Hell Moon

by Mary E. Lowd

A search and rescue mission on a deserted moon goes wrong when Janice and her crew mates are attacked in the dark abandoned city beneath the surface. Infected by a strange blue energy, Janice doesn't know how much time they have left, or what will happen when time runs out. The underground ruins crawl with mysterious, scarab-like figures, and even death isn't a certain escape, when the dead rise as ghostly forms. The only logical choice is to flee, but the lizard-like aliens paying for the mission insist on forging on. Their secretive agenda and the sordid history of the sentient spaceship who brought them there divide the crew, when they can't afford to be divided. Trapped on hell moon, Janice must fight to keep as much of her crew alive as possible while wrestling against impossible odds. The only one who has a clue about how all the pieces tie together is a little girl who survived the last hundred years asleep in her cryo-pod. On a world where the dead rise as ghosts and multiple civilizations have already been destroyed, solving the mystery of the scarabs might be the only way to survive and escape... HELL MOON. Don't miss this dark, action-packed adventure through a hostile universe. Perfect for fans of sci-fi thrillers and horror, from Alien to Jurassic Park.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

278 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2023

About the author

Mary E. Lowd is a prolific science-fiction and furry writer in Oregon. She's had more than 180 short stories and a half dozen novels published, always with more on the way. Her work has won numerous awards, and she's been nominated for the Ursa Major Awards more than any other individual. She is also the founder and editor of Zooscape. She lives in a crashed spaceship, disguised as a house and hidden behind a rose garden, with a large collection of animals, both real and imaginary, who collectively serve as her muse.

Reviews

[Sherry Fundin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous cover and a fabulous surprise. Update: When I saw: Perfect for fans of sci-fi thrillers and horror, from Alien to Jurassic Park. I thought, how can I go wrong? I may have started out thinking, yeah, Hell Moon is what I expected and I was lured in by that beautiful cover, but it didn’t take long before I became intrigued.

We start with a distress call. The group find a human woman and 8 or 9 year old child, in a cryochamber. The woman doesn’t make it, but Maya becomes a part of their group and Janice takes on a mother/guardian role.

I started to connect with the characters and wondered…who will survive. After all, this is a horror story and someone has to get knocked off. We do have a couple of humans. I fell in love with Janice, a human, Gaby, an uplifted dog, and Cristobel, an uplifted cat. I’ll leave it to you to read the book and figure that one out. We also have Tyler, a human, and his uplifted dog, Jaimy. We have S’risssa and Ahn’ssi, 6 1/2 foot tall lizards. The are S’rellick aliens. The two aliens have a mission….

The ship is The Kanga, operated by Artificial Intelligence. We are underground, with ghosts and scarabs. One civilization built on top of another.

“You pretend the monsters don’t exist, and then maybe they won’t, right? Isn’t that why you lied?”

“…we lie and say we can make things better. But we don’t know if we can. And sometimes, no matter what we do, it turns out we can’t.”

Hell Moon by Mary E Lowd was a fabulous surprise. I thought, okay, it sounds interesting. It did take me a while to get involved, but after I met the unique and unusual characters I couldn’t stop reading. As the battle between the creatures and the group intensify, lives will be lost. An author that can take out one of my favorite characters could be on MY hit list, but that is not the case. Everything comes together in a way that left me satisfied, yet wanting more. So bring on the The Ancient Egg, Book II.

[BookishDramas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explorations, Search or rescue missions on deserted space outposts has been an oft repeated science fiction topic and has been done to death in books and movies over the last century. Fantastic series like the Alien series are embedded in my memory and this book blurb reminded me of the same.

I waded into the book with this notion in mind and expected Mary a regular sci-fi writer to take things into deeper darker territory.

The story still sprung some surprises and especially the take on the conversion inspired loosely from the Xenomorph has been taken a whole notch higher and made this a difficult to put down thriller. The specie which are exploring the moon here are again different animal species who are anthropomorphic are a revelation.

The book could have been a 5 star story for me but I felt that the anthropomorphism for me needed some background which was missing and expecting the gap to be made up in the sequels. Another thing was the ship which is an advanced AI recognised by law as a sentient being was also something that brought interest in the story. Her also I felt that the interactions with the protagonist needed to have started earlier in the story and it would have helped bring about the finale to a more justifiable conclusion. The story also starts slow and the initial pages needed to set more context so that the reader would be more comfortable with the action as it played out.
For me these points pushed the story to 4.5 stars taking nothing away from the author who has put a mostly impeccable piece of writing.

Focusing on the story the exploration of a mostly unknown barren moon turns deadly when the team starts exploring and find some stragglers in cryochambers who need to be rescued. The way one of the people dies when the chamber is breached brings chills but what happens next stuns and takes the story beyond sci-fi territory to ghoulish horror. There is an angry ghost everyone can see gesticulating and cursing. Some of the exploring colleagues start showing signs of being infected and the subsequent results are horrendous.

The story starts entertaining more when a part of the team starts exploring the catacombs of a destroyed city and encounter more ghosts and even more ghoulish alien organisms that although not indestructible like the xenomorphs are extremely mind boggling and ones that stay in the mind for a long time.

I felt that the story was well paced and entertains in its entirety. This is a book that can easily be recommended and I would love to read the sequel.

[R.J.K. Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Aliens and SF with diverse species, then this is a must-read. Jumps right in with death and ghosts and an alien planet right from the get-go, and continues with increasing threats and failures that really worked for me. I really dig what the author does with world-building and am looking forward to exploring that more in her other work. Some of my favorites include the treatment of animal species, humanoid dogs and cats and lizards, plus the AI with a dark past. Plenty of reveals to look forward if you dive into this book. Recommended.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to Book Sirens and the author for the opportunity.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of the story I wasn't really too sure where I landed. Felt like a mix between Land of the Lost and Buck Rogers but that changes. There is enough strangeness that I was a bit off balance and was stretching my "liking" meter. Well, then it picks up. It picks up quickly and without mercy. What a ride. Creepy on so many levels (iykyk) and so unique. Really ended up liking this completely!


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the premise of the book, with the ghostly forms and a mystery to solve. Janice and her team are fascinating and very strong. Love the surprise, which caught me by surprise.
I am looking forward to the second installment.

[E.G. Manetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read e-book edition -- not list on GR).