Rogue Moon

Rogue Moon has some fairly critical reviews. People complain that it's boring, that it has one-dimensional characters, a weak ending and pointless digressions. They're not entirely wrong.

The characters all have a similar voice - presumably Budrys' voice - and spend most of their time in monologue. They each have a single, powerful motivation. Their interactions are there to allow them to explore these motivations rather than to forward the plot.

It was written in 1960 and the way that shows through is mostly in the characters roles and the author's intruding sexism. You remember the long scene in Day of the Triffids where the protagonist talks about how women have guided human evolution to the point where men do everything for them? That kind of thing. It's very much of its time, and reads a little like an Edmund Cooper novel. I'm positive it was meant to be progressive.

From the cover, you might assume this was all a big space adventure, but that's misleading. It's a story about men being men, and learning the measure of a man, and all that.

The measure of a book is in how it leaves you - do you think about it for days and weeks to come? Do you see its characteristics in other works? Does it have a lasting emotional impact?

Rogue Moon doesn't quite tick any of these boxes, but am I pleased that I read it? Yes, yes I am.

I remembered this being a whole lot better than it was. The premise is SO COOL and there are moments of genuine introspection / exploration of mortality / identity / human nature BUT oh my god 90% of this book is macho dudes having pointlessly overwrought conversations with each other and engaging in pissing contests about who is more of a "real man" and who is going to win the trophy woman. (Also CW for casual domestic violence yeesh.)

The conversations Main Scientist Dude has with his girlfriend are actually super unintentionally hilarious because he just Wall of Texts her all the time (for PAGES) and never lets her say anything and then she's like "I love you". I just chose to read all her replies to him sarcastically, like when he's all telling her about his childhood and then:

'Please go on telling me about yourself,' she said.

NO REALLY THIS IS FASCINATING PLEASE CONTINUE.

Later:

'Do you want to know what it is with you and women?'
Hawks blinked at her. 'Yes. Very much.'
'You treat them like people.'
'I do?' He shook his head again. 'I don't think so.'

She goes on to credit him with doing a ton of things we've never explicitly seen him do, like respecting her boundaries and not being condescending toward her. And then he contradicts her again!

'I take up as much room in the world, the way you see it, as you do. Do you have any idea of how rare a thing that is?'
Hawks was puzzled. 'I'm glad you feel that way,' he said slowly, 'but I don't think that's true.'

Sorry, Elizabeth, I'm with him on this one.

'Cobey'll be very upset,' Hawks was saying, lost in thought. 'He'll have to pay the technicians bonus-time rates.'
'Who's Cobey?'
'A man, Elizabeth. Another man I know.'

YES THIS IS DEFINITELY YOU TREATING HER LIKE A PERSON.

Then there's this gem:

'Women--' he said earnestly, 'women have always fascinated me. [...] there was something about women. I don't mean the physical thing. I mean some special thing about women: some purpose that I couldn't grasp. What bothered me was that here were these other intelligent organisms, in the same world with men, and there had to be a purpose for that intelligence. If all women were for was the continuance of the race, what did they need intelligence for? A simple set of instincts would have done just as well. And as a matter of fact, the instincts are there, so what was the intelligence for? There were plenty of men to take care of making the physical environment comfortable. That wasn't what women were for. At least, it wasn't what they had to have intelligence for ... But I never found out. I've always wondered.'

[Cue another long scene where he tells her his life story and she quietly listens. This story is about how he was dating a woman in college who once said she didn't want to spend the evening listening to him talk and he immediately fell out of love with her and never spoke to her again.]

He opened the car door, half turned to step out, and then stopped. 'You know -- You know,' he began again, 'I do talk a lot, when we're together.' He looked at her apologetically. 'You must get awfully bored with it.'
'I don't mind.'
He shook his head. 'I can't understand you.' He smiled gently.
'Would you like to?'
He blinked. 'Yes. Very much.'

THEN MAYBE TRY SHUTTING UP AND ASKING HER ABOUT HERSELF SOMETIME

'Maybe I feel the same way about you?'
He blinked again. 'Well,' he said. 'Well. I've been sort of assuming that all along, haven't I? I never thought of that. I never did.' He shook his head.

facepalming intensifies

Bonus: I definitely decided from the tenor of their weirdly-emotional conversations that he was in a closet relationship with his second-in-command. There's a bunch of this sort of thing which doesn't seem to make much sense otherwise:

'My God, Ed, what's happened to me? What am I doing to both of us? All I ever wanted to do was help you, and somehow it's come out like this. I never should have come here today, Ed. I shouldn't have done this last thing to you.'

So anyhow someone who is not from the 1950s should write a better version of this book pls.

I read this book back in 2003. By the way, the paperback cover I have is different from the one pictured here in GR, even though it is the same edition from what I gather. Still, a good book. Here is what I wrote back then:

>>The paperback edition is less than 200 pages (184 or so). The story is fairly simple: there is a mysterious artifact on the moon that kills anyone who approaches it. Technology enables on adventurer to go in, get killed, then get revived and go in again, and again, learning a bit more each time. The book is well paced. The hero is very masculine (read here "macho," not too PC for those who fuss over that), but it makes a good read. The ending is both intriguing and packs a good punch when we find out the real price of the transmission technology that enables the exploration. Anyhow who reads science fiction should read this.<<