To Crush the Moon (The Queendom of Sol)

Let's not dwell too much on what others have already said too many times over: this book and this entire series is rich in future science that is both relevant and philosophically consequential. A solid "A" for that effort, even if some of Mccarty's stuff is rather implausible. As far as the novel's literary qualities go, it is perhaps the best book of the series. All 3 books (not counting Collapsium) read like tales - somewhat reminiscent of Larry Niven's Ringworld with the adventures that the characters are involved in. It is effortlessly captivating and does a great job of instilling that sense of wonder that (in my opinion) all good science fiction is supposed to do. We marvel not only at the stuff we've encountered before - faxes, wellstone, collapsium, etc. - but also at the way the crushed moon was engineered, from its collapsed core to its strange biosphere. The novel's main strengths are thus twofold: 1) storytelling: see above; 2) details: they are what makes science fiction convincing. Think of Herbert's Dune: it was the details such as the water-saving suits and city-wide systems that made life on a parched planet plausible; think of McDevitt's best tales of extraterrestrial archaeology: again, detail is what makes those alien worlds so eerily familiar and so believable. The same holds true here: read the novel and you'll feel like you've seen the crushed Moon and the glow of the murdered Earth. Above all, do read the novel!

With To Crush the Moon Wil McCarthy brings one of the most satisfying recent series of Hard SF novels to a close. This series, collectively called, perhaps, The History of the Queendom of Sol, began in 2001 with The Collapsium (itself an expansion of a 1999 novella). That novel told of brilliant scientist Bruno de Towaji, who saves the Solar System three times from the dangers of super high-tech combined with a jealous rival. The Collapsium introduced the key technologies of the series: various types of programmable matter, and matter transmission. The latter technology, combined with an editing process, allowed for practical immortality. This first book was cheeky and playful and rather Tom Swift-like in ways. The subsequent three novels are more closely linked, and quite a bit darker in tone. By the end of The Collapsium, Bruno had married the Queen of Sol. In The Wellstone (2003) his son, Bascal, was the ringleader of a group of young people frustrated by their lack of opportunity in a world of immortals. The main character is Bascal's friend Conrad Mursk. The two of them and a large group of rebellious youngsters are exiled to Barnard's Star at the end of the book, and Lost in Transmission (2004) tells of the establishment and ultimate failure of the Barnard's Star colony. Conrad chooses to return to Sol, and To Crush the Moon is the story of what happens after his return. The Wellstone and Lost in Transmission both had sections set thousands of years in the future, with Conrad (now called Radmer) retrieving Bruno de Towaji from self-imposed exile and returning with him to an altered Moon (now called Lune), where the last significant remnants of humanity are fighting a war with emancipated robots. Earth and the other major planets have been "Murdered". To Crush the Moon tells first of the crisis in Solar System politics that led both to the alteration and terraforming of Luna into Lune, and then to the tragic missteps resulting in the "Murder" of Earth. Conrad and Bruno are central to these events, and so are their wives, Queen Tamra and Xiomary Li Weng (Xmary). Much of this section is savvy portrayal of what seems like inevitable political problems - particularly problems dealing with fanatics who wish to restore death to society, and with the impatient returnees from various failed star colonies. Then the conclusion continues the story of the far future war on Lune, with Radmer leading Bruno de Towaji on a desperate mission to, quite literally, save humanity. The story is satisfying on multiple levels. The scientific (and politico-economic) speculation remains scintillating. The pure adventure aspects are thrilling. The prose is clever, sardonic, successfully darkly funny even in the shadow of the deaths of billions. Conrad and Bruno are very well realized characters, though most of the remaining characters are a bit flatter. (In particular the leading women, Tamra and Xmary, never really come to life.) Lines like "Bruno was elbow-deep

