Mutineer's Moon By David Weber Book Review

Mutineer's Moon is an older novel, but still very good.  It is the first book in a trilogy that includes Mutineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, and Heirs of Empire, and all three were later republished as Empire From the Ashes.  It touches any number of interesting science fiction concepts in an interesting way that explores their human impact as well as the technology itself.  This epic story will catch your interest, and keep you engaged with its fast paced action.

The first time I read this book I had a hard time putting it down.  There are not really a lot of good stopping points because you just want to see what happens next.  In fact that is one of the things I both loved and hated about this entire series.  Once you start reading it you don't want to stop even when you run out of books.

The plot of this book is that the moon is really a giant starship, and a mutiny 50,000 years ago stranded it in orbit.  The modern population of earth is made up of the survivors of the loyalists.  You would think that after 50,000 years the mutiny would be resolved, but fast forward to now and the mutiny is still going on between bouts of cold sleep.  The mutineers, who maintained a tech base, act as puppet masters playing the descendants of the fallen loyalists off of each other.   When NASA Astronaut Colin Macintyre is tasked with surveying the moon with an advanced new sensor Dahak's (the starship) AI, who has become self aware after 50,000 years of autonomous operation, is forced to act or be revealed.  He snatches Colin ship and all, and fakes a crash.  After determining that Colin is the descendant of loyalist's Dahak is provided a way to finally deal with the mutiny.  Which is good because the reason that he was built in the first place is on the way, and his empire is terrifyingly silent.  Colin Gets shanghaied into becoming Dahak's Captain, and now all he has to do is put down a mutiny that's been going on for 50,000 years.  That task is easier said than done, but Colin is possibly the only man for the job, and when the mutineer's make things personal for him they don't stand a chance.

This book will appeal to anyone who loves a good action science fiction novel complete with clandestine battles between advanced combatants.  It is a fun read and the start of one of my favorite science fiction series.

This book can be purchased in print or as an e-book at www.amazon.com.