Moonbane

by Al Sarrantonio

Jason Blake must find a way to stop the plague of invaders from space that murdered his wife and threaten to take over the world

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Werewolves

196 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

Al Sarrantonio was an American horror and science fiction writer, editor and publisher who authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He also edited numerous anthologies.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

DISCLAIMER: I am the author's son and I won't shy away from that fact. I'll be as objective as possible.

This is one of my top favorite books of all time. The imagery is beautiful, the story is taught and suspenseful, and it actually is pretty scary.

Yes, the ending is a little out of left field but it jives. I've been debating that ending with my dad and people who've read it for years now and that's why I think its absolutely fantastic.

There's a new version coming out soon with illustrations. Look out for it, its going to be well worth it.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bright is the moon, high in starlight
Chill in the air, cold as steel tonight
We shift, call of the wild
Fear in your eyes, it's later than you realized
Shapeshift, nose to the wind
Shapeshift, feeling I've been
Move swift, all senses clean
Earth's gift
(Back to the meaning) Back to the meaning of life!"
--Metallica, "Of Wolf and Man"

[Kasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I really like about Al Sarrantonio is his uncanny ability to marry some fantastic science-fiction with gut wrenching horror to produce a story unlike no other. This tale is of the abomination of man kind as it is pushed a step down on the food chain and its feeble struggle against a superhuman force.

Moonbane is about Jason Blake, a poet, who witnessed a meteor shower with his son, so blinding and luminous that it made night as bright as day raining rocks from outer space. We learn they aren't simply rocks, but containers for slumbering seeds that spawn a beast that is so smart and deadly that it sees nothing else but elimination of mankind while it spawns all continents and leaves no person unharmed. As Blake's family falls victim to the beast we follow him into survival mode as he hides away in his own house, fending off the attacker, while his bitten son begins the transformation, his loyalty to mankind makes an abrupt change that sends his father into a spiral of preserving life of men with revenge and a strong urgency for vengeance. Blake and a handful of others set up an expedition to NASA while tearing through hordes of werewolves who even slinked around in broad daylight and who were savage and ultra fast at night

Overall this was a very fast and intense read, and I cannot recommend it enough if you are interested in tale of extinction, lycanthropy and man's struggle against a force that makes his base, his core, the soul of his existence; Earth, the home of man an unwelcoming place to be, and with the only way out to simply give up and fall back into the animals claws. This writer is certainly on top of my list, for spawning such amazing pieces of literary fiction. I love horror movies with werewolves, but reading it in a book felt like having the wind knocked out of you, I had a blast.

Enjoy, I know I did!

[Mikepottz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making the night sky like daylight, hundreds and thousands of meteors land on Earth. Father and son gazing in the sky, a fireball lands in their field and they investigate. A paw pushed out of the rock, a membrane like a puppy, its razor sharp teeth forcefully bite down on the boys gloved hand. After letting go it returned to the ground and gave a blood-curling howl towards the moon. Escaping to the house on closer look the finger tips of one was missing and another one dangling. A creature, huge, yellow eyes, piranha like teeth, talons like sabers explode through the windows and smash the mother. The boy starts his transformation becoming muscular, long claws, the face of the beast, yellow eyes. A world of despair, death everywhere the werewolves from space destroying all communications and transport. A radio signal transmits from an air force base. Please come (hello the stand). The man leaves for the haven of the air force base. The werewolves tearing, ripping, clawing, sucking the human flesh. The werewolves want the extinction of the human race. A space shuttle goes to destroy the moon with nuclear bombs, a man becoming a werewolf and feeling complete, full enjoyment, a fulfilment one had never known. Signed copy.

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads.

Moonbane starts off with a bang and the ending is stellar as well. The middle section of the story wasn't my personal favorite, but that's just because I don't enjoy survival stories. Despite that, it is still relatively fast-paced and very entertaining. I think even more scenes with the werewolves would have made this book even better, but, overall, it still has a unique premise and is very quick and easy to read. So if you like creature-feature books that don't require too much thinking, then you may enjoy Moonbane!

[Ken B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al Sarrantonio's "Moonbane" is an entertaining Sci-fi / horror novella. If you are able to put critical thinking into autopilot and let someone else take the wheel for a bit, go ahead and give this one a run. If lapses in reality, sometimes brutal lapses, and an "Independence Day" style climax annoy you, give it a pass.

3 STARS

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book expecting a werewolf story but got a zombie apocalypse in lycanthrope clothing. The novel opens with a meteor storm which deposits thousands (tens of thousands?) of werewolves around the world—werewolves who immediately begin biting people who also turn into werewolves and begin to overrun the globe.

Now think about that for a moment. I’m all for putting a new twist on a genre, but this really isn’t a lycanthrope story at all. Werewolf tales and their brethren typically focus on the duality of man and beast and the need to control the violent animal urges in the infected victims. They don’t have to be mysteries (i.e. who is the werewolf) but man/beast should play a major role in the story, not be a minor almost forgotten subplot that sort of half-surfaces once in a while as the werewolves rapidly overrun the planet.

But let’s take this tale on the author’s terms. The werewolves invade and quickly rip the narrator’s family to pieces—killing his wife and infecting his son. The son could have been a major player that would have greatly enhanced this story, but he never takes on a serious role. Instead we follow the father as he attempts to join up with some humans who believe they have the key to getting rid of all the werewolves and saving humanity.

What follows is a trek across the wasteland that has become part of our country as the survivors attempt a truly monumental counterstrike against the lycanthropes. There’s a twist here that was the best part of the story, but again, without giving anything away, it made no sense that anyone could have been so foolish as to create the situation in which that twist could threaten anything.

In the final analysis this is a book with moments of great potential that just didn’t quite find its way.

I received this book from freeaudiobookcodes.com in exchange for an honest review.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Mathew Walls · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I finished this book, because I hated it right from the beginning. The main character is a poet - I hate poets. The monsters are called werewolves but they're very clearly zombies - I hate zombies. The characters are irritating, the plot is nonsensical, the action is boring. There's no tension or intrigue. And it's painfully generic.

For me personally, the biggest problem with this book is that it hits on every single problem I have with "realistic" zombies (which basically boil down to the fact that they're not realistic at all and actually seem less plausible than zombies that are just magic), but even people who like zombies would likely be put off by all the plot holes and inconsistencies.

Just for example, let's talk about the zombies. They're an intelligent, ancient civilisation from the moon; how do you write a story about werewolf zombies from space and not make it a comedy? No one can take that premise seriously. But putting that aside, injured humans turn into werewolves, but the werewolves are driven by this mindless bloodlust whenever they see blood. So a werewolf scratches you, you're going to turn into one - but now that werewolf's gone blood crazy and kills you. How do they ever manage to infect anyone, let alone the thousands the book mentions?

Oh, and they can't stand sunlight, but they're made more powerful by moonlight - like as though that's a different thing. And they're from the moon, not from underground or some parallel universe where there's no sun. This book is just super dumb. I've barely scratched the surface here.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be incredibly frustrating. The first half of the book deserves four stars, but the second half only two, averaging three.
The first half was a survival story, in the same overall genre as I Am Legend, with the same sense of overwhelming doom and a struggle against impossible odds. Using a poet as the central character makes the flavor very different from comparable books, in a good way. I only wish we had seen more of his version of things, as filtered through his own creative mind.
Then, the author made the mistake of letting the plot dissolve into bad science in the "fighting back" section of the story. Even by horror movie standards, it was bad science, so bad that it was distracting.
Examples range from how long it would take for the gasoline to run out of a cut fuel line to orbital mechanics to the effects of nuclear weapons if exploded on the moon. The arithmetic is just wildly off...
The worst example has to do with the concept of blowing up the moon, with a handful of surface-exploded nuclear weapons. Not only will the explosions supposedly shatter the entire moon, but then also guide the debris into forming an even ring around the Earth. Umm...how does that work again?

[Rusty Ray Guns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invading alien werewolfs from the moon destroying the earth ....
Hells yeah it's a lot of fun

[Ashlynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun! For a moment I thought this was pivoting from horror into sci-fi, but it does stay true to genre.

[Mike Kazmierczak · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things that I love about Sarrantonio's work is that he quickly jumps into the action and gets you hooked. This directly leads to his novels being a fast and exciting read. They seem to be over so quick.

This time we follow Jason Blake, a poet, and Ritchie, his son. Events start with the two of them watching a meteor shower which turns into an unexpected surprise when the meteors start landing on Earth in huge numbers. Then to make the surprise worse, the meteors turn out to be pods that contain a werewolf-like beast that is intent on destroying or converting all humans with which they come in contact. Jason's wife is killed, his son is converted and he is in a fight for his life. A fight that involves multiple characters and culminates at NASA.

While I did enjoy the book and found it very entertaining, the ending was a bit too Hollywood. One of those things where the protagonist is doing things not because he has the ability or knowledge but because he is the protagonist and to have someone else do it would be "wrong". It is one of the hard things to do with end of the world books though; how do you end it without betraying the bleak mood that has been set by having an easy happy ending and without making the whole book more depressive? Sarrantonio does a good job and produces something I would recommend.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Werewolves aren’t usually my favorite form of horror, especially when they’re done as a substitute for beastiality.

Thank God that’s not the case with Moonbane.

Instead of lovelorn and horny werewolves, Sarrantonio gives us angry, bloodthirsty rampaging beasts and actually manages to explain why. It’s a bit out there (blending a lot of sci-fi elements into this one) but it works. In essence, he flips the entire werewolf genre on its head and makes a damn good story out of it.

