Gaia and Luna: In the View of the Moon by Mark Newton
My rating: 3.5/5
This is an intriguing, lyrical exploration of human perception of the growth of our galaxy through an amusing anthropomorphising of the planets. Newton gives ‘life/expressed sentience’ to the planets we know as the earth and moon and constructs a playful constellation of relationships and personalities amongst the other players in our own immediate cosmic neighborhood.
The tale is entertaining with an underlying sense of morality and implied lessons.
I enjoyed the read. This is a short pithy novella – but I am a little unsure of who the perceived audience might be. It’s a collection of abstracted observations that entice the reader to make their own connections. To some extent, it is written in code (starting from the title itself) and the challenge in this is how a human author can step outside of their own worldview and sense of the space of time. As with such classics as a brief history of time, events happen at an accelerated pace over billions of years and then slow to the current event horizon (our present time as a black hole). This is a reckoning that just seems to happen for human perception.
Nonetheless, this is a fun, poetic read. The underlying message seems to focus on climate change as a mindless torment of a sentient ‘earth as being’. Tight, but lyrically pleasing. The idea of giving feeling and emotion to what we see as non-sentient actors in our galaxy challenges our own perceptions – but would I feel fail to challenge someone’s existing worldview or perception if that were the author’s intent.
It’s a satisfying read and the product of innovation and a self-challenging mind.
In full transparency, I was offered a review copy of this novel. Although I may not have stumbled across it to purchase, I was glad for the recommendation and am pleased to have had the opportunity to read and enjoy it.