Customer Reviews

The Moon Goddess and the Son

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

The opening chapter of the book about a girl being abused by her father caught my attention, and I expected a very good read. Unfortunately, the book did not deliver. Very few authors can successfully follow several characters at once. This book follows about six characters, none of whom are memorable enough to be interesting and all of whom blend together. Rather unhelpfully, the author seemed to give many of them a name beginning with "B" and I found myself thoroughly confused by the middle of the book.

However, the story just wasn't interesting enough to compel me to reread to alleviate my confusion. The book is noteworthy only because of when it was written. Published in 1986, it focuses on the relationship between the US and the USSR in the future. Its focus on the history of Russia and its projections of future technology and of the future of the cold-war give the book a unique charm that unfortunately can't make up for the lack of a solid story.

Cursing: Some
Gore: There are a few very graphic scenes of physical abuse.
Sex: There are many scenes that discuss one of the main characters losing her virginity to a much older man. Sex is a prevalent theme in the book and discussed in length, although not in graphic detail. I do not recommend this book for children under 16.

I so deeply enjoyed the story and the philosophical issues in Courtship Rite, that the disappointment of the Moon Goddess and the Son hit with a double whammy.

Kingsbury is in many ways a clone of Heinlein, which is both good and bad. This book is an exemplar of shabby Heinleinism, where a moped of plot tries to tow a double-wide of ideology. (Think of Time Enough for Love, about astronautics rather than animal husbandry). The hero is a macho blowhard (quote: "I get *horny* when I imagine a world without Democrats") who psychologically abuses his son, but accomplishes not much else.

The book is basically a long, disjointed diatribe about how prima-donna-type engineers could solve the world's problems, if only the goddam liberal politicians would let them. Early in the book, some Afghan engineering students build homemade cruise missiles and blow up the Kremlin. Cruise missiles, easy and low-tech, given the cheap GPS technology that we've had for 15 years now. Cruise missiles make a space-based missile defense shield completely pointless; nevertheless Kingsbury has a perfectly-functioning one save the world from the ensuing Soviet retaliation.

But this isn't the most ludicrous fantasy: Kingsbury has the American generals refrain from retaliating against the Soviets! And the Soviet generals stop their attack once they're persuaded that the US wasn't responsible for the attack on the Kremlin! This level of nerdy, idealistic naivete makes the non-technical action in the story wholly unbelievable and very unsatisfying. Which is why this story went out of print so quickly, I guess. The big question for me is how the same guy could write a story as good as Courtship Rite, and another story as weak as this one. Perhaps the answer is that I read CR as a pimply teen-ager, but I read MG&S *after* I had lost my virginity.