The Secret Histories series just keeps getting better and better. Simon Green really knows his audience and "Moonbreaker" once again proves that Green is a mind-reader who always gives his readers exactly what they need (but the cliffhangers are seriously going to kill me someday). 5/5 stars.

Eddie Drood, former head of the Drood family and very secret agent, is a dead man. He was attacked and poisoned by Dr. DOA and cannot last much longer. To prevent anyone else getting hurt Eddie and Molly Metcalf, former magical terrorist turned ally and love interest, are going to do whatever it takes to stop Dr. DOA. If that means dealing with the Unforgiven God, fighting the Drood family’s past mistakes, or even going to the moon to prevent a world ending weapon from being used, well that’s just business as usual.

Moonbreaker is another book that is far into its series, leading to me having a number of issues with both the characters and story. That makes me worry a little about being fair to the story, especially given that I can’t help comparing it to books from Simon R. Green’s Nightside series which is set in the same world.

The characters, particularly Eddie himself, were a fair part of my issue here. Imagine that James Bond knew that he was kind of awful and was perfectly happy to explain that to his companion and, by extension, the reader. Also MI6 has not only hunted Bond in the past, but also has a habit of hording all the dangerous things and people they’ve managed to capture. Just in case. That’s the Eddie and the rest of the Drood family. For a first time series reader this makes Molly the reader’s view into the Drood family’s whole deal, and her horror with some of the things the family does just sort of gets brushed aside. It’s what and how they do things and it’s always been that way. That annoys me. I’m good with protagonists that aren’t golden heroes who do no wrong and help everyone, those guys get boring, this isn’t that. The Droods feel so married to the grey area that I just couldn’t get invested in them or Eddie.

My other problems is that the plot feels almost fractured. There are several conflicts that crop up that have little to do with stopping Dr. DOA or could have done better as the main conflict of another story. There are enough of those that by the time we get to the climax of the story there just isn’t any tension. Eddie’s presented as pretty boringly unstoppable for most of the book’s run due to his Drood armor, only being weakened by the poison in any meaningful way in the last quarter or so of the book, which doesn’t help with all the little conflicts feeling unimportant. Then the book was over and I could only be disappointed.

Molly was pretty awesome though. I kind of want to read a series about her. What didn’t work with Eddie being so, so over powered because of his armor, sort of worked in Molly’s favor. She’s also supposed to be super powerful but, because all the Droods have this ridiculous armor, she stands out more for holding her own despite being so much weaker by comparison. She’s also the one who wants to look for an antidote or something instead of just letting Eddie have his death. Trying to find a cure would have actually worked better for me as the B conflict that a lot of the other stuff and it could have hit a lot of the same beats the book did anyway.

Where does that leave Moonbreaker? Despite my best efforts, I know that my enjoyment of the older Nightside books leaves me more disappointed in this one than I would otherwise be. That’s not really fair to this book as a standalone and, again, it being later in the series doesn’t help things. I feel like there were a lot of good ideas here that wound up being used as padding instead of explored as well as they could have been. But it is rushed and disjointed, so it gets a two out of five. I would read Simon R. Green again, just not this series.

Yeah, when I requested MOONBREAKER, I had no idea it was the ELEVENTH book in the series. It's not really marked as such--I didn't find out until I went to add it to my Goodreads shelves.

Good book though the series is becoming more mundane the further it goes....

I'm reading my first book by author Simon R. Green. Knowing I was jumping into a series this far in, book #11!, without knowing anything about it was risky. But still, I liked the cover of Moonbreaker. It reminded me of the covers of ScyFy stories back in the 80s. The blurb wasn't bad either so I took a leap of faith and jumped into reading. So glad that I did!

This was one of those books that caught me by surprise. Honestly, at first, I felt a bit disoriented. Quite a bit was going on and I'm assuming I would have had to read the previous books to know what was going on. There wasn't a whole lot of recapping done outside of Eddie was dying and had been poisoned by Edmund aka Dr. DOA. I wasn't sure what the importance of who the Droods were or what Molly's place in the whole story was aside from a sidekick to Eddie. The little bit finally kicked in place that she was his girlfriend, and reflecting back on the blurb, DOH! It said it right there.

Yes, lot's going on, confused, thinking of giving it up and suddenly it clicked! I started to enjoy the story. The energy of the chase really started drawing me in. As Eddie and Molly pursue Edmund across worlds/universes/the moon, I found myself not carrying about all that I missed from the previous books. This here and now timeline was so exciting with all its crazy twists, the bantering and interesting characters, I was just soaking it in and enjoying myself. The pacing is fast as Eddie tackles each situation each thrown at him. The combination of humor, surprises, and craziness lured me in, kept me from putting down the book. It all ends on a high note with just enough of a dunt-dunt-da cliffy that isn't frustrating yet has me wanting to know what happens next. I might have to go back and start the series from the beginning while I wait for the next book to come out. Either way, Moonbreaker was high action fun and well worth the time reading.

reviewed by Jac

Here we are at the 11th book in the Secret Histories series. By now, every time you read one of these books, you know exactly what you are getting. This book was not an exception. Mr. Green’s signature fast-paced, outrageous scenarios and just plain fun were present in this book. The previous book was a cliffhanger and the book immediately started up where the one before left off. I have to admit that I was worried that this one would end in a cliffhanger, too, but that was not the case. And, I have to admit, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to Eddie, and I didn’t even suspect until the very last second. I won’t spoil it, but it was an interesting way to wrap it up. Anyway, if you are fan of this series, this book is exactly what you are looking for. If you haven’t read the series yet, I would recommend you start at the beginning. Recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the e-book which I voluntarily reviewed. This exact review will be posted on both Amazon and Goodreads.

Eddie Drood is running out of time. He’s been poisoned by Dr. DOA and his torc is barely keeping him alive. With Molly Metcalf by his side, Eddie hopes to escape the alternate world he’s been stranded on and find Dr. DOA before he kills any others. Eddie is determined to kill Dr. DOA, if it is the last thing he does before the poison completely consumes his body. Is this the last hurrah for Eddie Drood?

MOONBREAKER is the eleventh book in the <i>Secret Histories</i> series and concludes the story arc started in the prior book, DR. DOA. Simon R. Green helpfully provides a summary of the events to remind us of all the events that led to Eddie being poisoned and stranded in an alternate reality. While the <i>Secret Histories</i> series is one that is probably best read in order, I would definitely read at least the prior book before jumping into MOONBREAKER.

I love the <i>Secret Histories</i> series! Eddie Drood, and his alternate ego Shaman Bond, are just sheer fun. Yes, there’s some slapstick humor but who can’t help but love this futuristic take on James Bond? Eddie’s dedication to his family and to doing the right thing (which the secretive and powerful Drood family doesn’t always do) is admirable and MOONBREAKER showcases this perfectly.

However, as much as I love Eddie, Eddie wouldn’t be half as much fun without Molly. Molly and her family are the opposite of everything Eddie’s family stands for in so many ways- and yet somehow Molly and Eddie click together just right. They provide balance to one another as she keeps the Drood tendency to manipulate everyone under control while Eddie tames Molly’s wild witch side. Together, Eddie and Molly are practically unstoppable- and yet MOONBREAKER has the reader questioning if they’ve finally met their match with DR. DOA.

The <i>Secret Histories</i> series only gets better and better with each new installment. I won’t reveal spoilers but the sneaky hint in the last pages of the book has me more than excited about the next book as Simon R. Green is about to do what I’ve been waiting and hoping for. Simon R. Green is one of my favorite authors and MOONBREAKER only solidifies that opinion further. If you love snarky science fiction and urban fantasy, give Simon R. Green a try.

*review is in the editing queue at Fresh Fiction*

Moonbreaker may be confusion in the beginning for someone that has never read any books in this series before. Like me. However, then I started to get the hang of it, the concept of the story, learning more about Eddie Drood and the rest of the Drood family. And, I totally, utterly loved the book. It's non-stop action, and a completely over the top story, with a crazy powerful family with a lot of secrets, there is demons and angels, a sleeping God and then there are Eddie and Molly in the middle of everything trying to stop Dr. DOA, (Eddie's doppelganger from another dimension who has poisoned him), from destroying the world.

Eddie and Molly did remind me of Ishmael Jones and Penny from Simon R. Green Ishmael Jones series. But, that's not a bad thing since I love that couple. Eddie and Molly have the same fun banter and close bond that Ishmael and Penny have and that made me really love this series.

Moonbreaker is a fun book to read, and I enjoyed every second of the story. I mean I just ordered the first book in the series, that's how much I liked this book!
It's not easy to start with book 11 eleven in a series, but this one was not hard to get into. And, if you like me, like books with a lot of action, banter, artifacts, magic, and creatures, etc, then you will love this book!

If you're already a fan, you wont be disappointed, its pretty amazing! If you're not, then you're missing an incredible author!! Start here and then pick up his other work!

Moonbreaker is a highly entertaining and fast faced urban fantasy, which is in sections ridiculously stupid, but at the same time very readable. The prose is easy to follow and although this novel is well into a series it's easy enough to get into as a standalone novel, which has top notch villains and wonderful set pieces.

Although I have got out of touch with this author's recent novels, I could myself as one of the VERY EARLIEST fans of this highly prolific novelist. Around 1992 or 93 I wrote to his publisher. Green replied with his home address (no email in those days) and we had quite a long (and old fashioned) letter exchange in which Green sent me a signed copy of the American version of "Hell World". I loved his early novels, "Hawk and Fisher" novels, "Deathstalker" series, "Blue Moon" series and others. He was my favourite author for many years. During a spell working abroad we fell out of contact, but I wrote to him a few years later and he was still at the same address and remembered me! My memories of Simon R Green will always be special and he will always be one of my top rated fantasy and science fiction authors.

I received a free copy of this novel from Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.

Simon Green continues the (mis)adventures of Eddie Drood in this pivotal addition to the Secret Agent series.
Eddie is slowly wasting away from slow-acting poison, and he is racing time to fight his evil twin, with the help of the ever-faithful but always quirky Molly Metcalf. This is a mostly fast-paced read with some stretches of dialogue that makes for some slightly erratic plot but is overall a good read. Looking forward to seeing what comes next!

Love Eddie Drood! Simon Green always writes the best sci/fi fantasy adventures. Great plot, humor and action. We always buy him for our library.