Leo Gray and the Lunar Eclipse

This is an imaginative young reader piece of science fiction following a smart boy as he journeys to the moon. Leo lives in a anachronistic world, stuck in the past due to his families livelihood but dreaming of the future. The book follows the events Leo goes through as he attempts to achieve this dream.

The book is fun and has several fun, original ideas. It is an easy read and it is not difficult to get into the story.

It mostly feels like it is world-building and setting up more works in the future. When plot issues come up, they are almost rushed through to this end. The plot has some pretty big inconsistencies and the same could be said for the character development. Several characters undergo noticeable personality shifts before show more being discarded altogether. Other characters are characters of archetypes commonly found in youth literature. This book felt like an attempt to take a well-known wizard series into a futuristic setting.

There is potential but consistency needs to be established, the plot needs to be paced better, and conflict points could use a little more depth. Here's hoping the author has the chance to expand his universe in another volume. show less

This book was neither good, nor terrible. It did a good job of world building. The first half was slow and plodding, and the second half rushed through a lot of action without fully exploring what was going on. There was just enough character development to leave me wishing I knew more about the characters. The ending was very abrupt. This book is definitely aimed at middle school readers. The author has a tendency to use more descriptive words than necessary a lot of the time, as well as rather advanced vocabulary which makes the book difficult for younger readers to follow. Thematically it seems as though 3rd-5th graders should be the intended audience, but I think many would find it too complex even if read aloud by an adult. I wish show more the action had been more evenly paced throughout the book. To be honest, it seemed like much of this book was setting up future books, there were a lot of plot points that were never fully resolved (or even addressed at all beyond their initial mention). The first half felt much more developed than the hurried second half, with subtler resolution of issues. A lot of the solutions to problems seemed a little too convenient, requiring little from our protagonist. This book left me feeling unsatisfied, but curious enough about the world that I would probably read a sequel. It is unusual for me to have such mixed feelings about a book. I can't say I recommend it, but I also can't say you shouldn't read it.... I think I will have to wait for a sequel to see how the story progresses. The illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are charming, a very nice touch. show less

It took me ages to get around to this one. My niece and nephew weren't interested (unusual, they usually read just about anything), so it was up to me this time and I already had a lot of other books going. Anyway, the plot is described by many reviewers and from the ones I read, "trying to be Harry Potter in sci-fi" is the best overall synopsis of the idea. It definitely has a very standardly designed plot flow and you can anticipate the ups and downs like it was a WWE wresting match. That's not to say it is bad, just not very original as far as plot design and character archetypes. It was still a fun little adventure with decent world-building. I would definitely recommend for middle ages getting into sci-fi, especially over some fan show more favorites (like Ender's Game) that have some problematic issues. Very pg fun sci-fi spin on space school. show less

This was a fast fun read! The author's writing style is really different. Instead of greeting us with a typical dystopian setting, we meet the main character in a present day setting within a futuristic setting, ex: Leo's family still watch tv and use a dishwasher even though robots now do everything and tvs no longer exist. This adds to the books humor, but there is also some mystery and conflict here as to why that is, which I suspect the author is holding back from us for a later installment.

There are a number of minor stories in this book as well, ex: trees are disappearing all over town and Leo’s neighbor (who’s the landscaping security guy) claims to have worked for the government and that his wife was abducted by aliens show more called Lunalings. This is another example of where the author leaves us to wonder about what’s really going on, as we only get the answer to where the trees went and why they disappeared. We don’t find out more about the alien abducted wife, which I was really curious about.

The main story takes off when Leo leaves his sheltered home on Earth to attend the moon’s academy after winning a national science competition. At the academy Leo meets other kids who were awarded acceptance for various talents like math, history, theater, and music, though some did gain entrance from their rich parents.

Low and behold, the selection of Earth’s most gifted comes with a Doom’s Day message for Earth: Melkorg invasion! An evil alien race that consumes time and erases life on planets are on track to attack ours. And Leo and his friends are now on a mission to stop them before their portal opens on the night of the lunar eclipse. Only a second internal plan to destroy the moon is soon revealed, and Leo ends up in a hospital bed with no way to better assist when he runs into it.

In the end, we find out that eclipse hasn’t yet happened and that there is something more going on behind the office doors of the lunar president. Leo ultimately leaves the reader with an even bigger question in the end that shouts out: sequel!

I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series will go! show less

Leo Gray dreams of going to the moon, despite his backwards family, who prefers to live in the late 20th century even though it's the modern year 2113. This middle-grade science fiction novel follows Leo to Luna's academy after winning a science competition. There he meets new friends and faces a new threat to humanity.

While the book had some clever ideas of how to show life a hundred years from now, it suffered from perhaps some "first-time writer" challenges. The plot is rather inconsistent, having large holes in places, and several characters act strangely and enter and disappear at odd times. I know a sequel is likely in the works that may resolve some of those issues. Some parts felt really derivative of a well-known wizarding show more school series. The writing style is a bit jarring at first but does get smoother as the novel progresses. We'll see where Leo and his friends go next! show less

This is a fun read for middle grade with a surprise ending. The plot is set hundreds of years in the future, but Leo's parents still acts like it is present day. This causes tensions between parent-child, and Leo gets a punishment of helping a neighbor stop trees from disappearing. But then Leo finds out what the cause of the threat to humanity is! This is recommended for any 4th-5th grader who likes light sci-fi/fantasy (like Percy Jackson) with a little bit of mystery.

While I have some gripes with this book due to its large number plot holes and scientific inconistancies, I did find it an enjoyable as a whole. The plot boils down to a kid winning a ticket to a future moon city where he escapes his wacky family and gets to attend a school that works alongside his interest in science. He and his friends inadvertently discover something sinaster is brewing within the moon's city when they come across an imprisioned baby alien, hidden in a secret tunnel at the lowest level of the moon. Apparently evil time consuming aliens, Melkorks, are the reason planets like Mars have no signs of life...and Earth is next on their list. Low and behold one of these evil doers has infiltrated the city and tries to show more destroy it. Surprise! An eleven-year-old saves the day, but not without ending up in a coma. While the author does hint that something fishy is up when the moon's president bribes him to keep the ordeal hush-hush and later reveals that he was the one with the key that had entrapped the baby alien, we're still left uncertain about what's really going on between the city's officals. The set up was basically a take on Noah's Ark, where the moon is the ark and the foretold alien invasion is the flood. show less