's ultimately a bit too messy for my taste. There's Arthurian legend and lots of post-apocalyptic world-building as we learn about Earth 11,000 years in the future. Some (very) slow sections of the story, however, tell me that Sloan probably loves Tolkien's Tom Bombadil. I would have preferred a bit less wandering around in bogs and a bit more straightforward action/adventure narrative with some clearer destination(s) as well.
Note: I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
Note: I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
June 26, 2024
So good! A fun, charming adventure into a disorienting but delightful distant future. Sparkling with imagination and hope and so much heart.
June 15, 2024
That is some of the most fun I've had reading in a Long time. Goddamn.
I'll edit this for a better review later but I'm gonna have to sit and ruminate first.
I'll edit this for a better review later but I'm gonna have to sit and ruminate first.
June 10, 2024
4 stars - fantastic
I’m really proud to be promoting a title today that I hope gets some traction on the gram because it is really good and well worth your time. I want to thank @fsgbooks and @mcdbooks for offering this to review because otherwise, I would not have heard of it and would have missed out on reading what is a truly remarkable book. AND IT COMES OUT TOMORROW - 6/11!
This is way outside my normal read. Way outside, but I’m better for reading it. It’s a very cerebral book so I would not have been able to keep up on audio, but this felt like not only a book I enjoyed reading, but I learned from it and it gave me a lot to think about as well.
Components of the book include:
🚀Space travel
⚔️Arthurian legend (one of my favorite parts)
🦫Talking animals (another favorite part)
🤖An AI narrator - so much wit & snark!
⏰Set 11,000 years in the future
Read If You Like:
📖The Chronicles of Narnia
📖The Neverending Story
📖Labryinth
The number one thing I think you should know about this book is that it requires concentration, but I never felt lost or that the prose was way over my head (except for a bit at the end). I really understood everything and for the author to write a book this well, to do as much world building as he did, put this many diverse characters together and discuss the very complex topics he did - he did a really amazing job. The part alone on how Beavers debated topics and came up with solutions is worth reading the whole almost 450 page book. Highly recommend this as a gift (there are maps!) for any reader who loves the above things I mentioned. Highly recommend.
Thank you to FSG/MCD books for the gifted arc copy in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 06/11/2024
Review Date: 05/27/2024
I’m really proud to be promoting a title today that I hope gets some traction on the gram because it is really good and well worth your time. I want to thank @fsgbooks and @mcdbooks for offering this to review because otherwise, I would not have heard of it and would have missed out on reading what is a truly remarkable book. AND IT COMES OUT TOMORROW - 6/11!
This is way outside my normal read. Way outside, but I’m better for reading it. It’s a very cerebral book so I would not have been able to keep up on audio, but this felt like not only a book I enjoyed reading, but I learned from it and it gave me a lot to think about as well.
Components of the book include:
🚀Space travel
⚔️Arthurian legend (one of my favorite parts)
🦫Talking animals (another favorite part)
🤖An AI narrator - so much wit & snark!
⏰Set 11,000 years in the future
Read If You Like:
📖The Chronicles of Narnia
📖The Neverending Story
📖Labryinth
The number one thing I think you should know about this book is that it requires concentration, but I never felt lost or that the prose was way over my head (except for a bit at the end). I really understood everything and for the author to write a book this well, to do as much world building as he did, put this many diverse characters together and discuss the very complex topics he did - he did a really amazing job. The part alone on how Beavers debated topics and came up with solutions is worth reading the whole almost 450 page book. Highly recommend this as a gift (there are maps!) for any reader who loves the above things I mentioned. Highly recommend.
Thank you to FSG/MCD books for the gifted arc copy in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: 06/11/2024
Review Date: 05/27/2024
June 10, 2024
Moonbound is a truly high-concept sci-fi/fantasy book set on Earth roughly 11,000 years in the future. The story follows a 12-year old boy named Ariel as he sets out on an epic quest to maybe save the planet? stop dragons? escape a wizard? To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. There is a lot going on in this book. I mean, the whole thing is narrated by a sentient symbiotic fungus (or AI?), and the weirdest thing about that is this is actually the second book I've read in the past month that has made that bold choice. The writing is genuinely funny, and the whole thing is bursting with overwhelming novelty and imagination.
