Overwhelming. Disappointing. Incoherent. And not especially well edited - especially in the first third of the book - there were missed words, misspellings and even the wrong name. I think the book just got away from the author. There's a lot here. And the world and the characters are interesting and fascinating. But also ugly. And violent in a quite uncomfortable way. I was hoping for a different book. I think this series is still worth reading, including this book. But not I was hoping for.

3.5 starsI maybe should have read this soon after book 2 as I had a lot of remembering to do, and not always successful. :I

I read the novel courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.It's rare that cover copy is as accurate as in the case of McDonald's Luna trilogy; I was promised A Game of Thrones on the moon, and I got pretty much that, except with an ending. Moon Rising brings a few excellent plot developments and character beats and a good conclusion to the story, but there was something about the style - the narrative choices of what was and wasn't shown, the omissions and descriptions - that kept

Ian McDonald is one hell of a writer. I've been following his career rather closely and I've loved the kinds of intricate people-centric webs he weaves. They always appear rather rambling and exploratory but more than that, they're deeply about the characters.Fascinating doesn't begin to describe them. And these three popular Luna novels give us the full run of the five families on the Moon and the gory feud that culminated in mass death in the first book and ending with a fully brilliant realiz...

I can't believe that I have to wait until March 2019 for this book!

Four stars for the novelFour and half stars for the trilogy Really, this is a very good trilogy, brilliant in some aspects, as usual in Ian McDonald's novels. I enjoyed it a lot. However, I have read (or reread) the three novels in a row and for now -and for some time I think- I have enough of Cortas and McKenzies.For me, highly recommended.

I missed something here. Did Marina make it back to the moon or what?This series is a wild ride especially with the whole Game of Thrones thing.

I did not enjoy this book as much as the other two in the series, but Ian McDonald's writing is as gorgeous as ever, and his Byzantine Game of Thrones meets the 80's primetime soap Dynasty view of the Moon is as outrageous as ever. The story continues, and I will chomp at the bit for the next installment.

This trilogy got weaker with each book. The final novel was just boring and repetitive. Many of the characters really had no point in the story at all - Robson, Wagner, Lucasinho, Luna - they're all in the story, they all had large parts of the book dedicated to them, but what was the point? It was tedious and dull. I'm really tired of reading about Wagner's dual light/dark sides, of Robson climbing all over the city, of Ariel's endless internal dialogs about fashion, of the extraneous descripti...

I loved the first two books of this series very much but found the third rather impenetrable, possibly because there are a great many characters and, despite the useful brief synopsis at the beginning, I found it difficult to remember all that has happened to them. I would definitely recommend reading this hot on the heels of book 2. Now the focus is on the future of the moon as the remaining dragons (chiefs of the key familes) scramble for influence, and control of the dominant Corta family. 3....

While the first two books were gripping and enjoyable, the third fell apart under the weight of its lore, It is an unenjoyable slog through lengthy and often unbelievable prose about characters who've ceased being people and become magnified caricatures. The first two books created a fascinating future with dynasties battling for control of the moon, and the third throws all of that away for a constant barrage of mystical, pointless proceedings that bloom into existence and die immediately afte...

These books are epic on the scale of Game of Thrones, gory on the scale of Stephen King, clever on the scale of Kaz Brekker, and diverse to boot.  I recommend this series every chance I get.But that isn't to say the books aren't without their flaws.  There are definitely some things I would have liked tightened up.  The primary one being the amount of reading between the lines that's needed to fully grasp these books.  I happened to read this with buddies, who were wonderfully patient with me, a...

Phenomenal. The third act is absolute bonkers. Never before has the "Game of Thrones in space" comparison hit the mark as much as this one did. Moon Rising was one of my most anticipated novels of 2019, and when my publisher offered me the chance to read a pre-proof copy of the third and final installment of Ian McDonald's trilogy, I dived right in. Knowing it would be a dense and fantastic read, but afraid my expectations wouldn't be met. They were. They were met in spades. The prose is gorgeou...

Ahoy me mateys!  Grab yer grog!  Here be book 3 of the seventh installment of the 3 Bells trilogy showcase.  While I try to post no spoilers, ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . .luna: moon rising (Ian McDonald)Whew!  It was certainly a rush down to the wire to finish this trilogy and write me review in time.  This review is going to be super short because of a) the time crunch and b) I can't explain much without massive spoilers.  I did think this book was much stronger th...

Satisfying ending of the trilogy. 4.5 stars. Probably not perfect but I’m a sucker for happy endings!

A great book that finishes a great trilogy. Really, I have no doubts now that a tv-series, if it ever reaches that far, would be a great and popular show, enjoyed by many diverse and different people. The annotations of these books often screams "Game of Thrones" meets "The Expanse" or something similar. While I can find vague similarities with both of these shows, the treachery, politics, absolute ruthlessness and even a few villains brings me up a whole different sci-fi mammooth - the legendar...

Oh man! The Mackenzies may " pay back three times", but damn, don't get ever on the Corta's bad side!This hasn't been the easiest series to get into, and I remember struggling mightily in book one to keep track of everyone and the different motives, and once the violent overthrow of the Cortas began, the deaths were numerous and often horrible, which continued into book two. This book has its share of sudden, violent death, but the Cortas are in a different place at the story's open, with Lucasi...

What an ending! This is one of my most awaited books for 2019, as I absolutely adore New Moon and Wolf Moon. I already sang praises on the characters and the writing in my previous reviews, in this final review I will focus on the worldbuilding aspect.I have to admit I was a bit surprised that the author actually expanded the world by adding new settings, new characters, and even new subplots. As with the previous books, the pacing is fast, details might be missed, yet everything came up nicely

A telenovela themed Dune-esque trilogy set on a colonized Moon comes to an end.Full disclosure, I'm a fanboi for this author. I also have a recent fetish for all science fiction set on the Moon. This book was the conclusion of the series. It was well written and richly detailed. The near-future world building was exceptionally good. Of the three (3) books in the series it was the most Dune-like , whereas the middle book in the trilogy (my review) had more of an old fashioned cyberpunk feel...

Well if you made it here to the end, then you know what to expect, and that's exactly what Moon Rising delivers: complicated, political, violent, and full of the expected unexpected.One thing of exceptional note is the writing. In this final book in particular McDonald shows his mastery of language and structure. Many passages are poems in the guise of narrative, adding an extra experiential layer to the story.She is never comfortable now. She has no comfort on this world. This chuckle of water,...