Customer Reviews

Moonstruck

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Loved the first one-half of the book when earth is unaware of the motivations of the aliens (Are they here for good or evil?).

The motivation of the aliens is certainly unique but I wish Lerner had written a better second half. The plot and the characters got a little boring. And, of course, we have the obligatory love story between the hero and heroine. But I was intrigued enough to finish the book and find out how it all ends.

Lerner reverses the standard SF viewpoint where humans show up and play with primitive alien's heads when an alien movie company drops in to make a film...though they forget to mention that detail to us. They wouldn't want us not act naturally, and who knows...we might not even want to star in a disaster movie.

The central character is a science advisor that acts oddly for this genre, which is to say, he's smart, outspoken, and doesn't mind banging politicos heads together to get their attention.

The action is fast and the plot twisty, and despite a truly off-putting cover (Doug Chaffee has done much better) this is a book I can happily recommend to fans of John Ringo, Jack McDevitt and other action oriented authors who are also good storytellers. It's the author's second book, and I've got to go back and read the first one (Probe).

Ernest Lilley
Editor - SFRevu.com

I normally don't write reviews of books I'm ambivalent about. Usually I write them about books that are so bad (IMHO) that people should be warned to avoid, ones that bug me that trees died to print them. This isn't that bad.

Warning, spoilers.

This book has moderately good points: The basic concept of alien nutmeggers running a (fatal) scam on the human race. The outcast alien deciding to help Earth. Some of the dialog. Some of the science.

The moderately bad: Jumps in story (either point of view or time) are clunky. Various Human activities are played up, and then go nowhere. The "love" story is about as dull as I can conceive of. Some of the dialog.

Some things that bothered me more:

The idea that a large percentage of the public thinks the aliens are devils / evil is pushed hard toward the start of the book, ignored after that, and in a pivotal scene security precautions at an airport seem to be less than what would be set up for a visit from the President of Mexico let alone a visit from ETs. -BOOM- a vehicle bomb, what a non surprise. Despite a 2005 copyright it feels like it was written pre Oklahoma City bombing.

The aliens' technology is portrayed at one level for most of the book and then (after they're gone) it turns out to be waaaay more advanced. If the aliens had the technology shown in the last third of the book most of their behaviour makes no sense. Also, super technology = super fire proofing = giant realism hole when the alien ship burns like a tenement.

Killing off all the aliens, in particular the "good" alien, leaves the story dragging. Really dull.

And, last and to some extent least, the space aliens have nearly killed the planet, humanity has barely escaped: Politicians decide that doing anything much in space is a waste of time, the scientist / hero must trick and cajole them to do anything. Turns out the aliens left a planet killing plan in motion on the moon, luckily it is SLOW-SLOW-SLOW-MOTION allowing time for humanity to go to the moon. Result: ...the space aliens have nearly killed the planet, humanity has barely escaped, and except for the moon... (it is implied) Politicians decide that doing anything much in space is a waste of time. Our hero will have to convince them... OK, humans are idiots, I can believe that, but after a space Pearl Harbor I think we might get a clue.

The cover on the hardback version is one of the worst I've seen. My library has self checkout, I would have been embarrassed if someone saw me with it.

Bottom line: If you read it for free, and the cover on your edition doesn't make you blush, it's ok. I wouldn't buy it.

Moonstruck (2005) is a standalone SF novel. It is set in a very near future when an alien ship lands in America.

In this novel, Kyle Gustafson is the science advisor to the President of the USA. He had formerly been Director of Franklin National Labs before going to Washington.

Sergei Denisovich Arbatov is a science advisor to the President of Russia. He likes to visit Cape Canaveral to watch shuttle launches and to meet with Kyle.

Darlene Lyons is a State Department bureaucrat. She is somewhat of a loner, having her own view of circumstances.

Britt Arledge is the White House chief of staff and thus is Kyle's boss. He is from an old political family.

In this story, Kyle is watching an Atlantis shuttle launch with Sergei. After the shuttle leaves the launch pad, mission control orders an abort. The pressure in its external tank has started to build.

The shuttle jettisons the solid fuel boosters and the external tank. As it falls away, the external tank bursts and a spark causes a massive explosion. The blast knocks the shuttle out of the sky and it crashes into the ocean.

In Washington, Kyle is worried about a hearing on technology to improve enforcement of the Clean Air act. At least the shuttle disaster is no longer front page news. Then he learns about the takeover of national television networks to announce the arrival of a ship from the Galactic Commonwealth.

Kyle leads the team that is investigating the Galactics. They have pictures and radar scans of the Galactic mothership in orbit around the Moon. They have tracked radio beams coming from the Moon that have preempted the television transmissions within the network satellites.

As Kyle briefs Britt on these findings, they view the announcement. The aliens look like reptilian centaurs, with four legs and two arms. The spokesperson announces that their lander will arrive at Reagan National Airport in two days. At least the aliens are not interrupting anything except commercials.

On the day of the landing, Kyle is standing in the crowd awaiting the landing. An Air Force officer is impressed by the maneuverability of the vessel. After it lands at the intersection of the runways, concrete buckles under the weight. Finally a ramp drops and the alien emissaries emerge from the craft. Kyle monitors the radiation levels.

At the reception for the aliens, Kyle is busily watching the sensors gather information from the aliens. The aliens asked not to be served human food and didn't bring any of their own. They claimed that portions of the foodstuff was toxic to humans. Yet Kyle's sensors are not detecting any toxins in their breath.

Then Britt tells Kyle that he will be appointed as the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Galactic Studies. His first choice for the Commission is Darlene. She also seems to be skeptical about the aliens and their claims.

Kyle selects a few other persons for the Commission, but others are selected for political reasons. The Commission is provided with all data gathered by the various scientific investigators. However, little stands in the way of accepting the alien offer to allow Earth nations to apply for admittance into the Galactic Commonwealth.

This tale leaves Kyle and Darlene in the minority among humanity. They are very skeptical about the aliens, but everybody else seems entranced with the vision of fusion power and stardrives. Kyle resigns as Commission chairman and returns to Franklin National Labs, but Darlene stays on the Commission and liaises with Kyle.

The author's previous novel -- Probe -- was more of a technothriller -- although it had elements of SF -- yet this story is obviously SF. The aliens in the previous tale were a hoax created by artificial computer entities, whereas these aliens are real. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Lerner fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien cultures, political shenanigans, and a lovable ET.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Not a novel that will be considered great in science fiction. But Lerner does demonstrate an ingenious twist to the standard First Contact plot. It's a build out of a short story that appeared in Analog. More flesh on the bones of the characters. And an ending that goes beyond what appeared in Analog. If you never read the latter, then just knowing what I've written here, you should be able to identify where the original ending was in the story.

The action scenes are fairly limited. Not up to the combat sequences in a Weber, Ringo or Stirling book. As for the characters, I had trouble identifying with them. They seemed rather flat. But perhaps Lerner will improve over time.

Half-way through the book you learn the big secret. And it's not that big and not that funny or original or moving. I kept asking myself if this was meant to be "juvenile SF" but then no younger person deserves this drivel. Hard to care about any of the characters and the supposedly cynical conceit about the the nature of media and society is poorly done. [...]