Moonrise (The Snowfall Trilogy, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Mitchell Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Snowfall Trilogy | Publication Date: April 1, 2004

Several hundred years after a change in the orbit of Jupiter sent the Earth into a new Ice Age, remnants of civilization battle over territory and technology.
A generation has passed since Sam Monroe defeated the Great Khan, became King of Middle Kingdom, and ushered in an era of peace and prosperity, a time when Middle Kingdom grew even more powerful, driven by trade and emerging technology. In a grand gesture, Sam and Queen Rachel adopted the young son of their former enemy and raised him as a prince, second only to the heir to Middle Kingdom's throne.
The accidental drowning deaths of the King and Queen trigger the assassination of the Crown Price. Bajazet, too, is attacked, lest he serve as a rallying point for those who support the royal family. Barely twenty, the once-pampered Bajazet flees for his life.
Stumbling through the forest, prey where he once was the hunter and with the usurper King's forces on his heels, Bajazet is rescued by a trio of genetically engineered "Persons": Richard, who is almost more bear than human; Nancy, a cunning little vixen; and Errol, whose very human exterior hides a weasel's cold, cruel heart.
Boston, buried under glacial ice, gave them life. Boston's perverted technology, used to conquer and oppress, seems almost like magic to the North Americans who are slowly dragging themselves back up the ladder of civilization. Now the rulers of Boston eye the chaos in Middle Kingdom and find it ripe for conquest.
Bajazet's new friends are plotting the frozen city's destruction. The one-time Prince, now a lonely warrior, has one choice---help destroy Boston, or die.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Smith's gritty conclusion to his trilogy (Snowfall; Kingdom River) set during an ice age 600 years from now, young Prince "Baj" Bajazet, formerly the adopted scion of the royal clan that rules the lower Mississippi Valley, is on the run. His foster parents have been murdered in a bloody regicide committed by local turncoats but engineered by the evil genetic engineers of New England's Boston. Bostonians have for years kidnapped women from various primitive tribes throughout the continent and bred them to produce half-human, half-animal chimeras for use as slave labor. The chimeras call themselves Moonrisers, and the Bostonians secure their loyalty by holding their mothers hostage in gulag-like breeding pens within the city. Patience, an escaped Pen-mother, joins the prince and others in an effort to overthrow Boston's regime of mad science and sordid apartheid. Smith's elided future-speak prose is often lyrical, but at times becomes convoluted to the point of obscurityâ€"especially when combined with his frequent use of extended scene-setting flashbacks. Nevertheless, he manages to evoke a feeling of alien otherness in this American landscape weirdly transformed by a fall from technological grace. With echoes of Hoban's Ridley Walker and Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, this one should appeal to readers who like their post-apocalypse tales brutal and poetic.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Moonrise follows snowfall (2002) and Kingdom River [BKL My 15 03] to conclude a trilogy about Earth during a future ice age, with humanity divided into tribes and ruled by feudal nobility. Bajazet, a khan's son adopted by a victorious king, is the only survivor of a coup d'etat that kills the rest of his family. He escapes and, in seeking revenge, becomes part of a great scheme to overthrow the reign of Boston and its manipulative scientists. Thrown into the company of moonrisen--people genetically engineered by Boston as part human and part animal--Bajazet is carried along in their plans to destroy Boston's hold on them and the so-called savage tribes, whose women Boston scientists use to bear genetically altered soldiers. Bajazet may be just a pawn, but his role in the attack on Boston is telling, and he learns a great deal about the moonrisers and himself in the process. The book's ending lacks finality, opening the possibility of new beginnings for the frozen postapocalyptic world Smith conjures. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765300095
• ISBN-13: 978-0765300096
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,156,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic trilogy, January 4, 2011

By 

DeeWNY (Western New York USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Moonrise: Book Three of the Snowfall Trilogy (Kindle Edition)

Moonrise is the final (?) in the Snowfall Trilogy. This is imaginative PA fiction! No zombies, no virus, no nuclear attack - a change in Jupiter's orbit has frozen much of the planet- and 600 years in the future, separate zones of what was America are creating and re-creating civilization.
Mitchell Smith has created three stunning books- each dealing with a succeeding generation of characters. And what characters they are! They are fully realized, with personality quirks and flaws that will make you love them and mourn then - he is not afraid to kill off characters who seem central to the action.
The final book, Moonrise, published in 2004, leaves the door open - I can only hope Smith has written or will write another volume.
I read PA fiction because I like to wonder what if ... what if the world as we know it abruptly ended? Who would survive and how? Mitchell Smith's imagining of such a world is well worth your time - and space on your bookshelf or Kindle.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Final in the Series and very good, December 29, 2010

By 

Tim - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Moonrise: Book Three of the Snowfall Trilogy (Mass Market Paperback)

I have enjoyed most of Mitchell Smith's work. In the past he concentrated more on the crime/thriller/drama genre but his excursion into speculative fiction of which Moonrise is the third in a trilogy has been very entertaining. I very much liked the way he moved the series forward but kept the three works interconnected. The books are inventive, very entertaining and truly leave the reader wanting more. Great work on these hidden gems.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great, but not as great as #1, February 1, 2005

By 

Ghost "Ghost" (Graceland, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moonrise (The Snowfall Trilogy, Book 3) (Hardcover)

This book suffers in comparison to book #1, but then as compared to the garbage next to it on the scifi/fantasy shelves its grand stuff. Very different tone and setting but still excellent writing and great characters