The Art of Empire Building: a Review of Persepolis Rising, by James S.A. Corey

Humanity has always been fascinated with outer space.  As long as people have looked to the sky, we have imagined what life would like up in the black, bouncing from star to star.  Even before a man-made object first left atmosphere, stories were written about aliens coming down from the sky.  With the advent of space travel, stories have leaned towards humans leaving Earth and meeting the aliens on their home turf.  For the most part, these stories all portray extraterrestrial life in similar fashions.  They are older, wiser, more technologically advanced than humans.  Many wish to impart their knowledge down to us, to elevate humanity.  The Expanse series does no such thing.  Alien life is long gone, but their inventions and structures remain, hidden on far off planets, waiting to wake up and pick up where they left off.

2017 Reading List, Part 5

Welcome back to City on the Moon for the fifth and final part of my 2017 reading list, where I’ve been going over every book I read this year, not including Artemis and The Wrong Stars, my first two reviews.  Part 4 featured Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier, Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide from Rooster Teeth, and Go Nitro: Rise of the Blades by Jeremy Dooley.  Today’s list is a bit of a departure in that all six books are part of one series, a science-fiction story where realistic space travel meets alien technology.

Instructions Not Included: A Review of The Wrong Stars, by Tim Pratt

Science-fiction attracts those readers and writers with imaginations that point towards the future.  It is one of the few genres where any technology is possible if you can picture it in your head and express it on the page.  Any vehicle, from flying cars to ships the size of planets, is fair game.  Science-fiction can inhabit any setting, star any character.  If you can describe it, it’s real.  There is something about the genre which draws everyone in, regardless of their normal reading habits.  Just look at the Star Wars saga or the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  People who would normally never read a book about space battles or robots fall in love with Luke Skywalker and Iron Man.  It helps that science-fiction is a melting pot.  It sets a technological backdrop for the story, but the story can be something else entirely.

2017 Reading List, Part 4

Welcome back for Part 4 of my 2017 Reading List, as I lay out the many books I have read this year.  In Part 3, I wrote about Outriders and Sungrazer by Jay Posey, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, Camino Island by John Grisham, and The General History of the Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson.  Today, the four books I am presenting are all connected by the world of video games, either through fiction or journalism.  In another break from tradition, the last book on today’s list is a self-published novel; a format which does not garner much critical attention, often for a good reason.

2017 Reading List, Part 3

Sunday is all about Part 3 of my 2017 reading list.  With today’s addition, that brings my total up to fifteen books and novels.  Yesterday I showcased The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin, the second and third books in her Broken Earth Trilogy; Silence Fallen, book ten in Patricia Briggs’ Mercedes Thompson series; as well as American Gods and Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman.  Today I’ll be switching between genres, beginning with three of the many science-fiction novels I’ve read this year, before showcasing the latest story by one of America’s most prominent novelists, and then ending with a dive into a history lesson.  The binding force behind today’s selection is not literary or intellectual.  It is sheer entertainment.

2017 Reading List, Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my 2017 Reading List, where I’m running through the books I’ve read so far this year.  Yesterday I detailed Metro 2035 by Dmitry Glukhovsky, the Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski, and Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, and Crush by Frédéric Dard.  Today I’ll be writing about another five books from different three authors, all under the umbrella of fantasy, but with very different takes on what that genre means.  Some take place in far off realms, while others are happy to show the supernatural side of our own Earth.  Some you may have heard of, some you may not have.

2017 Reading List, Part 1

I’m getting closer to finishing Time Pratt’s The Wrong Stars, and I expect to have my review up on the site by the beginning of next week, so keep an eye out for that.  In the meantime, I thought it’d be fun to write a little bit about the books I’ve read so far this year.  I’ve put together a list of the twenty-six books I can remember reading this year, minus Artemis, which will be broken up into five posts over the course of the next five days.  My 2017 reading ranged from Russian science-fiction to Polish fantasy, history to self-published, a breakdown of the video game industry to a fan guide for a long-running web series.  These won’t be full reviews of the books, just brief thoughts meant to give a general idea of my reading experience and, hopefully, help you to find that next novel.  Today, I’ll be focusing on some great works out of Russia, Poland, and France.

The City on the Moon: A Review of Artemis, by Andy Weir

Andy Weir’s first novel took us to the barren landscape of Mars, where a lone astronaut struggled to survive on a harsh world.  Super storms, a thin atmosphere, a general lack of sustainable food and water, and the inability to call home for help all threatened the life of Mark Watney.  So, how does a writer follow up a story like that?  A story which won multiple awards and got turned into a blockbuster movie starring Matt Damon?  He puts a woman on the moon. He plans a tech-savvy heist Danny Ocean would be proud of.  He builds an entire city from scratch, using a combination of modern science and engineering imagination.

Welcome!

Welcome to the City on the Moon!  A blog dedicated to reviewing the books I read.

I have been an avid reader for nearly all my life, beginning when I discovered The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the fifth grade and would read during class, hiding the books under my desk.  I read that trilogy (plus The Hobbit) half a dozen times that year, and got in trouble every time.