Moon-Sitting by E M Harding
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this novella in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published – Out Now
Price - £2.50 Kindle eBook £5.50 paperback
The Moon fell into the Ocean and the Waves wept.
Infinity was once home to a thriving civilisation. That is, before the Moon arrived. The enormous spherical structure brought with its death and destruction, wiping out most of the population, with a series of earthquakes and tsunamis.
Since then the Moon has sat silently on the southern edge of Infinity’s mass continent.
Lucky Marsh is one of the three moon-sitters charged with monitoring the Moon, acting as a living alarm system for Infinity’s last city. They must watch, but never touch that’s the golden rule of moon-sitting. However, for the ever-conscious Lucky, that rule has become increasingly difficult to abide.
Her nightmares compel her to do more. Her feet betray her while she sleeps.
We’re starting to see another interesting change in fantasy and science fiction and it’s falling under the description of ‘hopepunk’. A sense of optimism; an attitude of fighting back ideally for others – but still some bite attached – these are writers who know winning is not always easy or likely. Your definition of what is exactly punk about rebellion is always going to be subjective but that can be like arguing what shade of moral ambiguity does something need to be grimdark. It’s not hard to think in the rotten end of this decade to see why people want to think about not giving in and raging against the dying of the light isn’t exactly totally new to literature. But with talented writers like Becky Chambers, Annalee Newitz and Alex Rowland now on the scene we are seeing stories that seem to want to change the world and oppose the old order. In EM Harding’s deliciously surprising novella Moon-Sitting we get a tale about disasters; hard choices working out what is the right thing to do.
We arrive in Infinity over thirty years after a huge disaster. A giant spherical moon sized object crashed into the oceans and created a huge natural disaster that killed billions of the planet’s inhabitants. Weirdly the ‘Moon’ stayed intact and appears to now be floating in the ocean. While Infinity had to deal with the flooding, destruction of cities and huge personal tole for various populations it’s just stayed there and done nothing else. Now that Infinity is starting to recover, they have decided to understandably watch their silent invader - a team of three moon-sitters spend many years just watching…waiting…watching. The second generation of sitters now includes Lucky Marsh she has been fascinated by the moon for years, so this was the job of a lifetime. But she’s about to be there on the front line at the moment Infinity faces an even bigger challenge.
I found this a surprisingly engaging novella. This is achieved by Lucky’s voice as the story is told in first person. They’re fairly young (despite being described as thirty cycles) and this is their first job - just having to spend a decade effectively out in the ocean with just two other sitters. Similar to the concept of lighthouse keepers they all seem to enjoy being away from it all; bonding as friends and each has had to deal with growing up in a world recovering from tragedy (I loved how s we get to know each character we see how this disaster has shaped them through often what is unsaid). Lucky had no family when she was found on the shoreline. Despite this tragedy Lucky is super likeable – a perky sense of humour; still trying to make sense of the changed world and scientifically curious – before the story really revs up, we both understand and like them. Lucky’s worldview and reactions are absolutely key to the story. I also was surprised to see that Infinity is an alien world with people with bone like spurs and greater strength than humans and its refreshing to see people remember you can play with worlds other than human colonists.
The story itself though is what really hooked me. I loved the series of reveals that take place as we discover more about the Moon and why Lucky and her weird mentor Marcus became moon-sitters in the first place. And this was what really grabbed me. Any fan of SF knows a giant mysterious ‘moon-shaped’ object from space means secrets and there are only going to be a few options. What Harding however does cleverly is play with the reader’s expectations, so the story shifts quite a few times and as such our view as to what the right response needs to be often veers quiet sharply as new information comes out. The initial tone of the story feels cheery but when Lucky finds out what is at stake it becomes a moral dilemma and the answers Lucky decides upon both makes sense but perhaps after a period of noble heroes and also amoral protagonists I was completely wrong-footed as to what type of story this was. Obviously, I’m not going to tell you (I’m not THATTT evil). But this becomes a tale of defying the past and also staying true to who you are even if that may not be the safest option.
One of the things I am looking for when reading is that feeling of something I’ve not seen or thought about before. This achieves that by being a very inventive and intriguing tale that by the end asks me what would I have done? In a world where the next generation are going to have to work out some serious solutions to problems we have caused; or just decided to ignore, then their solutions may not be able to be low impact. It’s always difficult to categorise but I think Moon-sitting would definitely be a useful way of looking at how Hopepunk can work and I look forward to seeing what other tales Harding has in the future.
