Moonstorm is the first in a new Young Adult Science Fiction (Mecha) trilogy written by author Yoon Ha Lee. I believe this is Lee's first work in the YA space - Lee has previously written adult novels (Machineries of Empire, Phoenix Extravagant) and middle grade novels (the Dragon Pearl trilogy), but never YA. As someone who has greatly enjoyed Lee's work, which often deals with fascinating themes of Empire and of colonization and competing powers and cultures, I was eager to see him ply his trade in YA (which I also read a lot of).
But any review of Moonstorm is going to struggle for this reviewer because the book's setup feels almost like a more junior version of the Machineries of Empire trilogy - for example, here the Empire fights a battle over its own definition of gravity which is strengthened by the beliefs of its own people. The book has a very solid YA Protagonist in Hwa Young, a girl taken from her destroyed homeworld and adopted into the Empire, where she becomes pressed into service against her former people as one of the Empire's lancer (mecha) pilots. But a large portion of the plot feels very paint by numbers in classic YA fashion despite the typical themes and concepts Lee throws in. A new YA reader who hasn't read any of Lee before might really find this fascinating and like it, but even they might find themselves calling what will happen way too early. More specifics after the jump.
Plot Summary:
Six years ago, Hwa Young was a 10 year old girl living as part of a beloved clanner family on the clanner moon of Carnelian. Carnelian wasn't anything special, but it was part of the Moonstorm, a series of moons and moonlets that had erratic orbits and a unique gravity....in contrast to the worlds held by the Empire of New Joseon, which all held to the same gravity through the rituals exercised by the Empire. But when the Empire attacks Carnelian, the moon is destroyed and Hwa Young is torn apart from her family and rescued only by one of the Empire's own lancer (giant mecha pilots).
Now after six years in foster care as a ward of the state, Hwa Young has grown up to be a 16 year old with one desperate dream in life: to become a lancer pilot herself for the Empire and its Empress. She knows that dream is a longshot, as a person with no prestigious family, and is readily put down by some of her more well-blooded classmates. But she is desperate to be the best in classes so that they will be forced to take her into the Lancers.
But when a clanner force attacks her new Imperial home, Hwa Young finds herself taking charge of her class and leading them to safety. Her reward is to be given the very thing she always wanted: entry into the ranks of Lancer pilots, with Hwa Young tied to perhaps the deadliest lancer of all. But now that she is a lancer pilot, what will Hwa Young do when faced with the clanners she grew up with, no longer her family but now her foes? And what does it mean for her and the Empire that they are her enemy?
Moonstorm starts with a setting that feels very similar to Lee's prior Machineries of Empire universe: where the physics of the world, in this case specifically the gravity, are affected by rituals performed by different cultures, and one Empire seeks to impose their culture upon everyone else. There's also a distinct similarity to some of the Battletech setting as well. It's a lot less complex than Lee's other work, as you might expect from a YA work, and otherwise we wind up here with a setting and plot setup that is very similar to many YA mecha works: Hwa Young winds up raised in the Empire who killed her home, desperate to become a Lancer (the giant mecha) pilot, and finds herself chosen by the most special and dangerous Lancer for her to pilot. Oh and she winds up in a ragtag crew of fellow mecha pilots, which include two older members and two other teens, including one teen in Bae who seems to be her rich spoiled rival.
Thankfully, a large part of this works because Hwa Young is a really strong protagonist, even as she does a bunch of stupid things like a lot of other teen YA protags. She's deeply conflicted about the conflict between her birth people and the Empire but at the same time is so obsessed with becoming a Lancer pilot...as she felt in great awe at seeing them come after her destroyed home and rescue her. She pushes herself as hard as she can to prove herself in tests to show her worthiness, and is extremely defensive about her hidden heritage when it comes to teasing from girls from more noble family backgrounds, such as her top academic rival Bae (who is also the mean cool girl). And she struggles also with more typical teen things too - like trying to say the right thing and to maintain her only clear friendship with Geum, the lazy hacking classmate whom Hwa Young occasionally manages to ostracize. Hwa Young feels like what would happen if a teen is put into this situation and is also just really easy to empathize with, even if older readers will often be screaming at her for being so incredibly stupid (again a typical thing with YA teen protagonists).
The book's plot deals decently with themes of Empire and Colonialism, as the Empire seeks to impose its own culture on the clanner worlds so as to literally impose its own gravity on their worlds. This may seem heavy handed when written out, but Lee manages to make it work out seemingly naturally, such that it becomes a key plot point when this cultural battle results in a major weapon for one side to use. At the same time, the book feels incredibly predictable for large stretches, with certain things really really easy to see coming. Predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing in books - it means usually that plot events flow naturally and are setup well - but here it feels just almost too tropey - of course Hwa Young will come in contact with a survivor of her family, of course they'll wind up finding that the Empire is using a horrifying new superweapon that will forcer her to make an impossible choice, of course rival Bae's character will be more sympathetic than you'd expect...etc (we don't get a full on eventual romance between Bae and Hwa Young, but I would not be shocked if we get there in book 2). At a certain point in this novel I felt like we were just checking off boxes in how the typical YA story should go, which was kind of distracting even though it was written well.
Overall though Moonstorm is solid SciFi/Mecha YA and if you're looking for decent works in the genre which are LGBTQ friendly (like all of Lee's work), it'll do for you. But the more you've read of the YA genre, the more I think you'll be a little frustrated that this one doesn't quite stand out as much as you'd hope.
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