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Rabbit in the Moon
Epic worlds collide in a race against time in this thrilling sci-fi novel from critically acclaimed author Fiona Moore.
Ken Usagi, a daring young journalist from the icy wilderness of Nunavut, is thrust into a perilous journey through the war-ravaged remnants of the former United States. Haunted by a chilling encounter with a mysterious biotechnical machine—a relic from his troubled childhood—he becomes convinced it holds the key to ending the devastating conflict tearing the world apart.
Far to the south, Totchli, a brilliant young biotechnician from a Mesoamerican society pummeled by catastrophic climate change, receives a desperate order. He must venture north to uncover the fate of a critical colonial expedition, a mission that once carried the last hopes of his people’s survival. Communication channels with the expedition have fallen eerily silent.
As Ken and Totchli embark on their separate quests, the very fabric of reality begins to unravel. Their paths converge, leading to a fateful encounter where the boundaries of their worlds blur and shatter.
In a race against time, with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, Ken and Totchli must navigate a web of secrets, dangers, and cosmic forces that threaten to consume everything they hold dear. Can they unite to save their shattered worlds, or will they be forced to watch as everything they know and love is destroyed?
Ken Usagi, a daring young journalist from the icy wilderness of Nunavut, is thrust into a perilous journey through the war-ravaged remnants of the former United States. Haunted by a chilling encounter with a mysterious biotechnical machine—a relic from his troubled childhood—he becomes convinced it holds the key to ending the devastating conflict tearing the world apart.
Far to the south, Totchli, a brilliant young biotechnician from a Mesoamerican society pummeled by catastrophic climate change, receives a desperate order. He must venture north to uncover the fate of a critical colonial expedition, a mission that once carried the last hopes of his people’s survival. Communication channels with the expedition have fallen eerily silent.
As Ken and Totchli embark on their separate quests, the very fabric of reality begins to unravel. Their paths converge, leading to a fateful encounter where the boundaries of their worlds blur and shatter.
In a race against time, with the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, Ken and Totchli must navigate a web of secrets, dangers, and cosmic forces that threaten to consume everything they hold dear. Can they unite to save their shattered worlds, or will they be forced to watch as everything they know and love is destroyed?
- GenresScience Fiction
322 pages, Paperback
First published December 10, 2024
3 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Fiona Moore
64 books23 followersFiona Moore is a writer and academic whose work has appeared in Asimov, Interzone, and Clarkesworld, with reprints in Forever Magazine and two consecutive editions of The Best of British SF; her story “Jolene” was shortlisted for the 2019 BSFA Award for Shorter Fiction, and her first novel Driving Ambition is available from Bundoran Press. She has written and cowritten a number of articles and guidebooks on cult television, including guides to Blake’s Seven, The Prisoner and Battlestar Galactica. She has also written three stage plays and four audio plays, and a blog entitled A Doctor Of Many Things. When not writing, she is a Professor of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway University.. She lives in Southwest London with a tortoiseshell cat who is bent on world domination.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 15, 2025
I loved this book. I was that enthralled in the final act that I decided to skip lunch on my lunch breaks in order to finish it. No regrets!
January 28, 2025
As if David Lynch wrote Heart of Darkness, but set in a climate apocalypse blighted North and Central America with strong Planet of the Apes vibes.
Content warnings: animal cruelty and body horror.
Content warnings: animal cruelty and body horror.
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September 22, 2025Normally, the setting of a story is last on my list of reasons to read a novel. Plot and characters are what attract me. So, I was a little surprised when reading Fiona Moore's Rabbit in the Moon to find myself flipping pages principally to explore more of the world she has created.
Rabbit in the Moon takes place after environmental disasters have rendered most of the earth uninhabitable. In particular, I was hooked by the flashbacks of the character Ken Usagi growing up in Toronto. In this future version of my hometown, Queen St. is now a canal with a public ferry service instead of streetcars.
Beyond Toronto, Rabbit in the Moon spans most of North America, starting in Nunavut and ending in Mexico. There is no communication with the people (if any still exist) of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. What's left of the United States is mainly in a state of civil war, as survivors fight over fertile land and dwindling resources.
The following paragraph is an example of Moore's ability to create a sense of wonder with the dystopian world she depicts:
"By nightfall, it was still with them as they made camp in the shelter of what Ken thought might have been a highway underpass, now almost beautiful with trailing vines, dangling from its edges, making a curtain around the interior, like some kind of magical pavilion."
Later in the story, the characters arrive at The Magical Kingdom — the ruins of Disneyland — which has been taken over by highly evolved mice (turns out Douglas Adams might have been right).
