Book Review: Moon Deeds by Palmer Pickering

Moon Deeds by Palmer Pickering was a sci-fantasy with a huge set up and lots of promise.

Told through a dual POV the reader follows siblings Torr and Cassidy, 21-year-old new adults just starting to make their way in the world. Torr, a sharpshooter for the “good” military group has left home and hardened up, he believes his twin sister Cassidy has become spoilt and soft, staying home with their mother to learn the ways of plant magic and healing. However, when A ruthless military group (The Tegs) threatens to take over the world these siblings will have to find each other and work together in order to escape.

Once the Tegia invasion is well underway, it becomes clear that their hometown is no longer safe. Cassidy remembers some old property deeds left to her and Torr by a suspiciously well-off Aunt and sets her sights on the moon. She only hopes she can find Torr in time and somehow get her family to safety.

The moon is not all it cracked up to be, overpopulated and undernourished. Will they really be safe here after all?

Underlying their stay is the ancient prophecy of the Star Children, one to lead, one to kill and a traveller to save humanity from the brutal dictatorship they’ve just escaped.

This book was a whole lot of set up, in fact I would argue that 80% of this book is setting up for one hell of a climax in book two. Throughout part one we get to know Torr and Cassidy in their current lives and come to understand that the Tegs are the big bad. We also come to understand that Cassidy is much more sheltered than her brother, but that she is however more knowledgeable when it comes to the shaman magic of the world. Very little of the actual plot is discussed in this first 30% and really doesn’t come into play until much later. Part two takes us to the moon and again the plot of the Star Children is alluded to but not fully developed during our time here. As the reader we get an overall look at how the politics and world of our characters new home works and understand that is not everything they had initially thought.

We do get introduced into several different characters and species in the second part of the book which I presume will form a bigger picture as the series progresses but whose stories were a little disjoining here in a book one.

In terms of character dynamics, once set up I was quite charmed by Cassidy’s innocence even though the narration of her character in the audiobook didn’t necessarily do it for me. I liked that we saw vulnerabilities in Torr who thought himself the big protector, but the reader was made aware that he was still quite young and naïve himself. A lot of the side characters were likable or .. despicable where they needed to be and I’m pretty curious about where some of these players will come in later on in the series.

I also liked the descriptions of the world. The author has taken a significant amount of time to make the reader understand how everything works on both the home planet and the moon. There is a whole universe out there, one that isn’t overly safe, and the Star Children’s prophecy is looking more and more terrifying by the minute. The last thing I will mention is the subtle uses of magic, while this feels very much like a space opera, the plant magic bought a comforting fantasy feel to this world which I appreciated as a fantasy reader jumping out of my comfort zone.

I think the setup is most certainly there and I am intrigued for book two. Coming to the end of the book the plot points mentioned in the beginning start to fall into place and boy oh boy did this end on a cliff-hanger. One that had me thinking “WHAT! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!”.