I am such a big fan of Robin Sloan's previous novels, Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which are much more in the realm of speculative fiction. So, unfortunately, this ended up being a book poorly suited to my reading tastes. I was quite confused most of the time, having to re-listen to passages, and even though I genuinely wanted to know where it was all going, I had to throw in the towel about 2/3rds of the way through. I do think that this will find its audience and I look forward to whatever Sloan thinks up and writes next.
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with the ALC in exchange for my honest review.
I am such a big fan of Robin Sloan's previous novels, Sourdough and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which are much more in the realm of speculative fiction. So, unfortunately, this ended up being a book poorly suited to my reading tastes. I was quite confused most of the time, having to re-listen to passages, and even though I genuinely wanted to know where it was all going, I had to throw in the towel about 2/3rds of the way through. I do think that this will find its audience and I look forward to whatever Sloan thinks up and writes next.
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with the ALC in exchange for my honest review.
June 17, 2024
I am 52% of the way through and I am not convinced that this is adult fiction.
July 8, 2024
this was super fun! it feels like robin sloan has read all of the same books i have with regards to some surprising plot similarities. there is nothing new under the sun!! but i really liked it.
June 8, 2024
I am so extremely disappointed by this book. I’m clearly in the minority, but after absolutely adoring Sourdough Mr. penumbra’s 24 Hour Book Store, I had such high expectations for this one. It was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I sincerely disliked it. I didn’t like the overall storyline, but maybe it’s just because I’m not a big fan of King Arthur? This was just such a departure from his previous works that I couldn’t even believe it was the same author.
May 28, 2024
As a longtime Robin Sloan fan, it brings me no joy to report that this did not work for me. There are some interesting ideas here but instead of feeling fresh and original it ultimately felt far too derivative - of The Dark Tower in particular, but it also reminded me of other writers (Vandermeer, Pratchett, etc.) who I’ve found to have threaded the needle a little bit better. My patience for the loosely threaded pop culture fantasy and new layers of whimsy every few chapters wore thin far quicker than I would’ve liked. Impossible to guess how I would’ve reacted to this if I hadn’t so recently delved into Stephen King’s magnum opus, but as is, I found myself ready for it to end by the halfway point.
That being said, there’s imagination here, and I think Sloan is a good writer. This just has too many ideas and unfortunately wasn’t novel enough to charm me. Alas. I still anticipate his next with great interest!
Thanks, as always, to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
That being said, there’s imagination here, and I think Sloan is a good writer. This just has too many ideas and unfortunately wasn’t novel enough to charm me. Alas. I still anticipate his next with great interest!
Thanks, as always, to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advance copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.
January 28, 2024
Moonbound is a journey into the future, 2000 years into the height of human civilization, and then subsequently another 11000 years to an earth unrecognizable from our own. It follows the story of Ariel, a boy on a journey to uncover the truth and history of the world. It's both a sci-fi dystopian epic, and a sweeping fantasy adventure story. Impossible to describe without giving away the full scope of the wonderful universe Sloan has created, this book features advanced technologies, wizards, dragons, talking beavers, and too many quirky, mystical characters to count. This story was boundless in its imagination, and cleverly crafted. If you're a fan of Tolkien, King Arthur, and also, space odysseys (hard to explain how it all fits into one here!), this book is for you. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy - a true original delight!
May 24, 2024
[Copy provided by publisher]
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Unique worlds
• Classic fantasy quests
• Weird science and technology
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
An engrossing and perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's the year 13777 on earth and a young boy named Ariel discovers the picturesque fantasy village he grew up in is not as innocent as he thought. Driven from home by his village's wizard, Ariel sets off and discovers he's destined for so much more.
This novel is a breath of fresh air for both the science fiction and fantasy genres. Sloan has created some incredibly unique characters and society systems in this novel. But they aren't just unique; they almost feel like critiques on our current society and how things could be better (or maybe worse).
