Mutineers' Moon

Weber is a fine storyteller. Mutineers' Moon is good military SF with lots of twists and a really big alien artifact. (Or, is it really alien?)
Still good on a re-read many years later. Solid four stars.

I started reading this during the recent onset of rainy weather here in Virginia, starting with the hurricane last month. There's is something in my brain, a trigger, that associates cool, rainy weather with the trifecta of Saturday evenings, comic books, and pulpy science fiction/fantasy. It doesn't get much pulpier than Weber's Mutineer's Moon, book 1 of the Dahak trilogy. (I'm actually reading the omnibus edition, but thought it would be more fair to list the books individually as I finished them.)

Its a little startling to realize that this book is just shy of twenty years old - the politics and climate of international affairs in the book, while a bit simplistic in some ways, still manage to resonate as being right on cue for modern day to near future Earth. You know, except for the fact that the moon is really a giant, orbiting alien space craft set to look like a moon when the proto-human population on the ship faced a mutiny. Except for that, of course.

I called it pulpy, and I'll stand by that - don't pick this book (or series) up if you are looking for deep discussions on human nature, highly correct science and scientific conjecture, or really deep, introspective science fiction. This is big explosions and quick action scenes that don't necessarily always make sense in retrospect, but that work nicely in the context of the fast paced story that Weber has written.

If you've read the kind of books I review high, especially in the science fiction category, and agree with me, then this is probably a good fit. Its eye candy for the brain, in all the brain rotting sweetness our mother's used to warn us about. And keep an eye on the moon, because there might be something up there keeping an eye on us, too.