**** Conspiracy on the Moon
Before
reading a novel, it’s spontaneous to look at the cover and, based on the image
and the possible slogan, get a vague idea of the plot. And it’s nice that at
least in part this idea is respected, otherwise there is the risk of running
into something that you didn’t want to read at all. Too bad that what the cover
of “Gunpowder Moon” suggests has nothing to do with the content of the book. You
can see the helmet of a space suit with a hole on the visor, while the suit of
another astronaut is visible in the reflection, all in a lunar environment.
Furthermore, the slogan refers to an elusive “first murder on the Moon”.
If
you expect to “see” (with the eyes of your mind) within the novel the villain
shooting off and therefore killing someone in a lunar landscape, you will be
disappointed. Someone is actually killed, but nobody shoots them. And the same
word “murder” used in the slogan suggests something much more personal than a
malicious explosion that causes the death of a character due to exposure to
vacuum. For the latter situation the most appropriate word is attack. The fact
that behind all this there is a conspiracy whose purpose is to unleash a war in
our satellite highlights how the murder is a marginal topic within the novel,
to say the least.
The
problem with these marketing choices by publishers (and in this case we’re
talking about Harper Collins) is that they attract the wrong readers and repel
the right ones.
“Gunpowder
Moon” is actually a hard science fiction novel with military and political
implications, set in a fairly pessimistic (almost post-apocalyptic) future.
There is some excellent action scene, like the one that makes up the climax of
the novel. The scientific part related to the Moon is quite accurate (with the
necessary licences) and interesting, and is well supported by an evocative
prose. The author is very good at world building, although I don’t appreciate
such a pessimistic view of the future. In addition, the main character,
Dechert, is not bad at all, despite some elements that tend to make it slip
into a cliché.
But,
apart from the completely wrong marketing choices, perhaps the only real
problem with this book is the slow pace. You find yourself reading long scenes
with long dialogues and reflections of the protagonist, in which something
happens only in the last page and then they are interrupted at the end of the
chapter (usually consisting of one or maximum two scenes) in order to induce
the reader to read the next one (something that I find extremely irritating).
In the first half of the book I think I have counted five events in all that
carry on the story, and obviously the scenes are many more than five. I was
often surprised to realise that I wanted the chapter to end, so that I could
stop reading and move on to the other book I was reading in the same period.
And this is not a good thing.
There
is a slight acceleration in the second part, even if some flashbacks that add
nothing to the story or really to the characterisation of the tormented
protagonist (I had already understood what type of character he was) managed to
break my concentration in reading and to make me decide to stop.
In
short, I had the impression of reading a longer book than it actually is.
The
climax, however, as I said before, is excellent. The identity of the villain
was not difficult to understand, but the author had some great ideas on how to
get the main characters out of trouble.
In
the epilogue, unfortunately, the pace goes down again and the author once again
gives in to the temptation to make use of too many explanations.
What
saves everything, including my judgment, is the last page. Obviously I cannot
mention anything about it, except that it gives a certain satisfaction.
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