Product Description
Army engineer Eduardo Torres is caught up in the world’s raging oil wars when he stumbles onto the plans for a quantum-energy battery. This remarkable device could slow civilization’s inevitable descent into environmental disaster, but Torres has other plans. Forming a private army, he uses the device to revive an abandoned space colonization effort in an ambitious campaign to lead humanity to a new life in a distant solar system.
The massive endeavor faces many challenges before the fleet finally embarks for the Holzstein System many light-years away. But even as the feuding colonists struggle to carve out homes on alien worlds, they discover that they have not left their old conflicts and inner demons behind.
Nor are they alone on this new frontier. Awaiting them are inhuman beings who strike without warning or explanation–and who may spell the end of humanity’s last hope.
Epic in scope, yet filled with searing human drama and emotion, A Grey Moon Over China is a monumental science fiction saga by an amazing new talent. Its original publication by Black Heron Press was named one of the “Best Books of 2006″ by Kirkus Reviews.
I would argue that this book is not just Sci-Fi, but literature, in the classic sense. It tells a hard story in a heart-breaking way. A flawed hero’s journey, away from, and back to, the broken self. It also looks at the fallout of what appears to be the pursuit of a dream, but is really just a flight from one’s origins. It is not an easy read as Day just dumps you in the middle of a new world and does not explain much of the technology. Neither is it filled with joy. Killing, adults, children, and animals, in pursuit of a military goal, are all fair game here, as it is in real life. If you like the grim re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, you will be on solid ground here. Hope does inhabit this book, but only of the ragged sort where a weed springs up between two desolate rocks.
Rating: 5 / 5
I wish I could have given 3.5 stars…
I am an avid sci-fi and occasional fantasy reader and was looking forward to reading this book. I had seen reviews and also was excited about another Portland Oregon author.
I didn’t not like this book nearly as much as I though I would. I found it well written with characters that I could feel for. That being said…this book is so depressing. There isn’t a stitch of joy to be found in its pages, with the possible exception of the baby near the end (don’t want to be a spoiler). There is a little wonder to be found in the pages, but mostly sadness and bleak despair. I am okay with that if the book is satisfying, but this one wasn’t for some reason. I almost put it down several times, because frankly I really wanted something ‘happy’ to happen. I am not a reader who expects fluff (I’ve read the Thomas Covenant Chronicles 3 times, talk about depressing). I just found this book bleak. Perhaps if there was a sequel, I was dying of curiosity re. Serenitas after all. I recommended this book to my husband and am curious to see if he shares my thoughts on this read.
Rating: 3 / 5
“Grey Moon Over China” is quintessential space opera, so if you’re dismayed at how sci-fi bookshelves are becoming increasingly dominated by fantasy and “alternate history,” this isn’t a bad choice. It’s also a fairly ambitious debut for new author Thomas A. Day. The story isn’t bad, though it seems just a tad derivitive: A group of humans stumble across promising technology which allows them to lead an exodus from a near-future Earth that’s slowly falling apart … only to be confronted by machines they have created to chart the way, machines that have since evolved and rebelled. Sound familiar? The story is pretty grim at times, not that I have a problem with that; I’ve slogged through worse. What bothered me most about this book was the narrative, which I found pretty choppy and unfocused and occasionally confusing. I found myself skimming over a lot of it, and I am normally a very deliberate reader.
Rating: 3 / 5
I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. It is not easy reading, but the prose is excellent. The characters are well-defined and interesting. I liked Torres, Polaski, Patel, Pham and the minor characters as well. The ‘quantum battery’ is an ingenious device on which a large part of the book pivots.
The world is a mess and incessant wars roil earth. Torres figures a way out and enlists Polaski to help him. After that, the epic begins.
The book is tragic but hope is always present
I look forward to more from this author.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’m typically not one to write a review, but this book rose above the rest (not in a good way) to warrant a quick review.
A Grey Moon Over China, by Thomas A. Day, had me very excited from both the back cover blurb and the opening few chapters. Mr. Day writes in a very fast paced style that really drew me in… again, at first. The trouble started to occur and the book revealed more and more characters and further plot developments with less and less attention paid to fleshing anything out. While this didn’t necessarily confuse me, it did disconnect me from the entirety of events as they occurred in rapid-fire succession over the course of many perspective years.
The book’s interesting plot continues to entice as the plot unfolds, however it fails to deliver on any but the most superficial sense. I got the impression that Mr. Day ground a 500,000 word manuscript down to its current size, leaving out fluff such as character development and scene description. I gave up on the book when, around 2/3 of the way in, the main character’s own unsurpassed genius (despite his continual relegation as ambassador schmuck) susses out obscure pseudo-scientific details known only to the author. I won’t spoil it for anyone who might enjoy Mr. Day’s style.
In the end, I would best describe this book as frustrating. Just like a wonderful movie concept spoiled at the hands of an awful director, I believe A Grey Moon Over China is an intriguing plot spoiled by the author.
Rating: 2 / 5