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Gunpowder Moon  By  cover art

Gunpowder Moon

By: David Pedreira
Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
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Publisher's summary

An Amazon Best Books of the Year selection

BookBub Breakout Debut Novels of Winter 2018

The Verge - 18 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books to Read in February

Barnes & Noble - one of 25 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Debuts to Watch for in 2018

Nerdmuch - Best New Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books of 2018

Bookish - Winter 2018’s Hottest Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

Library Journal: Spring/Summer Best Debut Novels

“Interesting quirks and divided loyalties flesh out this first novel in which sf and mystery intersect in a well-crafted plot.... Pedreira’s science thriller powerfully highlights the human politics and economics from the seemingly desolate expanse of the moon. It will attract readers who enjoyed Andy Weir’s lunar crime caper Artemis.” (Library Journal, starred review)

A realistic and chilling vision of life on the moon, where dust kills as easily as the vacuum of space...but murder is even quicker - a fast-paced, cinematic science fiction thriller, this debut novel combines the inventiveness of The Martian, the intrigue of The Expanse, and the thrills of Red Rising.

The moon smells like gunpowder. Every lunar walker since Apollo 11 has noticed it: a burnt-metal scent that reminds them of war. Caden Dechert, the chief of the US mining operation on the edge of the Sea of Serenity, thinks the smell is just a trick of the mind - a reminder of his harrowing days as a marine in the war-torn Middle East back on Earth.

It's 2072, and lunar helium-3 mining is powering the fusion reactors that are bringing Earth back from environmental disaster. But competing for the richest prize in the history of the world has destroyed the oldest rule in space: Safety for All. When a bomb kills one of Dechert's diggers on Mare Serenitatis, the haunted veteran goes on the hunt to expose the culprit before more blood is spilled.

But as Dechert races to solve the first murder in the history of the moon, he gets caught in the crosshairs of two global powers spoiling for a fight. Reluctant to be the match that lights this powder keg, Dechert knows his life and those of his crew are meaningless to the politicians. Even worse, he knows the killer is still out there, hunting.

In his desperate attempts to save his crew and prevent the catastrophe he sees coming, the former marine uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that, with one spark, can ignite a full lunar war, wipe out his team...and perhaps plunge the Earth back into darkness.

©2018 David Pedreira (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Gunpowder Moon

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So tired of bad books.

I know I’m a hater. In my defense, it’s ok to be a hater when I’m hungry for nutrition and the market sells mostly dirt.

This book is a non event. Characters? Nope. Setting? Milk toast. Story and plot? I can forgive predictable but not predictable, pedestrian and dull.

I’m going to rend my clothes.

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17 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars

The worst kind of sci fi

This book is just stupid. An over wrought nonsensical story, and science fiction that has no connection to reality. Basically a throwaway action novel, repleat with over dramatic writing that belongs in a pulp noir novel, poorly repurposed into sci find just by throwing together science sounding words with not even a glancing nod to reality. As good as the science was in The Martian, that's how bad it is in this book. Basically like it was written by a highschool student, who was bad at science, but watched lots of sci fi and trying to cover lack of knowledge with inscrutable jumbles of tech words.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrific Space Thriller!

This is a fantastic audio book, with a great story and wonderful narration. It had my attention from the get-go, and held it all the way through. I really hope this author writes more sci-fi, because I would be lined up to read it!

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A Sci-Fi Political Thriller/Murder Mystery

3.5 out of 5 stars

For some reason, there have been a lot of "murder mysteries in space" books in my queue lately.  Gunpowder Moon was another one to add to the list.  This was on my list of "most anticipated" for 2018 and I'm glad it was.  I enjoyed almost every second of it thanks to Pederiera's no-nonsense writing style and Jeffrey Kafer's delivery.

I called this a Sci-Fi Political Thriller/Murder Mystery because that is every category I think this book fits into. There is a murder of a miner on the moon and we are tasked with figuring out not only who killed him but why.  The government gets involved and it spirals from there.

The plot of this wasn't anything new to me since I've read a few other books similar to this in the last few months - but I did appreciate that it was set on the Moon and not Mars.  That helped it stand out a little to me (and made it a little more believable).  There was some science in this that I wasn't sure if it was real or possible - and some other science-y parts that bugged me a little.  I don't expect every author to be Andy Weir level of science by any means.  Or even capital S science. But some of the stuff written in this just got on my nerves.  I understand that it's set in the future and "anything is possible" but it's not the Sci-Fi parts that were the issue.

The characters were a little take them or leave them until later in the story.  I didn't know much about most of these people until they were thrown into the blender.  It wasn't typically how I get to know them - but it worked for this story.

Overall, for a genre-jumping book - I thought that Gunpowder Moon was a pretty good one.  There was a little too much political pandering for my likes - but I just got past it and enjoyed the Sci-Fi Mystery part of it.

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5 people found this helpful

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Enthrallingly dark story of human condition

This is not your happy go lucky sci-fi space opera. It’s a very realistic story of how we easily can end up, not far into the future.

The main mystery was unfortunately not very deep, and I figured it out pretty quick. However, the characters and pacing of the story kept me thoroughly entertained.

I’m looking forward to more from this author.

Likewise, the narrator Jeffrey Kafer was excellent, and I’ll look up further books read by him.

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Great listen

Loved it beginning to end. The story was absolutely amazing. I have already listened to it twice.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Lunar murder / conspiracy mystery

David Pederira's Gunpowder Moon concerns a murder mystery occurring in a lunar He3 mining operation. Set in the 2070's, Earth has suffered a major climatic catastrophe for which lunar exploitation is beginning to provide a source for economic growth. Several nation states, USA, China, and others are in the midst of a pseudo- 1849 gold rush mentality. Against this background, a US operation becomes plagued with odd occurrences: missing stuff, minor sabotage, until finally an outright aggressive act leads to a death. While US officials are ready to blame the Chinese and immediately begin to militarize the lunar operation, the local lead starts his own investigation that suggests a conspiracy and false flag attack as an excuse for more action.

The sci-fi elements are kept to a minimum and mainly rely on standard engineering principles to establish a realistic presence and behavior under lunar conditions. There's a good appreciation of company politics and bureaucracy as well as geopolitical issues. In addition, a reasonable sense of the "fog of war" issues that generally will plague rapidly developing emergency situations is apparent. The minimal dramatic actions scenes are well crafted and executed. The major issue with the tale is that the conspiracy is not quite discovered as much as revealed in the end; as well as reliance on journalistic self interest to eliminate future threats.

The narration is reasonable, although the cast is rather limited with minimal female involvement. There's a definite cinematic feel to the tale.

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4 people found this helpful

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Meh

Narration was fine if not a bit overdone. Story was weak and filled with fluff. I never got a strong sense of world building and truthfully, didn’t care about the characters. It was entertaining at best.

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2 people found this helpful

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Meh

This book is well written but is missing something. The pace is gruelingly slow. The feel of the book reminds me of the claustrophobia of the movies "Outland" (1981) or John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982). Any of Andy Weir's three current novels (2023) are in the same genre but much better than this book, and I'm not particularly a fan of Weir's writing.

The reader's performance of Gunpowder Moon is solid but unremarkable.

As written above, I am not a fan of Weir's writing, but, the reader's performances of those three novels have made me a fan of the audiobooks. Jeffery Latter's performance does not save "Gunpowder Moon" for me.

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didn't want it to end

this is a brilliant thriller! simultaneously didn't want it to end and constantly wanted to know what happened next. Jeffery kaffer was awesome, love his work!

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