Moonstroke

“Education is the bane of dictators.” Twelve years after a solar flare destroyed communications with an American base on the dark side of the moon, the children of the platinum miners who were killed have continued their parents’ work. The four surviving adults have raised them to be workers, not thinkers, and have purposefully kept them in a state of ignorance and forced duty. The oldest of these children are beginning to feel the normal pull of adulthood and stirrings of independence even though they remember little if nothing of their past lives on earth.

Blaine C. Readler, engineer and award-winning author, creates an entirely believable reality in his novel Moonstroke. He challenges the reader to make comparisons with the classic Lord of the Flies by William Golding in the way his characters must realign themselves against authority in order to survive, bringing to light issues of power versus social organization. Katlin, the protected daughter of the Chief Technical Officer, or Zeedo, has been educated her entire life, with access to the base library. She has limited contact with the rest of the children on base and begins to question why they have not been taught about anything outside of what is necessary for them to become miners like their parents were before them. Van, one of the nexgen miners, is a natural leader who must join with her to protect the base when faced with the arrival of an unknown entity that may or may not be dangerous but that will definitely mean the end of their structured lives as they know them.

Readler’s novel is one that will appeal to readers of all ages. It is science fiction but deals more with social issues and relationships between generations and classes. This will be one book that I will happily recommend and share with my friends and students!