This novel, true SF, is set several centuries into the future. Earth is now something of a backwater, having had its ecosystem damaged by centuries of misuse by humans, and those humans have since built more advanced civilisations among various asteroids and, most notably, the Moon.

The hero, adolescent Jack Stone, first enters the story as he rescues a lunar journalist who had miscalculated the dangers of exploring the Antarctic without backup.

Jack is a talented empath who can commune with whales. He is also blind. He and his mother host and care for the journalist, who then tells them that Jack could have his sight restored on the Moon.

Jack is to find that he is not all that welcome there, yet at the same time, is to find that returning to Earth is not that simple.

There is a little written about how Earth's satellite has been rendered habitable through the harnessing of solar power under domes, but less is written about how that might affect the psychology of its inhabitants than there could have been. What follows instead is how Jack, as an outsider, must encounter all the fretful plotting and scheming of a world which is contractual in the extreme. Even at school, he has to perfect machiavellian manoeuvres in order just to major.

Meanwhile he unearths corruption in the highest places, as well as conspiracies against some of his favourite classmates - all among every kind of sexual intrigue. But will that free him from the obligations that tie him to a society that may never, truly accept him?

It's difficult to judge this book, as the main character seems clearly set up to be a hero in the truest sense - this looks to be a trilogy in the making. As it is, a lot seems to be left very open-ended. Will Jack ever, legally be able to revisit Earth, and his mother? What is to happen with the girl he has grown to love? Who are the Aliens only fleetingly touched upon? And is all political and social life beyond Earth like that on the Moon?

The plot seemed a little over-complicated, and dragged a little, and the real action only takes place later on. Perhaps it should have been made clearer that all the loose ends mentioned here will be gathered and tied together in future trilogies.

Pillars of the Moon is said to have a lunar plot, suitable for fans of The Expanse or Andy Weir (among others). When I read such a premise, I expect: a lot of science that is worked out in detail, a lot of humour, a wilful main character who knows how to get things done, a complex and not all too peaceful society that has spread over part of the universe. I didn’t quite get that.

It all starts promising with the rescue of Kira, a journalist from the moon who is visiting Earth and has an accident, but quickly turns its focus to topics that are not very relevant to the story and feel as they have only been dragged in to turn the plot towards a certain direction. Kira's relationship is the first of these. When Jack subsequently arrives on the moon to have his vision restored, the author found it believable that he started attending school there like any local teenager, and he presents us with a half-book long teenage story, very much focusing on the school system. However set on the moon and a few centuries from now, this system is not at all different from the current American system. I couldn’t help but not believing this, on top of that most of this doesn't matter all that much for the plot development. Other teenage topics, such as who is dating whom, also receive way too much attention, and for an adult reader waiting for something comparable to The Expanse or the style of Andy Weir, this is perceived as very immature. The book is not intended for young adults (enough sex to make that clear) but can on the other hand not maintain and adult’s interest.

Social media, and mainly characters constantly filming themselves and streaming this, are important in the book. I got the impression that one part of the population has nothing better to do than filming themselves, and the other part is watching this the entire day. The repetitiveness of it quickly becomes extremely annoying. Also annoying is Jack's character. He comes from Earth and is therefore much stronger than the Lunars. As an empath, he knows everything everyone is feeling or knows where others are. He immediately has almost unlimited access to all computer systems because the controlling AI has been tricked by him and granted it to him. Because yes, he is of course also very smart (which is another thing that gets repeated very often) and his thinking is always one step ahead of everyone else’s. The author has not designed a human being here, but a robot, and it didn’t take long for me to start hating him.

I totally failed to find any of the humour that Andy Weir uses in his books. Jack tries to be witty but is only annoying. Made me think of smart-ass teenage talk of the kind they outgrow once they mature a little bit. Not Jack though. Even more annoying is that the adults all seem to take him very seriously and even admire him. I also failed to find some of the intrigue back that The Expanse has. The presumed intrigue is not very complicated and interesting, but gets blown up with a lot of irrelevant events, turns somewhat into chaos, and I very soon stopped believing what I read. I have this habit of finishing every book I start, always hoping for a turn for the better. Every now and then I wonder why I can’t just stop in the middle if the story goes to nowhere. Unfortunately, this was one of these times.

1 star, Trigger Warnings not disclosed

PILLARS OF THE MOON
by Scott Rhine

This story could have been amazing. It did not come with any trigger warnings, if it had, I wouldn't have selected it to read. This is not only a science fiction/fantasy novel, but it is also a FF novel. I didn't sign up for that. Yuck!

Too bad that authors can't simply write a good story, without adding in all of the trigger stuff.

Highly disappointed. I received a complimentary copy I was under no obligation to post a review.

#pillarsofthemoon #disappointing #triggerwarnings #booksGOsocial #scifiFantasy #purge #scottrhine

I love sci fi. I need to read more of it, but when I saw this, I downloaded immediately and I’m so glad I did. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than expected. It was great!