Charlotte Kersten

Year published: 2011

Category: Fantasy

Representation: Bisexual society

Summary: Moon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself… someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn’t tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power… that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony’s survival… and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save himself… and his newfound kin.

My thoughts: I took some time to fully acclimate to this book. In the beginning, it took me some time to adjust to the characters’ many animalistic qualities and I disliked having such a decidedly non-human protagonist. The beginning was also very heavy on description, and I struggled to differentiate the many Raksura characters who we were introduced one after the other because of how similar their names were.

As I gradually adjusted, though, I came to appreciate just how inventive the world-building was and how thoroughly Wells put me in the head of a character who is something other than just a regular “groundling.” The world-building is truly unique and fascinating with its inclusion of so many unique societes, cultures and species (for lack of a better word), and I’m ultimately so impressed with Wells’ ability to write the Raksuras’ abilities and instincts in a way that makes them clearly relatable and non-human at the same time. If the popularity of Murderbot speaks to anything, it might be to the fact that this author is as successful at achieving this with sci-fi as she is with fantasy – I can’t say for sure yet, but I’ll report back!

Moon’s struggle to trust people while wanting to belong and thinking he won’t is well-done, and I loved seeing him start to realize that he could make a place for himself with Indigo Cloud and decide to fight for them after a lifetime of being an outsider, having to hide who he is and flee from communities over and over again. I can’t wait to see the found family dynamics blossom as the story continues.

Other than the struggles I had in the beginning, the only other thing I didn’t fully enjoy was the fact that Moon revealed at the very end of the book that he had been raped by the Fell before- it felt like we barely had any time to process this because so much was happening at that point, and I wish that there had been more exploration of this experience over the course of the book because it sort of felt like it came out of nowhere to me. Overall, though, I’ve never read anything quite like this and I’m glad there are so many other books in the series. The only question is whether I’ll keep going with Moon or meet Murderbot first.