The Moon King by Neil Williamson
It is not often that I read a book as gorgeously infectious as The Moon King. I will try to explain it without giving away any spoilers! Glassholm is an urban island society that is wildly sensitive to the waxing and waning of the moon. The moon has been trapped by Glassholm’s sage leader, Lunane, who is able to infiltrate and command minds. A series of murders and the pulling away of the moon send the city into a kind of bipolar riot that becomes an uprising. The book follows the lives of three people who are caught up in this revolution to a life and death degree: A retired policeman who suffers from a trauma induced amnesia. An artist who is the daughter of a cult leader and has been raised praising her menstrual blood. And an engineer who is trying to repair the machine that keeps the moon imprisoned, as well as searching the palace for his lost wife. Glassholm is a place that feels as familiar and as strange as an alter ego. The story beautifully tightropes between the natural and the supernatural, allowing all manner of dark, mystical and devious happenings to take place inside a recognisably human habitat. The writing is visually stunning and falls off the page and into your mind like an earworm – like reading a poem with brilliant description and dialogue. Nothing about the plot is transparent or obvious, yet you still connect deeply with each of the characters because their emotions and relationships are so perfectly drawn. It is the type of book that subtly becomes a part of you, like living close to the moon changes your physiology in surprising and meaningful ways.
