Hello friends! Have you picked up any good scifi thriller recently? If you are looking for one, today’s post is for you! The adrenaline rush that Moon Rising, the first book in The Upsilon Series by Daniel Weisbeck, is fast-paced and immersive, creating a connection to the characters in a unique way. Many thanks to Storytellers on Tour for bringing this book to my attention. In today’s post I will review the book and tomorrow I will be hosting Daniel for an interview! Let’s get started.
She is not who she thinks she is. Her true identity is a mystery.
Trapped in a cellar by a man she does not know; a young girl is forced to act out the life of someone she has never met to stay alive. When she escapes, she finds herself on the run, confused and questioning her past. With the help of Bobby Houndstooth, a teacher she once knew, and Nutt, an android who loves to dance, Silon begins to unravel her true identity and a mysterious relationship she has with a sinister corporation.
Silon must decide if she is the person others expect her to be or if she can become a person of her own making.
Even if it kills her.
Content Notes: Mild references to sexual abuse, violence, and graphic language.
Thoughts on Moon Rising
Moon Rising is an action packed adventure! It gave me the vibes of Battlestar Galactica (which I loved!) and The Matrix series. The story is divided into four parts, offering a variety of points of views. Our main character is a young android named Silon. I had read the synopsis of the book days before I actually started reading the book, so at the very beginning with Silon being introduced, I couldn’t tell right away if she was human or not. Something was off because she was not eating, and I felt like I was in the uncanny valley.
Silon has been given the identity of a girl named Jenna and she is trying to become her. Jenne has passed away and her father has Silon take her place. The world that Moon Rising builds is one in the future where androids are common and the technology has advanced to a new frontier – memories of people are loaded into a special device that the androids can access and then use to develop their own personality and take that person’s place.
When things malfunction with Silon, someone from the android company shows up to take a look – but this is someone who is a very important person. Silon remembers Teacher from her early android days. Teacher is the Head of Anthropomorphism at Noman Robotics and she has a hunch that Silon might be the first sentient android, one that has advanced far beyond the capabilities of her android brain and Jenna’s human memories. What follows is a race against time to confirm that Silon is indeed sentient, and meet some very interesting tech-savvy people along the way along with the usual twists and turns.
I loved the advanced android technology in this book! The author explained everything so well, every step of the design was well thought out and I enjoyed imagining this world which is only a few decades from our own. Concepts like neural plasticity are well researched for humans and things I have studied in my training as a teacher. I loved seeing them integrated into the Upsilon series.
The cast of Moon Rising was well done – I enjoyed reading about Nut as a support character and seeing Silon develop further as she interacted with him. The different perspectives of the characters were smoothly transitioned and I liked how equal stage was not given to all of them – as a reader, I heard from them only when their perspective would have added value, and I really appreciated that.
If I had started Moon Rising earlier on Sunday, I would have finished it that very day! I could not put it down and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a short (this is under 250 pages!) adventure that will lead to an epic adventure in the next book. Can’t wait to read it!
Will you pick up this book?
Moon Rising is now available. Be sure to check your local library and support them.
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Print
About the Author
Daniel Weisbeck is the award-winning author of the bestselling series Children of the Miracle, a dystopian adventure. Daniel is a native US citizen but has lived in the UK for over twenty years working in the technology and software fields, bringing a unique and authentic voice to his speculative science fiction. Daniel is an openly gay author who has been happily married to his partner for over twenty years. When not writing about androids and hybrid humans in the future, you will find him taking care of his three dogs, two rescue racehorses, and thirty rescue sheep who all live in the South Downs of England.
Connect with him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Learn more on his website.
Many thanks to the author and Storytellers on Tour for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Find other Scifi recommendations at my Book Review Index. I will be back tomorrow with the interview. 🙂
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