Moonrising by Claire Barner - Book Review

Moonrising deserves a star for the spectacular cover alone—I mean it’s freaking gorgeous. The story, too, deserves praise, though I had some minor gripes.

The blurb in this case was accurate and not misleading (which I find increasingly common with some novels). We have three POVS: Victor (my favorite), Alex, and Mansoor. Victor is the smart guy, the magician when it comes to math, physics, etc. However, his plight, is people. Then we have Alex, a scientist who wants to, in her words, “feed the world.” She needs funding and to fight the stigma of scientifically grown/enhanced food which receives the name “mutant” food. Finally, Mansoor is a fellow Middle Eastern (I’m half Lebanese/Armenian [another story for another day]) who wants to turn the moon into a sort of tourist attraction.

I really love Victor. His POV is so well written, he’s got a lot of quirks that make him lovable. From his very first chapter we know the kind of guy he is, and he has a good arc too. He is queer, which, I loved. I feel like I know people like Victor, and that’s why I am so fond of him. I liked Alex, she was easy to root for, and she has an interesting background with her father, previous work, etc.

Mansoor, in contrast, didn’t read as strong to me. That’s not to say he’s poorly written—that’s actually far from it—he merely has less going on in his storyline. His brother, Rashid, however, is incredibly well written for a non-POV character. What would have made Mansoor a bit stronger was more internal thought on his end.

The writing itself is good, I learned a new word “taciturn” which I will be using! The plot itself is also good; the last few chapters are incredibly terse, and, at first, I was thrown off. But the more I think about it the more I like it. I also really appreciated that the ending ended the way it did. I don’t want to spoil anything, all I will say is that it felt realistic given the parameters of the world.

There are times when the plot feels slower towards the middle, but the characters make up for it. I also didn’t see any science that was super off or fantasy—I wouldn’t classify it was Hard Science Fiction because there were some liberties, but it is definitely in the realm of more realistic as opposed to something like Star Wars.

I am excited for more novels from this author! Very strong novel.