he Moon's Shadow is the latest novel in Catherine Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire, an epic series of books that includes her 2001 Nebula Award-winning novel The Quantum Rose. In The Moon's Shadow, she presents a complex plot filled with intrigue and dramatic confrontations as she continues the story of the conflict between the Skolians and their enemies, the interstellar empire of Eube, ruled by Aristos, a human offshoot whose economy and culture is rooted in the trading of slaves.
Jai Rockworth, the 17-year-old son of the Eubian emperor Jaibriol the Second and the Skolian Imperator Soz Lahaylia, has left Earth to take his rightful place as the new ruler of the powerful interstellar empire of Eube. Years ago, his own father had fled the cruelty of the Eubian culture, and Jai must now rule Aristos who don't particularly welcome him as their emperor while he tries to make peace between Eube and the Skolians. Complicating his task, along with his inexperience, is that he is a telepath, a fact he must struggle to hide from all those around him. To an Aristo, any telepath is a "provider" whose pain provides the Aristos with the almost addictive pleasure they call "transcendence," and all providers are considered slaves. If Jai ever reveals his telepathic abilities, he will not only lose his throne but also face the hell of enslavement.
Jai is guided through the early days of his reign by his cousin, Corbal Xir, whom Jai desperately needs as an advisor but isn't sure he can trust. Other powerful Aristos and potentially deadly enemies are the military leader Admiral Xirad Kaliga, the treacherous Lord Raziquon and the beautiful and subtle Finance Minister Tarquine Iquar, who has acquired Jai's uncle Kelric as her slave. Kelric's escape from Eube restores him to his people as the Imperator of Skolia, but also provokes a potentially divisive dispute that only Jai can resolve. Kelric may want peace, but his Skolians, increasingly angered by the Eubian raids that have kidnapped and enslaved so many of their people, are nearly as avid for war as the Aristos—and those wanting war seem to have the advantage.
A tapestry of intrigue, romance and hard SF
Asaro's skill at characterization and her ability to weave a complex and suspenseful plot are both on display in The Moon's Shadow. Jai, with his combination of naiveté, intelligence and desire to act morally even while demonstrating his own weaknesses, is a very appealing protagonist. The other characters in the novel—Corbal, who prefers to rule from behind the throne, the avaricious but compassionate Tarquine, the slave Sunrise and Jai's loyal aide Robert, to name only a few in Asaro's large cast—are memorable and well depicted; they are people who conspire and struggle against powerful forces, and sometimes their own worse natures, as Jai learns how to be their ruler, makes decisions guaranteed to gain him enemies and faces assassination attempts while surrounded by people whom he fears are working against him.
Along with the hard metallic surfaces of a tale that is reminiscent of early A.E. van Vogt, Asaro, a physicist, provides some inventive hard science-fictional details. Among them are Evolving Intelligences, artificial intelligences that can provide needed information and advice, advanced genetic engineering that has allowed the Aristos, who value their bloodlines, to rid themselves of recessive genes in order to interbreed, and the meticulously worked-out planetary system of Glory. (The author provides an author's note about the moons of this planet, which function as part of the setting and as literary symbols; each moon is named after a Eubian empress.) Perhaps the author's most intriguing invention is the psiberweb, or Kyle web, a computer technology that exists outside normal spacetime and allows instantaneous communication over interstellar distances. It is this psiberweb that gives the Skolians, who have the telepathic abilities to build it, an advantage over the Eubians, who must endure long delays in their own communications while managing their empire.
The Moon's Shadow is superior space opera, with a level of realism and psychological depth that makes it much more than the sort of space opera that's often closer to fantasy than to SF. In that, and in its drama and conflicts, it resembles such fine past novels as Cecelia Holland's Floating Worlds (1976), the only SF novel by this acclaimed historical novelist, and Elizabeth A. Lynn's The Sardonyx Net (1981), and amply rewards readers who prefer their entertainment well seasoned with sharp intelligence. Asaro succeeds in giving readers a rewarding look into her elaborate and colorful fictional universe, and in leaving them with the desire to soon visit it again.
