Moonstruck [Hardcover]

Edward M. Lerner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2005

Kyle Gustafson had worked with the space programme until disaster struck and he was picked for the fall guy. Then, a few months later, aliens in a gigantic starship made contact with Earth and Kyle was in good favour again, selected to interface with the aliens. They said that they represented a vast federation of intelligent races and they hoped that Earth would prove eligible to join. But there were a few false notes in the utopian front the aliens presented. There were the small art objects the aliens handed out as tokens of friendship, but which turned out to be listening devices. Also, surveillance and other satellites were disappearing in a way that seemed designed to foment American-Russian suspicion. For all their talk of peaceful intentions, Kyle suspected that they were trying to get the Earth to wipe itself out - but why? Kyle would find an ally among the aliens, but one who was regarded as a freak by her own kind, and lacked influence. He had to find a way out of the crisis before either the world exploded in nuclear flames, or the aliens lost patience and decided to do the job themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... Fast, original, and will keep you guessing to the very last page." -- book cover (back) -- Robert A. Metzger, Best Novel Nebula Award nominee for PICOVERSE

"An alien invasion tale like none you've ever read, yet chillingly relevant to our times." -- book cover (back) -- Stanley Schmidt Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author of ARGONAUT

"It's a rollicking good read ... the suspense never lets up. Highly recommended." -- book cover (back) -- Robert J. Sawyer, Best Novel Hugo Award winner for HOMINIDS, Best Novel Nebula Award winner for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT

"MOONSTRUCK fizzes with ideas and surprises. Classic science fiction with 21st Century appeal." -- book cover (front) -- David Brin, Winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel author of the Uplift series

"Moonstruck is inventive, original and ingenious ... pulls you in and the writing keeps you hooked right to the end." -- book cover (back) -- John G. Hemry, author of A JUST DETERMINATION and BURDEN OF PROOF

Review

"... Fast, original, and will keep you guessing to the very last page." -- book cover (back) -- Robert A. Metzger, Best Novel Nebula Award nominee for PICOVERSE

"An alien invasion tale like none you've ever read, yet chillingly relevant to our times." -- book cover (back) -- Stanley Schmidt Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author of ARGONAUT

"It's a rollicking good read ... the suspense never lets up. Highly recommended." -- book cover (back) -- Robert J. Sawyer, Best Novel Hugo Award winner for HOMINIDS, Best Novel Nebula Award winner for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT

"MOONSTRUCK fizzes with ideas and surprises. Classic science fiction with 21st Century appeal." -- book cover (front) -- David Brin, Winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel author of the Uplift series

"Moonstruck is inventive, original and ingenious ... pulls you in and the writing keeps you hooked right to the end." -- book cover (back) -- John G. Hemry, author of A JUST DETERMINATION and BURDEN OF PROOF --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Baen (February 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743498852
• ISBN-13: 978-0743498852
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A physicist and computer scientist, Edward M. Lerner toiled in the vineyards of high tech for thirty years, as everything from engineer to senior vice president. Then, suitably intoxicated, he began writing full time.

His novels run the gamut from near-future technothrillers, like Small Miracles and Energized, to traditional SF, like the InterstellarNet series. Collaborating with NY Times bestselling author Larry Niven, Ed also wrote the Fleet of Worlds series of Ringworld companion novels. Much of Ed's short fiction has been collected in Creative Destruction and Countdown to Armageddon / A Stranger in Paradise.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Twisted First Contact, March 23, 2005

By 

Jerry Wright "Mr. Bewildered" (Moses Lake, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moonstruck (Hardcover)

Ed Lerner is a warped man. This book starts out as what seems to be a standard first contact novel. A huge spaceship appears and orbits the moon, and centauroid aliens called the F'thk land in Washington D.C. and tell everyone that the Earth has the potential of joining a Galactic Commonwealth.

But the protagonist of this story, science advisor Kyle Gustafson, is bothered by a multitude of little inconsistencies.

And every time you think you have a handle on what is happening, Lerner shifts the story in a direction you just can't guess.

A very fun read, and well worth your time and money. This story was serialized in Analog a couple of years ago, and I read it then. I just re-read it, and it was better than I remembered, and I thought it was good the first time.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent, but very odd first contact story, December 12, 2009

By 

M. Shepherd "Midwest" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Moonstruck (Hardcover)

The good.
Lerner has come up with a good twist on the traditional first contact type story, which is refreashing in and of itself.
The book is well written and the plot interesting. What if earth were discovered by what amounts to a tramp freighter from an
advanced civilization. In some ways very much like some small island cultures 1st had contact with the outside world in the
18th and 19th centuries. And suppose like those encounters the crew and passengers see an oppertunity to make a quick buck at
the expense of the primitives. But this time with something far worse than just cheating the natives with unfair trading.

The bad.
Only a couple of the characters in the story are well developed. The rest seem very cardboard.
The story seems to really just plod along in some places.
While the aliens are alien enough is appearance, their thinking isn`t. But having radically different aliens think like humans is
a very common flaw in almost all science fiction. But it brings up something else.
The aliens seem to be ripped off (pretty blatantly ripped off at that) from one of L. Neil Smith`s more obscure sci-fi novels
"Their Majesties` Bucketeers" published by Del Ray in 1981.

Overall it`s a decent book. Not great by any means, but worth reading. I posted the review with four stars, but it`s really more like
three and one half stars.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars if you like first encounters - this will be just your cup of tea!, February 25, 2007

By 

Paul Levinson (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Moonstruck (Mass Market Paperback)

A great, classic first-encounter novel for the 21st century: think Childhood's End, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and To Serve Man, served up with the cutting-edge media savvy of Jon Stewart. Lerner writes with grace, surety, humor, and political wisdom that draws on sources ranging from Damocles to Churchill. I snapped up this novel on Cape Cod Bay, and learned anew why I relish science fiction.