Side Note: That quote, however, also illustrates one of the few things that irked me about Fiona's writing style — many of the sentences stretch longer than a Nunavut winter. They could easily have been split into two, allowing her dystopian tale to flow faster.
In Fiona Moore dystopian future, North America has shrunk due to rising sea levels, leaving a dwindling population fighting over fertile land and dwindling resources. However, people are still driving around in gas-powered vehicles, so I assume they stopped blaming CO2.
Either way, this flooded future world has a new and mysterious problem beyond how to stop the human race from going extinct. Free-range robots and cybernetic wildlife are appearing across the continent, collecting debris, blowing up people and constructing large pyramid schemes.
The story focuses on Ken Usagi, a journalist from Nunavut, who is investigating this phenomenon, and Totchli, a university graduate in Mexico, living even farther in the future, who has been assigned to solve another mystery.
The two characters' stories slowly start to come together, as more is revealed. That said, the final chapter provided an unexpected twist that suddenly tied both plot lines and characters together — revealing an otherwise overlooked depth to the entire story.
For example, one of my complaints about the novel, as I was reading it, was that the characters of Ken and Totchil seemed way far similar in personality. I felt the author had slacked a little in the character development arena. But, upon reaching the final chapter, I understood why this was and can only applaud the author for having pulled off the two characters the way she did.
The final chapter, too, had an unexpected metaphysical twist along with the surprising plot twist. Here's a small example, where Totchli is questioning the afterlife:
He'd never given it much thought. His mother, with the slightly distracted agnosticism of the Ontario Scots, had told him about heaven and hell, but had admitted that, probably, it was just a myth. He'd heard about near-death experiences, a bright light moving towards you, a spirit guide, but dismissed it as superficial foolishness. Learned about traditional Inuit beliefs in school, but the Inuit kids made it plain they didn't welcome converts, especially not swamp-boys. He'd flirted a little with a New Age group in university, but found the idea of reincarnation as difficult to believe as the idea of an afterlife.
The final pages of the book hint at another afterlife scenario, which I'll avoid spoiling,
Rabbit in the Moon takes place after environmental disasters have rendered most of the earth uninhabitable. In particular, I was hooked by the flashbacks of the character Ken Usagi growing up in Toronto. In this future version of my hometown, Queen St. is now a canal with a public ferry service instead of streetcars.
Beyond Toronto, Rabbit in the Moon spans most of North America, starting in Nunavut and ending in Mexico. There is no communication with the people (if any still exist) of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. What's left of the United States is mainly in a state of civil war, as survivors fight over fertile land and dwindling resources.
The following paragraph is an example of Moore's ability to create a sense of wonder with the dystopian world she depicts:
"By nightfall, it was still with them as they made camp in the shelter of what Ken thought might have been a highway underpass, now almost beautiful with trailing vines, dangling from its edges, making a curtain around the interior, like some kind of magical pavilion."
Later in the story, the characters arrive at The Magical Kingdom — the ruins of Disneyland — which has been taken over by highly evolved mice (turns out Douglas Adams might have been right).
Side Note: That quote, however, also illustrates one of the few things that irked me about Fiona's writing style — many of the sentences stretch longer than a Nunavut winter. They could easily have been split into two, allowing her dystopian tale to flow faster.
In Fiona Moore dystopian future, North America has shrunk due to rising sea levels, leaving a dwindling population fighting over fertile land and dwindling resources. However, people are still driving around in gas-powered vehicles, so I assume they stopped blaming CO2.
Either way, this flooded future world has a new and mysterious problem beyond how to stop the human race from going extinct. Free-range robots and cybernetic wildlife are appearing across the continent, collecting debris, blowing up people and constructing large pyramid schemes.
The story focuses on Ken Usagi, a journalist from Nunavut, who is investigating this phenomenon, and Totchli, a university graduate in Mexico, living even farther in the future, who has been assigned to solve another mystery.
The two characters' stories slowly start to come together, as more is revealed. That said, the final chapter provided an unexpected twist that suddenly tied both plot lines and characters together — revealing an otherwise overlooked depth to the entire story.
For example, one of my complaints about the novel, as I was reading it, was that the characters of Ken and Totchil seemed way far similar in personality. I felt the author had slacked a little in the character development arena. But, upon reaching the final chapter, I understood why this was and can only applaud the author for having pulled off the two characters the way she did.
