Luna: New Moon is a 2015 science fiction novel by British author Ian McDonald. It is the first of a three-part series that also includes Luna: Wolf Moon and Luna: Moon Rising. The novel explores the dangerous intrigue that surrounds the powerful Corta dynasty, one of the five families who control industry on the Moon. Optioned for development as a television series before it was released, the novel has been called "Game of Thrones in space".
In the future, a near feudal colony has risen up around the industrialisation of the Moon, and though technology keeps the deadly natural environment at bay, the four basic essentials of life—air, water, carbon and data—come at a price. Tiny "chibs" placed in the eye to meter usage of these Four Elementals serve as a constant reminder of this. Everyone also has a "familiar": a personalized, holographic avatar that hovers over one shoulder and serves as an interface with the Moon's network, other familiars, and even one's physical surroundings. There is only contract law and no criminal law, and everything from marriage to divorce to murder is infinitely negotiable; the culture of the Moon's elite features polysexual and polyamorous relationships accented with cocktails, designer drugs, and 3D printed vintage couture. The Moon is controlled by five families, dubbed the Five Dragons: the Australian Mackenzies dominate mineral extraction, the Asamoahs of Ghana control a vast underground agricultural industry, the Russian Vorontsovs run the transportation systems, the Suns of China are masters of technology, and the upstart Brazilian Cortas mine helium-3 to power Earth's fusion reactors. These families, and all citizens of the Moon, operate under contracts granted by the Lunar Development Corporation (LDC), the Moon's governing body. The Mackenzies and the Cortas—the oldest and the newest lunar families, respectively—are bitter rivals, and as the novel begins, the long-simmering animosity between them seems reignited.
Plot
Young Corta scion Lucasinho has survived the "Moon-run"—a naked and unprotected ceremonial dash through the Moon's vacuum—and the Cortas assemble to celebrate, with members of the other Five Dragon families in attendance. An assassination attempt on Rafa Corta, the heir to the dynasty, is foiled by temporary employee Marina Calzaghe. Lucasinho escapes the locked-down Corta palace, and his finances are cut off by his controlling father, Rafa's harsh and calculating younger brother Lucas. The next youngest Corta brother, Carlinhos, oversees newly-hired Marina's training in the Corta Hélio mining operation, while his youngest brother Wagner—currently disowned—tries to determine the source of the threat against Rafa. Corta sister Ariel, a prominent lawyer in the Court of Clavius, is welcomed into an organization of power brokers known as the White Hare. Meanwhile, matriarch Adriana Corta is secretly dying, and fears that her children may destroy each other before her enemies can.
Mackenzie patriarch Robert forces a marriage contract between ten-year-old Robson Corta—son of Rafa and his estranged wife, Robert's granddaughter Rachel—and an adult male adopted member of the Mackenzie family. Rachel is killed helping Robson escape to Rafa. The Cortas snatch a lucrative helium-3 claim out from under the Mackenzies, who begin sabotaging Corta resources with the help of their Vorontsov allies. Lucas settles a $20 million divorce from his wife Amanda Sun in hopes of marrying musician Jorge, who loves Lucas but is too intimidated by the family to accept the proposal. Jonathan Kayode, the leader of the LDC called the "Eagle of the Moon", forces the Cortas to agree to marry Lucasinho to Rachel's half-brother Denny Mackenzie by threatening their rights to the new claim. Though Jonathan claims his motive to be peace between the families, Ariel is aware that he is being controlled by his husband Adrian Mackenzie, Denny's brother. Ariel is subsequently stabbed, though thanks to Marina the attack is not fatal. Adriana dies peacefully, leaving her children on tenuous ground with each other and their enemies.
Lucasinho jilts Denny at the altar and seeks sanctuary with the Asamoah family, from whom he is owed a debt for saving one of their lives. Lucas' negotiation with the Mackenzies over the insult results in a court-sanctioned duel to the death between Carlinhos and Hadley Mackenzie, Robert's youngest son. Carlinhos kills Hadley, and a long planned plot by the Mackenzies to destroy the Cortas is immediately set in motion. The Mackenzies bomb the city of João de Deus and the subterranean Corta mansion Boa Vista, and send squads of killers to eliminate the Cortas. An Asamoah robotic spider saves Lucasinho from two assassins, while Marina flees with a semi-paralyzed Ariel in tow. Wagner is warned of the attack by his Mackenzie lover Analiese, but Carlinhos is outnumbered and Denny slits his throat. After ensuring that his children Robson and Luna are safe, Rafa dies in the destruction of Boa Vista. Lucas is trapped in a rover on the Moon's surface after it is hacked by his ex-wife Amanda, who reveals that she and her family have been behind the assassination attempts as part of their plan to manipulate the Cortas and Mackenzies into destroying each other. Amanda leaves him to die in the rover, but Lucas attempts a five meter Moon-run through vacuum to the hatch of a moonloop terminal. He is successful, and flees to a tiny satellite from where he can plot his revenge.
Characters
Adriana Corta, matriarch of the Corta family and founder of the Corta Hélio corporation
Rafa Corta, Adriana's charismatic and volatile eldest son
Lucas Corta, her harsh and calculating second son
Ariel Corta, Adriana's only daughter, a prominent lawyer in the Court of Clavius
Carlinhos Corta, Adriana's dashing son who works directly in the family's helium-3 mining operations
Wagner, the youngest Corta son, a "lone wolf" on the outs with Adriana and Lucas
Lucasinho Corta, Lucas' beautiful and self-indulgent son who is just coming of age in the family
Rachel Mackenzie, Rafa's estranged wife and the daughter of Duncan Mackenzie and Anastasia Vorontsov
Lousika Asamoah, Rafa's second wife
Amanda Sun, Lucas' wife and Lucasinho's mother
Robson Corta, Rafa's young son by Rachel Mackenzie
Luna Corta, Rafa's young daughter by Lousika Asamoah
Marina Calzaghe, Corta Hélio surface worker
Jonathan Kayode, Eagle of the Moon, president of the Lunar Development Corporation
Adrian Mackenzie, eldest son of Duncan Mackenzie and Apollonaire Vorontsov, husband to Jonathan Kayode
Robert Mackenzie, centegenarian Mackenzie patriarch and founder of Mackenzie Metals
Duncan Mackenzie, son of Robert and Alyssa, father to Rachel and Denny and CEO of Mackenzie Metals
Denny Mackenzie, son of Duncan and Apollonaire
Bryce Mackenzie, Robert's son and Head of Finance of Mackenzie Metals
Jade Sun, second wife of Robert Mackenzie
Hadley Mackenzie, son of Robert and Jade
Analiese Mackenzie, Wagner's lover
Jorge Nardes, musician and Lucas' lover
Grigori Vorontsov, one of Lucasinho's classmates and male lovers
Kojo Asamoah, one of Lucasinho's classmates and male lovers
Abena Asamoah, Kojo's sister and the object of Lucasinho's desire
Heitor Pereira, Corta Hélio's Head of Security
Helen de Braga, Corta Hélio's Head of Finance
Concept and development
McDonald said of Luna: New Moon in August 2014, "I'm still writing about developing economies, it’s just that this one happens to be on the Moon."[1] Before critics called the novel "Game of Thrones in space",[2][3][4] McDonald himself dubbed it "Game of Domes" and "Dallas in space".[1][5] Of his inspiration for the story, he said:
It was basically Gary K. Wolfe who was responsible for it. On an ancient Coode Street podcast about invigorating stale subgenres in science fiction, he said he’d love to see a new take on the moonbase story. I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved moon stories ... I thought about it, and Enid, my partner, was watching TV, the new version of Dallas ... My book is Dallas on the moon, so it’s got five big industrial family corps on the moon, called the five dragons, and it’s about their intrigues and battles.[1]
Explaining that Luna's structure was influenced by the films The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, McDonald cited the novel's "corporate intrigue, with a family matriarch getting old but not ready to pass, because there will be a power vacuum", as well as its "battling brothers, basically the Thor/Loki relationship, with the charismatic older brother and the clever younger one."[1] In the isolated environment of the Moon, the author establishes that there is only contract law and no criminal law, and every aspect of life is negotiable: "You can be married to three different people at the same time with three different contracts".[1] He set the novel in the early years of the 22nd century, and modeled the Moon's underground cities on the construction of Dubai.[6] McDonald noted, "The cities and culture of Luna may seem impossibly advanced but a quick look at the history of technology shows that tech can make astonishing advances in a couple of decades ... twenty years ago [in Dubai], there were none of the towers, superhighways, dodgy geoengineering, and Ferrari police cars we see today. The world works faster than we think."[6] He wrote, "When I began writing Luna, I knew I would be building a world from scratch, but also one that adhered to the constraints of the physical realities of the Moon ... I wanted those facts to shape the world and lives of my characters, from low gravity to moon dust, which is seriously nasty stuff ... Hard science technically shapes the lives, loves, jealousies and ambitions of every one of my moon's one point seven million citizens."[7] To this end, he instituted what he calls "a ticking clock", explaining that "if you’re on the Moon for more than two years, your bone structure and musculature will degenerate to the point to where it’s not safe to go back to Earth again, so everyone who goes there to work has to decide, 'Do I stay or do I go?'"[1] McDonald also determined that spirits would be more efficient to produce on the Moon than wine or beer, which influenced his cultural setting:[7]
My Moon is a cocktail culture. The underground cities run on three different time zones so it’s always Happy Hour somewhere ... And so, Dior. Because when you picture a Martini glass, you picture it in the gloved hand of Audrey Hepburn ... I didn’t want a Moon of people in coveralls and shorts and tank tops—these are people who have mastered 3D printing. If you can print clothes, why not in the style of one of the most elegant eras in fashion history? The 1950s. Dior and Balenciaga, Balmain and Jacques Fath.[7]
Science fiction editor and critic Gary K. Wolfe noted in Locus, "[McDonald's] moon colony is resolutely multicultural ... The polyglot moon dialect draws not only on Portuguese and English, but on Chinese, Yoruba, Russian, Spanish, and other languages. Corporate titles are borrowed from Korean, marriage contracts from Arabic, and names of lunar days from Hawaiian."[8] In September 2015, McDonald described his lunar society as "close to ours ... but shaped by its environment, economy and society into one very very different from ours".[9] Wanting to illustrate the various aspects of life on the Moon—industry, economy, social interactions and day-to-day conditions—McDonald noted the importance of the character Marina Calzaghe, a newcomer to the Moon.[9] He said:
The rookie is a fantastic tool for worldbuilding without info-dumping ... [Marina] ends showing us the inner workings of lunar industry, society, law, sex, marriage and the Corta family. Marina is our eyes, ears, fears and hopes. Our way into a dangerous, strange and seductive world. She has all-areas access, and she naturally, organically and without any info-dumps, shows us now the Moon works, because she needs to learn. And we root for her. We always root for the blue-collar hero.[9]
Publication
Luna: New Moon was released in paperback by Gollancz in the UK on 17 September 2015, and in hardcover by Tor in the US on 22 September 2015.[2] It is the first volume of a planned trilogy.[5] A sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon, was released in March 2017.[5]
McDonald previously published the prequel novelette "The Fifth Dragon", featuring a young Adriana Corta, in the 2014 anthology Reach for Infinity.[1][10][11] The short work was made available for free at Tor.com on 1 September 2015.[10]
Television adaptation
McDonald said of Luna in August 2014, "It's also developing in parallel as a TV project with a company I’ve worked with before. There’s a gap in the market for an SF series that doesn't look like science fiction, if you know what I mean."[1] Before the novel's September 2015 release, Deadline Hollywood reported in August 2015 that it had been optioned for development as a television series by writer-producer Shane Brennan and CBS Television Studios.[3][12]
Reception
Reviews of Luna: New Moon have been positive, with multiple critics calling it "Game of Thrones in space".[2][3][4]Cory Doctorow wrote for Boing Boing:
Ian McDonald's never written a bad novel, but this is a great Ian McDonald novel ... [it has] the fashion sense of William Gibson, the design sense of Bruce Sterling, the eye for family drama of Connie Willis, the poesie of Bradbury, and the dirty sex of Kathe Koja and Samuel Delany. McDonald's moon is omnisexual, kinky, violent, passionate, beautiful, awful, vibrant and crushing.[13]
Adam Roberts of The Guardian called Luna "as gripping as it is colourful, and as colourful as it is nasty."[4]Publishers Weekly praised the novel, saying "McDonald creates a complex and fascinating civilization featuring believable technology, and the characters are fully developed, with individually gripping stories."[14] Writing for Locus, Gary K. Wolfe called Luna "the best moon novel I've seen in many years", noting that "the most relentless, merciless, unforgiving character of all is the lunar setting, which McDonald manages to present as utterly boring and absolutely terrifying at the same time."[8] Though describing the novel's first third as "tremendously dense" and potentially inaccessible to readers, Niall Alexander of Tor.com called the book "almost monolithic in its ambition" and praises its "unadulterated greatness",[2] writing:
In its gravitas and tension and, alas, tragedy, it’s damn near Shakespearian. Add to that all the compulsive qualities of A Song of Ice and Fire: a setting so brilliantly built and deftly embellished that buying into it isn’t ever an issue; a vast cast of characters as satisfying and sympathetic individually as they are as part of McDonald’s elaborate ensemble; and a plot composed of so many threads that you never know where it’s going to go—except that when it ends, it’s destined to end terribly.[2]
Carrie Mok of SciFiNow wrote, "McDonald certainly shows off the well-developed Cortas to illustrate his knack for creating dynamic human relationships that encompass the whole Moon ... It's compelling and thought-provoking, and all without relying on overbearing sci-fi clichés."[15] Comparing the novel's dynastic struggles to those of Game of Thrones and Frank Herbert's Dune, SFF World's Mark Yon called the last quarter of the book "a tour de force of heart-stopping, page turning moments".[16] Tom Shippey of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "It’s a great scenario, lovingly detailed, and curiously attractive despite its current of unforgiving violence."[17] Andrew Liptak of The Verge called it one of his favorite books of 2015.[18]
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein about a lunar colony's revolt against absentee rule from Earth. The novel illustrates and discusses libertarian ideals. It is respected for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the Moon.
Eilean Donan is a small tidal island situated at the confluence of three sea lochs in the western Highlands of Scotland, about 1 kilometre from the village of Dornie. It is connected to the mainland by a footbridge that was installed early in the 20th century and is dominated by a picturesque castle that frequently appears in photographs, film and television. The island's original castle was built in the thirteenth century; it became a stronghold of the Clan Mackenzie and their allies, the Clan MacRae. In response to the Mackenzies' involvement in the Jacobite rebellions early in the 18th century, government ships destroyed the castle in 1719. The present-day castle is Lieutenant-Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap's 20th-century reconstruction of the old castle.
Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.
Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.
Allen Mulherin Steele, Jr. is an American journalist and science fiction author.
The Clan Macrae is a Highland Scottish clan. The clan has no chief; it is therefore considered an armigerous clan.
Jonathan Strahan is an editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His family moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1968, and he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in 1986.
New moon is a lunar phase.
Clan MacLeod of The Lewes, commonly known as Clan MacLeod of Lewis, is a Highland Scottish clan, which at its height held extensive lands in the Western Isles and west coast of Scotland. From the 14th century up until the beginning of the 17th century there were two branches of Macleods: the MacLeods of Dunvegan and Harris ; and the Macleods of the Isle of Lewis. In Gaelic the Macleods of Lewis were known as Sìol Thorcaill, and the MacLeods of Dunvegan and Harris were known as Sìol Thormoid.
The Battle of Bealach nam Broig was fought between Scottish clans from the lands of north-west Ross, against north-eastern clans of Ross who supported the Earl of Ross. The actual date of the battle is debated, it probably occurred in 1452 but the Conflicts of the Clans suggests a date as early as 1299.
Clan MacIver or Clan MacIvor, also known as Clan Iver, is a Scottish clan recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. The clan, however, does not have a chief recognised by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Because of this the clan can be considered an armigerous clan. The clan name of MacIver is of Gaelic origin, derived from an Old Norse personal name. Various forms of the surname MacIver, like MacGiver, are considered sept names of several historically large Scottish clans, such as clans Campbell and Mackenzie. There exists a Clan Iver society in Fife, Scotland.
The Battle of Drumchatt was a Scottish clan battle that took place in 1497. The Clan Mackenzie and possibly the Clan Munro defeated the Clan MacDonald of Lochalsh at Drumchatt (Druimchat) or "the Cat's Back", a ridge to the southeast of Strathpeffer.
The Battle of Logiebride or Logie-Riach, also known as a Tumult in Ross was more of a small skirmish rather than an actual battle. The disturbance is said to have taken place on 4 February 1597 at the Logie Candlemas market near Conan House between men of the Clan Mackenzie against men of the Clan Munro and the Bain family of Tulloch Castle.
Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, nicknamed "Cam", was a Highland chief of the Scottish clan Mackenzie who greatly increased his ancestral estates through royal favour and a career of vigorous self-aggrandisement.
Fionnla Dubh mac Gillechriosd is purported to have been a 15th-century Scotsman, who lived in the north-west of Scotland. The Gaelic Fionnla Dubh mac Gillechriosd translates into English as "Fionnla the black, son of Gillechriosd". Fionnla Dubh is known from a late 17th-century traditional account of Clan Macrae; within that account he presented as a prominent ancestor of the clan. The tradition relates that for a time the chief of Clan Mackenzie was absent, and during that time his bastard uncles were causing trouble in the Mackenzies' territories of Kintail and Kinlochewe. Fionnla Dubh was then ordered to retrieve the chief and was successful in his task. From that time onward, says the tradition, the Macraes from the Kintail area rose in prominence amongst their Mackenzie lords. Tradition also states that Fionnla Dubh is an ancestor of the leading lines of the Macraes from Kintail.
Luna: Wolf Moon is a 2017 science fiction novel by British author Ian McDonald. It is the second book in a three-part series that also includes Luna: New Moon and Luna: Moon Rising.
List of works by or about the British author Ian McDonald.
Time Was is a time travel romance novella by British author Ian McDonald, published on 24 April 2018 by Tor Books.
The Battle of Drumchatt, or Druim-a-Chait, was a Scottish clan battle claimed by non-contemporary historians to have taken place in the year 1501 near Strathpeffer, in the Scottish Highlands. It was allegedly fought between the Clan Mackenzie and the Clan Munro. Mackenzie chronicles have claimed a signal victory.
Luna: Moon Rising is a 2019 science fiction novel by British author Ian McDonald. The sequel to Luna: Wolf Moon (2017), it continues that book's story of the fallen Corta family, whose remaining members struggle for survival and revenge in the aftermath of their destruction at the hands of their enemies on the Moon. Moon Rising was released on 19 March 2019.
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