Moonscape: A First Contact Science Fiction Odyssey

by Ken Barrett

An uninformed choice…Eli Thompson lived an idyllic life as a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park until an innocent fling with a divorced woman delivered a vengeful husband to his door.

Can change…Convicted of manslaughter, Eli is sentenced to a life of hard labor on the Moon. In time, he settles in and meets Anna, and a budding romance begins.

Everything…When alien creatures rise from beneath the lunar surface to annihilate a remote mining expedition, an exploratory mission is mounted to investigate. With nothing to lose, Eli and Anna volunteer.

What they find is beyond anything they could imagine.An ancient mystery waits in a remote lunar crater. It’s a discovery that may herald a utopia or drive humanity to extinction.

Moonscape is a mind-bending first-contact hard science fiction leap that will keep the reader turning pages. Those that were enthralled with Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End or Carl Sagan’s Contact will love this story.

Genres: Science Fiction

335 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2022

Reviews

[Scott S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I could finish, but I can't. All the dialog/banter felt weird and out of place.

The narration was done by AI and it's odd how I could simultaneously be surprised at how good it was and also how bad it was. Vocal uncanny valley I suppose? Sometimes it would nail a complex inflection and then turn around and fumble a simple exchange. Pauses also needed some work. I would definitely avoid this narration and will personally avoid any AI narrations for the next few years at least.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'd be surprised if AI didn't write the entire book. All the dialogue is so stilted and weird. Perhaps Mr. Barrett outsourced this one to ChatGPT. Or has never spent time with other humans?

Update: I tried to listen to a little bit more this weekend and found myself bumping the rating from two stars to one. After every single line of dialogue, I found myself saying "humans don't speak like this" or "no one has conversations like this".

[Jon Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to add my personal viewpoint on this book as all the other 2 star reviews have said nothing to support their low scores.
In my opinion, there is a fine line between deploying exposition or dialogue to progress a story. This book jumps into the dialogue camp with both feet. The characters talk and talk and talk and….
If I learnt a great insight into them then I’d be ok with that. However, what comes from their lips is often very cliched. I didn’t develop a deeper understanding of who they are (preventing me from caring about them), how their core feels about the ‘adventure’ they are on or anything really ‘human’ about them. It all seems to revolve around relationships, personal histories (repeated far too often) and levity during a situation of great threat.
And when that threat appears in jeans and sneakers? Well….
Of course, every reader looks for a different experience, but my preference is for something with a bit more meat to it. This was a very hard book to finish. I skip read most of the second half due to its repetitiveness.
This style is not for me, but I’m sure there are plenty who will love it.

[Paul Pope · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yeesh. Knowing this would be a futuristic, apocalyptic time-travelling space epic, I was all jazzed up for excitement and adventure. And while there was plenty of adventure, one had to read through line after line after line of painful dialogue.
Found guilty of manslaughter, the main character is sentenced to labor at a lunar mining prison. This character was portrayed as a quasi-gullible park ranger who ran afoul of a paramours spouse and killed the man while defending himself.
However once he arrives at the prison, he begins spouting poetry and literature, quoting Nietsche and Tennyson, explaining philosophy and mechanical engineering to other prisoners, and later espouses a deep understanding of theology. As a prisoner he becomes the LEADER of a mission, calling upon him to develop military strategies and diplomacy. He earned this position as a boon from the prisons warden, BECAUSE HE KNEW HOW TO CLIMB A ROPE. During the mission, guards and prisoners are best buddies and everyone respects one another and gets along without social barriers.
All are relatively new to each other, but rarely is the conversation genial in nature. The dialogue is heavily philosophical, analytical, and academic. It all feels a bit contrived and phony, and becomes a repetitive bore with each dragging page turn.
Cannot recommend.

[Gerald Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfulluy thrilling and engaging sci fi

A well drawn nivelisatiin if Mankind, of indivudual loss, of challenges, if risk for the sake if the future. Also of love, of challebges, evolutionary jey points and thrilling anticipation of the future. Genuinely rendered human characters, flawed, facing challenges, drawinf upon inner strengths to explore Alien habitat and of human aspiration and attainment. A booj that demnstrates the flaws of Man and Mankind and delivers on the harsh reality of Human Evolution. An easy to read novel, a splendid sci fi romp, winderful human charaxters and bravery unrestrained. More please. Mire. ..?

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setup for Ken Barrett’s story about finding alien life on the Moon is fun. Our hero, nicknamed Cowboy, is a park ranger from Yellowstone who is sentenced to ten years of hard labor on the Moon in a sketchy manslaughter case. Low-gravity adaptation means that it is actually a life sentence. The prisoners form the tight community necessary to survive in the Moon’s unforgiving environment. So far, so good. But then the alien plot starts, and the story settles down to genre standard.
I might read more of Barrett’s work because he can create likable characters.

[Karl V. Winton · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent book

I enjoyed reading this book. The story was well thought out. It moved at a good pace and I loved the plot.

[Brent Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read several of Ken Barrett's novels, including the entire five-novel Extinction series. His vision in dystopian fiction is intriguing and epic. Moonscape is a prequel to the Extinction series, and it's a unique vision of First Contact. In fact, it is a first contact unlike I've read by another author. It's obvious that Barrett did a lot of research into what colonies on the moon would "live like", and in that aspect, he's done a solid job on hard sci-fi. His expansion into a first contact is both frightening and fascinating, and he keeps you on edge throughout this excellent novel. If you're a sci-fi fan, just try it out. I believe you'll find it as much of a page-turner as I did.