The Relentless Moon

audio cd

Published Nov. 24, 2020 by Audible Studios on Brilliance, Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio.

ISBN:: 978-1-7135-7744-7

(1 review)

It's 1963, and riots and sabotage plague the space program. The climate change caused by the Meteor is becoming more and more clear, but tensions are rising, and the IAC's goal of getting humanity off Earth is threatened. Astronaut Nicole Wargin lives two lives; one as a politician's wife on Earth, and the other as an astronaut on the newly-established Moon Base. But when sabotage strikes, she finds that her two worlds are colliding - with deadly consequences.

6 editions

Phil in SF reviewed The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal

An amazing thriller in space

5 stars

It's amazingly hard to mix crime fiction with science fiction. The Relentless Moon manages to create a mystery that works in space. This takess place is an alternate history where a meteor hit Earth in the 1950s and humanity tries to settle Mars in the 1960s to save itself from massive global warming. While the Lady Astronaut Elma York heads to Mars in The Fated Sky, fellow astronaut Nicole Wargin heads to the moon for visit to ferry colonists to the base that will be used for staging future trips to Mars. However, while there things start going wrong, and it's quickly apparent that the subversive Earth First organization has a mole in the space program on the Moon. Things get worse. The subversive plot reads as something that could happen. No weird coincidences. Bad guys that make sense psychologically. Our hero is both competent and flawed.

I listened to …

It's amazingly hard to mix crime fiction with science fiction. The Relentless Moon manages to create a mystery that works in space. This takess place is an alternate history where a meteor hit Earth in the 1950s and humanity tries to settle Mars in the 1960s to save itself from massive global warming. While the Lady Astronaut Elma York heads to Mars in The Fated Sky, fellow astronaut Nicole Wargin heads to the moon for visit to ferry colonists to the base that will be used for staging future trips to Mars. However, while there things start going wrong, and it's quickly apparent that the subversive Earth First organization has a mole in the space program on the Moon. Things get worse. The subversive plot reads as something that could happen. No weird coincidences. Bad guys that make sense psychologically. Our hero is both competent and flawed.

I listened to the author perform the audiobook version of the story. Kowal is a top-notch performer. Don't miss out. About the only drawback is the cast of characters is large, and I find it difficult to follow who's who and remember who did what. The emotional immediacy of the story in audio form more than makes up for the flaw.