My only complaint? At 196 pages, Moonbane is literally only a few pages longer than a novella. I wanted more.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do werewolves howl at the moon, because that's where they're originally from, or so says Al Sarantonio. MOONBANE is a great, fast paced thriller. I picked it up and before I knew it I was halfway through, and what a super twist at the end. Jason and his son Richie are out stargazing when they see a strange meteorite shower. One of the meteorites land in a field near their farmhouse and Richie goes to investigate...

[Felipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up based off the ridiculous cover and got exactly what I expected and wanted. It's been compared to a B-movie horror film and I'd say that's a perfect description. Pseudo-science, action, and an over the top ending. A quick, fun read.

I'm glad second hand bookstores still exist.

[Signor Mambrino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good. A quick, enjoyable read.

[Bradly Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great werewolf tale with and ending you won't see coming! The writing is terrific.

[Serenity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read!!

[Matthew Smonskey · Rating 2 out of 5]

The extra star is for the fantastically stupid ending. I was lol'ing.

[Michael Alonso · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the idea of "space werewolves" would be more entertaining.

It's one thing to make a few things convenient for the story's sake, but this is just ridiculous, he happens to live next to a base that just happens to have the solution to everything and the hero just happens to stumble upon the exact person he needs to meet... It's just too much.

The fact that the author "studied up" on The Moon makes the hard to swallow story even more hard to swallow.

Sure, The Moon actually can actually have eruptions and quakes, but the idea that one could be so violent that it could send it into space, would only be acceptable in some comedy or child's show.
The worst part? In the book the most of the surface of the moon IS MADE OF WEREWOLVES! And somehow the eruption not only covers the Earth with enough werewolves to "end the world", even the side facing AWAY from the moon.

I know this isn't "hard Sci-fi" story, but like I said, the fact the author read up only makes this worse.

But the worst of the worst is the ending:
Somehow this base, has the means to launch a rocket to The Moon and enough nukes to destroy it, sure, they claim that nuking a very specific point will destroy The Moon, like Armageddon, only less scientifically accurate.
The "best" part is that the hero becomes a werewolf and turns the whole crew into werewolves and somehow they blow up The Moon in a way that sends all the werewolves to Earth and a core to power them...

I really don't know what the author was thinking, did he expect I'd be aghast at the lost of all hope at the last minute? He killed all of Earth at the beginning of the book, except for a handful of Americans, there was no hope to begin with.

In a way, the book would be better if it was "worse", like a campy goofy B-movie, it would have gone better with the theme and the poor pseudo science.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of the 2008 Cemetery Dance book club(October selection?). I've just received it in June of 2009. It is a pretty cool story because of the telling of it.

Premise: Werewolves howl at the moon because that’s where they come from.

You’d think a story with that to work with would be—oh, I don’t know—juvenile at best. Add into that a volcanic eruption on the moon which releases werewolf spores into Earth’s atmosphere during the Geminid meteor shower. Soon, it’s raining werewolves and all hell breaks loose. Sounds like total corn.

But it works.

Sarrantonio took that corn and made popcorn. This story really just fires on all cylinders. It’s written in first person from the point of view of Jason Blake.

Jason loses family to the onslaught of lunar spores and receives hope on the FM band. On his way to finding the origination of that broadcast message, he runs into humans and werewolves and sometimes a blurring of the two.

Jason has to deal with love and loss, fight or flight, hope and the ultimate goal of survival. As unlikely as some of the plot points might be, suspend disbelief and read along because it just keeps piling on till the end. And oh, what an end.

[BJ Haun · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ended up kind disappointed in this one. The concept was fun (werewolves from space? How can you go wrong with that), but outside of that a few things just didn't work for me. Considering I was fine with the space werewolves, I had a surprisingly hard time suspending my disbelief over there being a secret space shuttle and enough nuclear weapons to blow up the moon stored at an Air Force Base in the desert just because. The ending also fell pretty flat for me, as somehow the guys who turn into werewolves on the Lexington manage not only to remain sane, but sane enough to recalculate missile trajectories (literal rocket science) in such a way to doom the Earth (dun dun duuuuuun), whereas everyone else who has turned has become a literal blood-thirsty beserker).

All told, and sad to say, I can't recommend this one.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al is a great author who could have a used a better agent or editor. Space werewolves are just the silliest thing; however, his characters are sympathetic and his writing is eminently readable. I love his short stories but have yet to consider his novels of a superior nature. If you know what to expect you won't be disappointed.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a lot of drivel - this is one of those. So, I like books about monsters. Post read comment: This was a nice diversion - dumb ending, but hey, it wasn't Dickens.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, gripping little werewolf novel. We lose.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting new take on werewolves. The twist near the end was unexpected. Great read!

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a little simplistic but it kept me entertained, specially the second half. Plus I really liked the ending which won it an extra star on my rating.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Original and perfectly written werewolf novel.

[Marko]

I have the german edition: Mondbestien