The Moon Dwellers

The Moon Dwellers by David Estes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I started reading this as an ebook and just couldn't get into it. But on audio? It's a different book entirely!

This is one of those books that would make a fantastic movie. The action gets going and never lets up; there are chases and bombings and shootouts and escapes and outlaws and even a cannibal! Oddly, none of these situations are out of line with the plot, which is just a girl trying to put her family back together. They've been arrested and split up between prisons and an orphanage, and she's determined to break everyone out and reunite them. In the process, she picks up a couple of friends and crosses paths with the President's son and his right hand man.

The characters here are all well-developed and even endearing. Adele starts out seeming like a total badass, but her compassionate and sensitive side quickly emerges. Tristan is just a likable guy. He's not too pretentious or overly noble in his view of his father's politics. I think the best part for me was that neither of these two characters took themselves too seriously. When reading this previously in print, some of the dialogue and inner monologues seemed forced, like the book was trying too hard to be funny. But on audio, Julia Whelan and Will Damron are able to give such personality to the characters that they translated as having somewhat of a wry wit. Rock, who is Tristan's sidekick and best friend, has some of the best lines. This isn't a funny book at all, but there are occasional moments when things are a bit lighter. And that's good, because with all the serious action going on there needed to be some high points.

Rivet, the big bad guy, was somewhat underdeveloped. He was evil - but why? We really knew nothing about him other than he was the head of a goon squad and a brief physical description of him. What was his motivation? There was also a band of outlaws who were never really well-defined. They popped in and out of the story very briefly and it seemed a shame, because the leader had a lot of potential to be an interesting side character - maybe one that could have been morally gray. Maybe we'll see him again in the sequel.

Overall this was a great read, made even better by the narrators. They gave the story presence and atmosphere - I was right there in the damp caves with hard stone floors and utter darkness. The audio was really, really well done.

These two narrators also do the sequels in the series. I can't wait to move on to the next book.


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