This novel is also a breath of fresh air in that it feels like it's been a long time since I've returned to the tried-and-true trope of "ordinary boy embarks on great quest to save the world." I love that today's fantasy has evolved beyond this, so I didn't realize that I had kind of missed this classic premise. Just as Sloan does a terrific job of blending science fiction and fantasy, he also does a great job of couching this story in the traditional quest framework while also throwing curve balls that make it feel fresh and modern.
I do want to note that this book is supposed to be an expansion of the Penumbra universe, as in Sloan's previous MR. PENUMBRA'S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE. I haven't read MR. PENUMBRA yet, so there very well may have been allusions in MOONBOUND that were totally lost on me. (The veneration of storytelling, which anchors MOONBOUND, is probably something both share.) I think it's clear that MOONBOUND is strong as a standalone title and I'm interested to see how it will affect my reading of MR. PENUMBRA in the future.
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Unique worlds
• Classic fantasy quests
• Weird science and technology
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
An engrossing and perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's the year 13777 on earth and a young boy named Ariel discovers the picturesque fantasy village he grew up in is not as innocent as he thought. Driven from home by his village's wizard, Ariel sets off and discovers he's destined for so much more.
This novel is a breath of fresh air for both the science fiction and fantasy genres. Sloan has created some incredibly unique characters and society systems in this novel. But they aren't just unique; they almost feel like critiques on our current society and how things could be better (or maybe worse).
This novel is also a breath of fresh air in that it feels like it's been a long time since I've returned to the tried-and-true trope of "ordinary boy embarks on great quest to save the world." I love that today's fantasy has evolved beyond this, so I didn't realize that I had kind of missed this classic premise. Just as Sloan does a terrific job of blending science fiction and fantasy, he also does a great job of couching this story in the traditional quest framework while also throwing curve balls that make it feel fresh and modern.
I do want to note that this book is supposed to be an expansion of the Penumbra universe, as in Sloan's previous MR. PENUMBRA'S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE. I haven't read MR. PENUMBRA yet, so there very well may have been allusions in MOONBOUND that were totally lost on me. (The veneration of storytelling, which anchors MOONBOUND, is probably something both share.) I think it's clear that MOONBOUND is strong as a standalone title and I'm interested to see how it will affect my reading of MR. PENUMBRA in the future.
June 18, 2024
A sci-fi fantasy set 13,000 years into the future and the same universe as Robin Sloan's previous novels Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough. When 12-year-old Ariel de la Sauvage rejects his destiny by not pulling a very important sword from a stone and thereby angering the town's ruler, the wizard Malory, Ariel barely escapes with his life. Setting upon an epic hero's quest, Ariel will encounter ancient humans of a lost civilization, spaceships, talking animals, genial robots, dragons, and our narrator: a sentient yeast-AI hybrid.
To be honest I've been sitting on this review for days because I'm finding it incredibly hard to put my Moonbound experience into words. There's just so much going on and it's weird and unlike anything I've ever read, but somehow also incredibly familiar and recognizable at the same time, and most importantly: SO FUN!
Moonbound is an immersive journey, a weird, wild, and wonderful adventure seeking an answer to the evergreen question: what happens next?
Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.
To be honest I've been sitting on this review for days because I'm finding it incredibly hard to put my Moonbound experience into words. There's just so much going on and it's weird and unlike anything I've ever read, but somehow also incredibly familiar and recognizable at the same time, and most importantly: SO FUN!
Moonbound is an immersive journey, a weird, wild, and wonderful adventure seeking an answer to the evergreen question: what happens next?
Thanks to the publisher for providing a complimentary review copy.
June 26, 2024
The boy Ariel discovers the wreck of a space ship, and when he opens the cockpit door, he inhales an unnamed narrator, who had chronicled and guided the space ship operator. When the observer sees a sword in a large stone in the local churchyard, he thinks he knows what story he's in--but Sloan never writes the same book twice, and soon we're on uncharged waters, as Ariel is on the run from the angry Wizard who rules his small world--actually, who created it, and him. But that's just the start. The chronicler ruminates about the fate of the civilization of humans he served, and how their own creations, the dragons, doomed them. More than 10,000 years later, the dragons are still on the moon, keeping the earth shrouded in dust, as other civilizations have risen, and fallen. But why do the dragons want Ariel?
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