Barnes & NobleMoonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee

Like Space MEcha Wars? Read This!

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children's, Delacorte Press, and Yoon Ha Lee for the opportunity to read Moonstorm in exchange for an honest review. Love Gundam? READ THIS BOOK! Did you like the book blurb references to Iron Widow and Skyward? READ THIS BOOK! I have so much to say, that I really don't even know where to start. Moonstorm is a Korean-culture inspired space opera novel for a young adult audience. The novel includes some Korean language and some cultural references with its use of location names, as well as the zie nonbinary pronoun. The story follows Hwa Young, who is said to be a clone of her heart-mother. She lives on a moon in the Moonstorm called Carnelian. The Moonstorm, the novel's namesake, is a system of moons and moonlets, artificial planets (I am thinking Plants like in Gundam), and space stations. This Moonstorm system is seen as a rebellious section of space outside the Empire of New Joseon, which has been trying to conquer the Moonstorm for many years (enter the political intrigue). At the age of ten, Hwa Young's Clanner moon of Carnelian is attacked by the Empresses forces. When she looses everyone in an instant, a lancer pilot saves her, taking her in as a ward of the Empire. The visage of the lancer, the very grace of looking up at such a machine, drives Hwa Young to want nothing more than to become a lancer pilot.  Lancers are the mech suits of the Empire, of which pilots are selected by the machine and form a unique bond with it. Six years after the attack on Carnelian, Hwa Young is part of a military training school. When her city is attacked, along with her military boarding school, she is yet again picked up by a lancer pilot. She ends up on a fleet vessel aiming to leave the planet, along with any (selective...) refugees it can pick up. They need to plan for a Clanner attack. Why are there only two lancer pilots with the fleet when their should be twelve? References to battles past lead to more questions than answers, but Hwa Young will continue to do whatever it takes to become a lancer pilot under the Empress, even if it means fighting those she used to call her people. The novel has some small space battles and mech action, but focuses more on the training and the journey to becoming a pilot and where that ultimately leaves Hwa Young. The story offers interesting scientific aspects outside of the lancers as well, such as world-destroying technologies and other space science fun.  I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style, premise, and characterization of this novel. I read a few reviews too, because I was truly baffled that this book doesn't have a higher overall rating, but it sounds like many readers are used to Lee's adult novels, and this is a young adult novel, which didn't quite hit the same for some readers. Well, I LOVED IT and after reading reviews, I am extremely interested in Lee's adult series called The Machineries of Empire, of which apparently, Moonstorm is in the same universe! Sign me up to join the fleet!