---
product_id: 36379712
title: "Luna: New Moon (Luna, 1) Paperback – Illustrated, September 13, 2016"
brand: "ian mcdonald"
price: "A$57"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/36379712-luna-new-moon-luna-1-paperback-illustrated-september-13-2016
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# Luna: New Moon (Luna, 1) Paperback – Illustrated, September 13, 2016

**Brand:** ian mcdonald
**Price:** A$57
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Luna: New Moon (Luna, 1) Paperback – Illustrated, September 13, 2016 by ian mcdonald
- **How much does it cost?** A$57 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/36379712-luna-new-moon-luna-1-paperback-illustrated-september-13-2016)

## Best For

- ian mcdonald enthusiasts

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- Trusted ian mcdonald brand quality
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## Description

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## Images

![Luna: New Moon (Luna, 1) Paperback – Illustrated, September 13, 2016 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/WEBP_402378-T2/images/I/41UJKaRG+eL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Luna ends a long night
  

*by I***K on Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2015*

I have been reading Ian McDonald for a couple of decades now. He is an innovative thinker and a great stylist. In short, one of the best science fiction writers in my library. He is one of those writers who is so good that I reread his books several times (I want to go back and read Terminal Cafe again).Luna is the first novel that Ian McDonald has written after his Everness young adult trilogy (Planesrunner, Be My Enemy and Empress of the Sun). Planesrunner was a good, but not great book. The series ran down from there. Empress of the Sun was a largely forgettable work. These books did not come close to showcasing McDonald's prodigious talents. Luna does.Luna is McDonald at has best and one of the best books in his long career of writing. The world that McDonald has created is rich and complex. The characters are deeply drawn, with complex motivations and personalities.As with most of McDonald's books, he takes ideas and expands on them. One of these is the extreme libertarian society of the moon, where all things are governed by contract and there is not law outside of contract. This is a world that repels some of the characters in the novel and gives others a chance to create a dynasty.The weekend before I wrote this review I saw the movie The Martian based on Andy Wier's book (which I read when it first came out).Ian McDonald's book Luna made me realize that the fascination with Mars is a romantic one. If humans are to settle space, the Moon is a much better place to start. Sending humans, as opposed to robots, to Mars is madness.Because the Moon is closer to the Sun, there is more solar energy available. The Moon is also partially in the shadow of the Earth, so there is more protection from radiation. And the Moon is much closer.  If an orbital elevator were constructed, the cost of moving material from Earth might be low enough that building settlements would be possible. The cost of sending anything to Mars is much higher.I could write much more about the fascinating complexities of McDonald's Luna. But really, what's the point? Buy the book and read it.So who might not like the book?  There is some violence. The book contains some graphic sex of various flavors. If reading about sex bothers you, then you're not going to like the book. It is not, by the way, erotica, which is designed to titillate. The sex naturally grows out of the plot. Although I admit that one of the sex scenes was hot.The story is complicated and some people don't enjoy complicated plots. There is a dramatis personae at the start of the book and I had to use it as a reference in a few cases. But this is not Bulgakov's Master and Margarita - the plot of Luna is clear, although convoluted in some cases.Oh, and one other thing... The story doesn't end with this book. In fact, the book ends with a cliffhanger. McDonald has planned a sequel.  But this is a feature, not a bug, since it provides the motivation to reread this fantastic book when the sequel comes out.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Doesn't live up to the hype, but maybe worth sticking around for more.
  

*by J***E on Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2017*

I really want to like this book. It has some really great ideas in it. It gives a pretty hard sic-fi take on what colonizing the moon might be like, especially the toll on the human body and generations of humans living 1/3 Earth's gravity. The tech and descriptions of living environments is totally believable and well as how air, water and data are the necessary currency on the moon. I bought the book based on the descriptions, comparing it to Game of Thrones ... and it does a good job at setting up the world, the characters and the intrigue surrounding the corporate families that run the moon. But, dammit, I can't get past how Young Adult and one dimensional some of the characters are. And the typos! Doesn't Tor have an editing staff?Instead of G.O.T., this should be compared to Dune. At least this first book. Like Dune, it takes a while to establish the families, the world and the conflicts. Helium-3 is the Spice of the Moon. The Cortas are the Atreides, the Mackenzies are the Harkonens (sort of). They hate each other but still have to get along because the Moon oligarchs demand it. And like Dune, once the action happens, it gets good. But where Dune ramps it up about half way into the book, Luna takes it's sweet time and waits until the last 30-40 pages.Ian McDonald does a good job imagining what moon society might look like, being run by corporations, not governments. Contracts mean more than laws, and the bulk of people scramble for jobs that will pay them in enough oxygen to stay alive for another day. And the super rich families that are basically moon royalty. BUT – his writing style is uneven. His characters are mostly unsympathetic, shallow characters what operate on either lust or greed. He does describe action wonderfully, although I feel he made his main characters Brazilian so he could mention Brazilian jiujitsu, because he's heard of that, maybe.He has created an elaborate yet confusing corporate and legal lingo to describe executive positions and marriage terms (the different corporate families keep each other in check by arranged marriages). But sometimes I felt it went overboard. After all, this is just Earth's moon 100 years in the future, not the planet Arrakis 10,000 years from now. And yes, there is a map of the moon and family org chart in the front of the book, because it gets that confusing at times.I feel like I should at least try the first few chapters of book 2, to see if it starts paying dividends on what McDonald has set up. The first book ends in a cliff hanger( again it's like the first half of Dune). And I feel like maybe the second book will really be more of what I was expecting based on all the 4 and 5 star reviews that made me want to read this.I know I mention Dune a lot, but it's a good comparison and most sci-fi fans will have read at least the first book of Dune.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Great potential, poor execution
  

*by R***N on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2019*

This book had potential and I liked the set up of 5 rival families on the moon, but unfortunately the execution was poor. For a start there is a huge range of characters and the POV jumps between countless people. Unfortunately, this means I didn't get attached to anyone or get to know them. The various plots crowded each other out and meant none were properly developed. To be honest, not much happened for most of the book and ending felt rushed and shoved in just so something dramatic could happen.The world building felt like a first draft, there were some good ideas but they weren't explored. Supposedly there is no law, only contracts, but there was no exploration of how society would function under this. At the beginning, it looked like we would get a view of life for the poor, but this was quickly dropped and never mentioned again. The non-English words didn't add depth, they just felt disorientating, probably because I don't know Portuguese (but why would a Brazilian family use Korean management titles?).Also, was all the sex really necessary? Was there any point to that very long and very detailed masturbation scene? Would it have been possible for even a single person to talk to a non-relative without sleeping with them?

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*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-03-04*