The final chapter, too, had an unexpected metaphysical twist along with the surprising plot twist. Here's a small example, where Totchli is questioning the afterlife:
He'd never given it much thought. His mother, with the slightly distracted agnosticism of the Ontario Scots, had told him about heaven and hell, but had admitted that, probably, it was just a myth. He'd heard about near-death experiences, a bright light moving towards you, a spirit guide, but dismissed it as superficial foolishness. Learned about traditional Inuit beliefs in school, but the Inuit kids made it plain they didn't welcome converts, especially not swamp-boys. He'd flirted a little with a New Age group in university, but found the idea of reincarnation as difficult to believe as the idea of an afterlife.
The final pages of the book hint at another afterlife scenario, which I'll avoid spoiling,
December 17, 2024
A little different from my norm but an interesting story none the less. A scientific fantasy quest and post catastrophe adventure following the journeys of Ken Usagi a young journalist and Totchli a young biotechnician who both embark on separate journeys to uncover the truth.
Ken is on a mission through the desolate land formerly known as the United States looking for the truth behind the biotech cyborgs he encounters throughout his life and what is their purpose. Totchli is on a mission of his own trying to find answers to why the inhabitants of a colony has gone missing.
Each journey brings forth more questions than answers. Dangers hiding in plain sight. Warring factions fighting over unclaimed territory and unrest amongst those who have survived through catastrophic weather and desolation.
This book is a scientific adventure through and through. If you enjoy stories surrounding climate control, biotechnology, cyborgs, sentient bioengineered being operating with a hive mentality and the inability to decipher reality from illusion; this maybe the book for you.
Pros: Very scientific, intriguing and adventurous. Cons: Long chapters and the story sometimes dragged along to the point it was boring in some parts but overall, this was a decent read.
Ken is on a mission through the desolate land formerly known as the United States looking for the truth behind the biotech cyborgs he encounters throughout his life and what is their purpose. Totchli is on a mission of his own trying to find answers to why the inhabitants of a colony has gone missing.
Each journey brings forth more questions than answers. Dangers hiding in plain sight. Warring factions fighting over unclaimed territory and unrest amongst those who have survived through catastrophic weather and desolation.
This book is a scientific adventure through and through. If you enjoy stories surrounding climate control, biotechnology, cyborgs, sentient bioengineered being operating with a hive mentality and the inability to decipher reality from illusion; this maybe the book for you.
Pros: Very scientific, intriguing and adventurous. Cons: Long chapters and the story sometimes dragged along to the point it was boring in some parts but overall, this was a decent read.
June 30, 2025
6/10
Todo lo positivo que la autora había ido construyendo a lo largo del grueso de la novela, con una historia (dos en realidad) futura situada en un mundo arrasado por las catástrofes climáticas y en el que una misteriosa biotecnología amenaza o preludia la adaptación humana al cambiante medio, lo dilapida en un último capítulo, el de explicaciones y desenlace que viene a utilizar el manido recurso (no literalmente, pero casi) de "y entonces se despertó" con resultado decepcionante.
Una lástima, porque, aún a pesar de cierta insistencia en el mensaje (el cambio climático es ya imparable, la humanidad debe evolucionar, adaptarse o desaparecer), la narración del viaje de los protagonistas a través de esa América del Norte desgarrada, empobrecida, con una población menguante desplazada a zonas todavía productivas, dividida, en guerra entre sus "naciones"..., me estaba gustando bastante. Pero ese final entre lo místico-tecnológico, lo onírico y lo metafísico, lo tira (para mí gusto particular, no dudo que pueda convencer a otros lectores) todo por tierra.
Todo lo positivo que la autora había ido construyendo a lo largo del grueso de la novela, con una historia (dos en realidad) futura situada en un mundo arrasado por las catástrofes climáticas y en el que una misteriosa biotecnología amenaza o preludia la adaptación humana al cambiante medio, lo dilapida en un último capítulo, el de explicaciones y desenlace que viene a utilizar el manido recurso (no literalmente, pero casi) de "y entonces se despertó" con resultado decepcionante.
Una lástima, porque, aún a pesar de cierta insistencia en el mensaje (el cambio climático es ya imparable, la humanidad debe evolucionar, adaptarse o desaparecer), la narración del viaje de los protagonistas a través de esa América del Norte desgarrada, empobrecida, con una población menguante desplazada a zonas todavía productivas, dividida, en guerra entre sus "naciones"..., me estaba gustando bastante. Pero ese final entre lo místico-tecnológico, lo onírico y lo metafísico, lo tira (para mí gusto particular, no dudo que pueda convencer a otros lectores) todo por tierra.
April 19, 2025
Interesting quest style story into a future America ravaged by war and climate change. Really interesting world but the lack of pace slowed the tale down
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
September 6, 2025
3.5. I like the worlds in it, and the characters. I found the ending unsatisfying in a novel--it felt more like a short story.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews