The Moons of Barsk

hardcover, 432 pages

Published Aug. 14, 2018 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-9463-7
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Years after the events of Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard, the lonely young outcast and physically-challenged Fant, Pizlo, is now a teenager. He still hears voices from the planet’s moons, imparting secret knowledge to him alone. And so he embarks on a dangerous voyage to learn the truth behind the messages. His quest will catapult him offworld for second time is his short life, and reveal things the galaxy isn’t yet ready to know.

Elsewhere, Barsk's new Senator Jorl, who can speak with the dead, navigates galactic politics as Barsk's unwelcome representative, and digs even deeper into the past than ever before to discover new truths of his own.

3 editions

Fantastic, inventive, philosophical

The continuation of the tale begun in "Barsk" is less action-packed and more esoteric than its predecessor. Still, very entertaining. I enjoyed learning more about the planet of Barsk and its secrets that were not revealed in the first book. Both Pizlo and Jorl return with character development and new discoveries about the (basically magic) subatomic particles called nefshons, which constitute the physical form memories take. Pizlo learns about meta-narratives and the Hero's Journey. This gets a little tendentious in the middle of the book, but fortunately I enjoy that sort of philosophical rumination, and the action picks up at regular intervals. The ending is even more of a cliffhanger than the ending of the first book, so I'm really very excited for when the third installment comes out.