The Shepherd Moon

by Helen Mary Hoover

s/t: A Novel of the Future
When a colonist from a forgotten artificial moon returns to earth, thirteen-year-old Merry and her grandfather must battle to save their culture from the visitor's strange powers.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens

149 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 1984

About the author

http://www.orrt.org/hoover/

Over the course of her twenty-three-year career as a writer, H.M. Hoover won eight awards for her writing, including three Best Book for Young Adult designations from the American Library Association and two Parent's Choice Honor Awards. Another Heaven, Another Earth received the Ohioana Award in 1982.

H.M. Hoover lived in Burke, Virginia. Her last published work was The Whole Truth - And Other Myths: Retelling Ancient Tales, in 1996.

Hoover changed her pen name to H.M. Hoover before Children came out because there was already a children's author named Helen Hoover.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoover doesn't talk down to her young readers, but at the same time makes this accessible to them and just a bit too simple for adults. This one has one of her common themes, a privileged young girl finds out that the saving of her world depends on her. But it's set in the far future (and unlike some BS like Asimov's Foundation) most of the timeline events make sense.

I particularly like little details, like how the bodyguard just happens to be a woman, and the exhausted conscience of the grandfather, and how much less imposing the grandfather looks out of uniform, and the dogs' behaviors and names. And the quote by Leonardo da Vinci: "As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself."

*Iff* you're into older juvenile SF, I recommend that you read at least one book by Hoover, whichever one you find or are drawn to. I don't think I'll go to a lot of trouble to seek out the rest of her output, but I will certainly read them as they come to hand.

[Tiuri · Rating 4 out of 5]

H. M. Hoover has a way of plopping you down into a setting far in the future, telling you almost nothing—letting you discover it for yourself. You are always with a highly intelligent, emotionally mature teen girl, with usually fairly remote—worldly wise or workaholic—worthless parents. And then of course, there’s always a problem.
In this case, it’s Mikel Goodman.
I read this novel out loud to my family six years ago, and have vivid memories of re-experiencing it with them. Especially the ‘canned goods, isn’t that nice?’ scene. That line has proven quite quotable to the initiated few.
There’s something so…creepy about Mikel, because he’s so mentally ill. It makes one uneasy reading it. I missed having some mysterious alien antagonist like in some other Hoover books (such as the Bell Tree). Reading this I’ve decided that creepy people are creepier than creepy aliens. I’m sure this discovery will be of great use in my daily life, ha ha.
This isn’t one of my favorite H. M. Hoover books, (more a 3.5 than a 4 star) but it’s still very immersive, worthwhile sci-fi. The second half felt a bit rushed, with a lot of elements she introduced and tried to tie together—I think it could have benefited from being a tad fleshed out.
Per usual, here’s the selections that stood out to me this re-read:

Merry got up and walked down the cowpath along the cliff.
Sometimes a person was less lonely alone than with someone like Worth. She didn't understand Worth and didn't want to.

&

He was never touched as a baby, not by humans. Only by the mamatrons. But he was talked to, constantly fed information in one form or another. He was exercised and nourished but never touched. None of his group was. They were too special. "Touch alters comprehension," the Master said.
"Touch confuses. With touch the mind seeks meaning where there is none."

&

She didn't know what to do with herself. Not just now, in this waiting period, but always, for that was how she defined her future. She didn't want to be like her parents-although they were no different from the parents of her friends. They all said, "I'm so busy!" And they were—or at least their time was taken up. But what they did most of, she realized as she watched the rain, was what she had done all summer-nothing. And she knew she couldn't stand a lifetime of that.

&

"I don't know your mother," August Ambrose began as the door closed behind Williams. "We've been acquainted only fifteen years. We've never had occasion to get beyond small talk. I do know your father. There's less to him than meets the eye."
"Do you think you should say things like that to me about them?" she asked, loyal in spite of her current feelings.
"Perhaps not, but you're at that age when one can be devoured by self-doubt. When what one feels or wants—or wants to be-can be so easily ridiculed by others. And one's life is altered permanently, usually not for the better. Some feelings of inferiority at thirteen are justified, of course, but not yours. Not where that pair's concerned."

&

These people liked to talk about themselves, to star in their own lives. The more they told him, the better they liked and trusted him, and they never knew what they truly liked was their reflection mirrored in his eyes. They never seemed to realize that they didn't know him at all. So long as he was beautiful and listened and did not threaten their fantasy.

&

After midnight three slivers of moons rose, small gray-blue Cheshire cat's smiles that might pass unnoticed unless watched for.

&

"Do you know what you're in?" she asked as his beautiful eyes focused on her face. "You're in a tomb. That's what we do with dead people here—put them in a jar, put on the lid, vacuum-seal it, irradiate the package to kill bacteria, and store it in a special room where people can come and see you for always. That's what we're going to do with you. You'll be preserved forever. Canned goods. Isn't that nice?"

&

In a way the world he talked about reminded her of that room downstairs, coldly beautiful, full of systems and facades designed to hide lifelessness. Terra II seemed a place where things had been preserved so long they had become unwholesome.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

H.M. Hoover uses rich, slow detailed writing to build a future society with faint whiffs of dystopia. This is a thought provoking, incredibly well written piece of science fiction. Probably not for everyone; it lacks the high impact drama and video game quality of much modern science fiction. But if you like really good writing and a subtle, multi-layered story, you are going to like this one.

March 2022. “Faint whiffs”? This is most definitely a dystopia; Hoover just gradually builds to that. Still a favorite.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently re-reading for a class and loving it. Kinda high literay style for YAers but it was written in 1984 when YA books were either Lurlene McDaniels, Sweet Valley High or written as adult novels just shorter. Still very moving and beautifully written.

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this novel. I agree with one reviewer who thought it was somewhat dystopian, before dystopian novels became so popular. I didn't think that the superhuman Mikel was very well-developed. And the ending did not read like an ending, more like there was another chapter, or an epilog, or something. And although the reader was told what the Shepher Moon was, it didn't really figure all that much in the story, only a couple of mentions. I guess I just wanted some of the characters and so forth to be more fully developed.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rather depressing that a book from the 1980's is still so relevant today. Corporation treating people like objects, severe class divides between the rich and poor with the rich having no idea how poor people are treated, and food insecurity/health issues.

[Partridge Public]

Hoover, H.M.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a rather unmemorable juvenile science fiction novel.