Reading the preceding books in this series is imperative if one is to begin to understand this one. First of all, the terms would be completely foreign and secondly, it is important to understand the history of the Queendom, the Faxes and the revolution of human beings into immortal creatures. I hope that the lack of reviews is not indicative of a lack of readers because this is an important book in an important series that touches on cutting edge science (the author is involved in a nanotech company) and the future of humanity. What would it mean if it were possible to pass through a human fax machine and have your body emerge as a healthy man or woman in their mid-twenties? For one, immortality would increase population and that is one of the problems faced here. Secondly it leads to all sorts of weird experiments as groups of people become less and less human. But this is a story about relationships, the wonders of science (in particular the awesome "Wellstone") and the exploits of King Bruno and once badboy Conrad Mursk. The action is top notch, logical and exciting. The science is mind-blowing but utterly believable. The tale itself is bittersweet but the ending more than makes up for any sadness and a sequeal is suggested. For a literate, entertaining and masterful work of art, it is hard to beat.

In the far distant future, mankind has achieved immortality, fax machines that transport people from point A to Point B are commonly used and the Negcog a telecommunications network allows messages to be transmitted almost instantaneously. The Queendom of Sol benevolently rules all the inhabited worlds but the seeds for the monarchy's destruction are already planted. Colony planets are failing and refugees race to a home that has no room for them. The homeless on earth is in the millions and a new world is needed for these refugees. King Bruno decides on a daring plan to crush the moon internally and make it habitable for billions of people. The architect for this plan is Conrad Mursk, who was rescued from the crippled Newhope out of Banard's, another collapsing colony world. In cyro are 25,000 men and women who escaped and now form the workforce of the moon which is now named Lune. The refugees from Eridani want to live on Lune not in cold storage. When the monarchy refuses to give into their demands, they unleash a virus that destroys the Nescog. Years later, mortal humans are faced with a war with the Glitter King and the immortal Bruno and Conrad lead the opposing army, knowing if they fail, human life may very well disappear from the galaxy. For all of its technological achievements the world of the future seems a very bleak place. Wil McCarthy makes immortality seem like a curse because with nobody dying, there is no room for more people on Earth. This is outer space noir science fiction with a gothic feel because instead of harmony, there is chaos because mankind doesn't have what it takes to create viable human habitable planets. TO CRUSH THE MOON is cutting edge science fiction at its very best. Harriet Klausner

Wil McCarthy has managed to quickly become the favorite author of many, being mentioned in the same breath as Asimov, Bova, or Heinlein. This is due in no small part to his ability to at once fascinate the reader with the minutae and still deliver a sweepingly epic adventure. But a warning to new McCarthy fans: don't read this book. That is, do not read it unless you have first read "The Wellstone" and "Lost in Transmission". (Neither of those are responsibly read without having first read "The Collapsium".) In TCTM, McCarthy rounds out the story arc begun with the Children's Revolt. Conrad Mursk and a few of his fellow conspirators return from exile on Barnard as the refugees of a dying civilization only to discover that the scarcity and overpopulation that brought their world to the brink also threatens the Queendom of Sol. Mursk, a grown man of several hundred years now, is soon thrust into an ambitious project by none other than King Bruno de Towaji himself. In order to provide a home to the billions of refugees from failing solar and extra solar settlements, the moon is to be squozen into a super-planette rechristened Lune. Just in time, the project is completed, and then...all hell breaks loose, and the world comes to an end. Fast foward a thousand years in the future, and the immorbid Conrad, aided by the last of the Queendom's children, sets out on a quest to save the retrograde civilization of Lune from total destruction by a maniacal king who commands an army of robots. To accomplish this, Conrad must retrieve King Bruno for one last swashbuckling adventure to save mankind's children from extinction. While I'm hesitant to derive social commentary from sci-fi adventure novels, this final tome is more than just a light-hearted adventure or an abstract exploration of social strife arising from the use of technology. It is in fact (deliberately or not), a pointed reminder that mankind can in fact engineer its own demise. Whether through the nuclear genie of radiological and atomic weapons, the pandoras box of nanotechnology (and nano-pollution), or the threat to liberty of the expanding capacity of supercomputers to catalog information about individuals, if we as a race aren't careful with the use of technology, we move to abuse, and then destruction.