Please go to http://www.myshelf.com/scifi_fantasy/09/greymoonoverchina.htm
to read my review. ( )

Shows that leaving for another star system does not bring out the best in us. Especially if the earth is collapsing. ( )

The premise: pulling straight from B&N.com: Army engineer Eduardo Torres is caught up in the world’s raging oil wars when he stumbles onto the plans for a quantum-energy battery. This remarkable device could slow civilization’s inevitable descent into environmental disaster, but Torres has other plans. Forming a private army, he uses the device to revive an abandoned space colonization effort in an ambitious campaign to lead humanity to a new life in a distant solar system.

The massive endeavor faces many challenges before the fleet finally embarks for the Holzstein System many light-years away. But even as the feuding colonists struggle to carve out homes on alien worlds, they discover that they have not left their old conflicts and inner demons behind.

Nor are they alone on this new frontier. Awaiting them are inhuman beings who strike without warning or explanation--and who may spell the end of humanity’s last hope.

My Rating

Buy the Paperback: It's interesting, it really is. It deserves a reader who's going to take his/her time with it. An introspective book with an ugly, ugly look at humanity that nonetheless makes you think. It's fascinating in that way. I would recommend this to the light-SF reader, but I will say the comparisons to BSG, once you start peeling back the layers, are pretty interesting and compelling, and I don't mean that in a "Oh, this book is a rip-off of BSG!" way. It's NOT, not by a long shot. But it's cool to see that darker tone of SF in fiction, and this is definitely dark. However, if I'd waited to get this in paperback, I think I would've been happier, overall, with my purchase.

Review style: This is a difficult book to review, so I'm reverting to my stream-of-conscious babbling and hope something makes sense. This is also a difficult book to discuss without spoiling it, so go ahead and expect spoilers. BUT! Unlike most of my reviews, this is somewhat of a comparison, as I've seen it pop up over and over and feel the need to add my two cents. Plus, it's a way to focus the review, because I'd be lost otherwise. The comparison? A Grey Moon Over China versus Battlestar Galactica (the new series, not the old).

So if you want to read the full review, which does include spoilers, you're welcome to head to my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Thomas A. Day's A GREY MOON OVER CHINA

Happy Reading! ( )