The Moon Goddess and the Son [Hardcover]

Donald Kingsbury (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 409 pages
• Publisher: Baen; First Edition edition (December 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671559583
• ISBN-13: 978-0671559588
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,992,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent space industrialization book, June 2, 2000

By 

Russell Fish (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moon Goddess and the Son (Mass Market Paperback)

If you like "hard SF" with lots of technological and social ideas and economics as well, this book is for you. Good and readable, with some memorable characters, set in the early 21st century. Innovative space launch systems and orbital space port design, and a systems engineering approach to one way to make space development happen.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reads well in light of events of 9-11, December 17, 2007

By 

Hinkle Goldfarb (R.R. 1 Highway 162, Butte City, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Moon Goddess and the Sun (Paperback)

Yes, this book is dated on a number of levels, principally the fact that there is no longer a U.S.S.R. and also that we haven't moved aggressively into space. That aside, the book is interesting when comparing its philosophy and predictions to current events. Both the missile shield debate and the September 11 terrorist attack are predicted in altered forms.

Regarding missile defense, for example, Kingsbury implies that a missile shield could be an invaluable defensive weapon, rather than, as the New York Times editorial board would have us believe, just a destabilizing, costly piece of junk. Also, the effect of terrorist attacks by airplane on a country's capital were correctly prognosticated: when the U.S. capital was attacked on September 11, the military went to threatcon delta, the highest level of military alert. Granted, the military response of the U.S. has been completely opposite that of the U.S.S.R. in Kingsbury's book, but some of the actions and the general sense of paranoia are eerily foretold.

Overall, an excellent book. Too scattered in its several storylines to be a real novel, the book is more a rumination on psychology, geopolitics, technology and interpersonal relations, with conclusions that resonate with the crises of the day.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greats, July 6, 2004

By 

Mr. D. S. Stadler (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moon Goddess and the Son (Hardcover)

This one is on the short list. One of my five favorite SF novels of all time along. A very strange novel with several strands of stories going on at the same time and only touching together at the end.