First Mage on the Moon by Cameron Johnston
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have two things I want to make very clear:

This was a very moving and satisfying tale of achievement and grit and intelligence.

It also has one of most disagreeable openings I've ever read.

Now, to be doubly clear, I loved this book. It had a ton of great realism, hate for the gritty reality of war, and sheer, unbridled optimistic enthusiasm for a dream of something more even in the face of VERY little support or understanding or even a realistic outlook of surviving the great endeavor.

Indeed, it reads like the fantasy version of America's own space program at its very inception, only much more grueling and not sponsored by even a fraction of the people's good will. Indeed, it was a grand deception all done for the sake of truly fleeting glory--and it makes the novel feel like a book of true heroism in the face of insurmountable odds, but doubly so.

I loved it.

I rather HATED the opening, though. It really put the grimdark on the END of the novel before we even got a glimmer of hope or joy. Yikes. But damn. By the time I got a third in, I had to stay up all night reading it and it brought me a lot of joy. What a mess of contradictions, no? But maybe that's just me.

The best part of this book is the intelligence and idealism spitting in the face of so much horror. If you need that in your life, I totally recommend this book.

View all my reviews