Wolf Moon

Wolf Moon est le deuxième tome de la trilogie de science-fiction Luna de l'écrivain britannique Ian McDonald. La quatrième de couverture promettait les mêmes ingrédients qui m'avaient plu dans le premier volume :

A Dragon is dead. Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed . The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent's violent deaths, is now a ward–virtually a hostage– of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon. Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point—that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey–to Earth. In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

Le récit reprend dix-huit mois après la fin du premier volume ; les survivants de la famille Corta sont séparés, exilés ou cachés :

- Lucas, présumé mort par sa famille et ses ennemis, s'est réfugié in-extremis dans un vaisseau qui fait l'aller-retour entre la Terre et la Lune et cherche à rejoindre la Terre, au péril de sa vie, pour assouvir sa vengeance contre ceux qui ont provoqué la chute de sa famile

- Ariel, protégée par Marina dans les hauteurs de Meridian, tente de sauver sa carrière d'avocate à succès tout en navigant dans les hautes sphères politiques

- Wagner, le fils maudit, est réduit à travailler à la surface comme mercenaire au service des Sun

- Robson, le fils orphelin de Rafa, a treize ans et a été récupéré par les Mackenzie, la famille de sa mère

- Lucashino, désormais âgé de dix-neuf ans mais toujours aussi immature, est en exil à Twé, protégé par les Asamoahs, la famille de sa petite amie Abena

Ce deuxième volume est dans la lignée du premier, avec des intrigues, des complots, des histoires de famille, et de l'action spectaculaire. Les lignes bougent, les alliés d'hier peuvent devenir les ennemis de demain, au gré des surprises, des retournements de situation et des trahisons qui s'enchainent tout au long du roman. Par rapport au premier tome, le récit est un moins centré sur les Corta, nous découvrons un peu plus les entrailles des familles MacKenzie et Sun.

Il n'y a toutefois pas que des histoires de vengeance et de complots, l'auteur nous offre également des moments très forts dans d'autres registres. J'ai notamment été très marqué par le chapitre qui raconte le voyage de Lucas vers la Terre, avec tout l'entraînement indispensable et la souffrance que son corps, né sur la Lune, subit sous la gravité terrestre. J'ai également beaucoup aimé la relation entre Robson et son oncle Wagner, où comment deux solitaires se retrouvent et se lient tant bien que mal.

Globalement, j'ai beaucoup aimé ce deuxième volume, je crois même l'avoir lu un peu plus vite que le premier, tant j'ai été emporté par le récit haletant et finement écrit. Je vais évidemment enchainer directement avec le troisième et dernier tome, impatient de découvrir la conclusion de cette trilogie.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

This book is a little like Game of Thrones, McDonald has created a plot that weaves and intercrosses each other. The power struggle between the Dragons is full of political scheming, each double crossing the other. The alliances between the character are just as full of intrigue, I think thats what makes this series so enjoyable to read. The characters feel fully formed, each having their own triumphs and flaws.

I think the thing I liked most about this book was the sense of scale. Everything feels epic. From the descriptions of the underground cities, to events like a massive foundry explosion and satellites raining down on the Moon. Then you have the more abstract things like a character born on the moon going to Earth despite this being technically impossible and describing what it's like to stand on another planet and look up at their home. That was cool.

I found it annoying that the first half of Luna: Wolf Moon is spent catching up with the main characters. Finding out what has happened in the two years since Luna: New Moon. It felt like the plot took a long time to get going. But I would still highly recommend this book. Also you should definitely start out with Luna: New Moon if you haven't read it yet.

Very good. I found the descriptions of different gravities and their effects on the human body very interesting. And the design of lunar society/culture along with it's physical structures, the sheer difficulty of living and working and building on the moon are all envisioned very well.
Some of the battle scenes are terrifying and I found Luna's journey with Lucasinho very compelling.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5

After the events of the first book, the survivors of the Corta family are scattered among the other Dragons. They all react in different ways to the fall of their House, and this is what sets the book in motion. It's fast moving ride, and by the end there are major repercussions for the Moon, and for what I presume will be the next book (there's no official indication that this is a continuing series, but surely McDonald is savvy enough to realise there will be lynch mobs after him if he leaves this hanging).

It's not all slam bang action, although there is plenty of that. The depiction of life on the Moon focuses on sexuality and gender (in fact, with the emphasis on this as well as family and Wagner's wolf pack, you could make a case for saying that the whole theme of the book is belonging, not least expressed in the ties between the Earth and the Moon, but I digress...) as well as the brutal hyper capitalism that governs lunar society. There's also plenty of the nuts and bolts of just living on an inhospitable airless world - a bit like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, you get the feeling that this is how it will be.

McDonald is one of the very best SF writers around at the moment, and this book, while emphatically not a good jumping on point for newbies, does nothing to dissuade me from that opinion. The next volume has just gone to the top of my want list.