BARSK: THE ELEPHANTS’ GRAVEYARD was such a pleasant surprise that I can’t help but smile every time I think about the experience of reading that book. And feel bad, of course, because it took so long to finally make its way to the top of my reading queue. It was fun and engaging and intelligent without feeling like it was pandering in any way. So, when I saw that there was going to be a sequel… I determined that I was going to do right by it. To mention nothing of the fact that I was actually quite excited to hear that we’d be getting more from the world of Barsk. In fact, I can still feel that excitement in the slightest bit, even on this side of my reading experience.

Which is somewhat interesting, because it’s been a long time since I’ve been quite so disappointed with a sequel.

THE MOONS OF BARSK is the second book in what is now being called the Barsk series by Lawrence M. Schoen. I read an ebook version of it before we received the hardback. Despite the fact that I so love actual, physical books, I don’t think that any of my disappointment stemmed from the fact that I had to read it on my kindle. :) Jumping back into the world of Barsk was an immense treat. The beginning felt familiar, with a new Fant approaching the dying island, and Pizlo came into the picture very quickly. Even Jorl showed up in those early chapters, and though it felt a bit slow at first, I was fully prepared to enjoy every minute of this new story.

And that’s why realizing that this wasn’t going to be any kind of great story was such a let down. I can still remember that hour during which my excitement and anticipation for what was coming soured, and spoiled, and crumbled into ash. I returned from lunch that day worried, and confused, and ultimately let down because of where the story was headed and how it was being presented.

One of the aspects of GRAVEYARD that I looked past was the occasional POV chapter from a character that wasn’t one of the core three. During that hour at lunch, MOONS took me from three POVs to six. And instead of providing me with engaging story, what I got was a lot of Fants in space giving me info dumps and lots of Fants on Barsk thinking about thinking. Even more upsetting, this pattern repeats itself a couple times, and pretty soon we had something close to ten POVs, and what’s the point of having ten different POV characters unless all they’re going to do is relay ideas to the reader and water down what story is available?

The plot, as it is, concerns the idea that some Fant want to expand out into space, against the wishes of the Alliance, and some other races want to try and colonize on Barsk, also against the pact with the Alliance. Pizlo, now fourteen, spends the first half of the book theorizing with the pontificating Archetype of Man that he found in GRAVEYARD, and the second half wandering around almost aimlessly, coming across pieces of a puzzle that he doesn’t really know exists. Pizlo was the hero of the story in GRAVEYARD. He was driven and focused and happy. Now… now he’s turned into an academic. At fourteen. And quite frankly, that’s ridiculously boring.

Although there are expansions made in the world (or universe) of Barsk, and more is revealed about the fancy magic-like system of soul-particulate nefshons, I was completely disillusioned not only with where the story evolved but with any of the characters of interest. Duplication of events and a lack of important impact, even when impact should have been obvious, was overlooked. Characters make choices that don’t compute, but do allow Jorl and Pizlo to figure out what is going on, which is what is important, I guess (no, not really).

What this book could have been is some great backstory to be woven into something that was actually interesting or engaging. There was almost no drive at all to the turning of the page for me, no tension, no anticipation. I couldn’t care less about who was living where or why they did what. And the end. The end. In much the same way that most literary stories end, the ending of MOONS could have made a pretty good opening scene for what should have been the story of MOONS. Speaking of, I have no idea why the book’s title has anything to do with the moons of Barsk, as they played an almost inconsequential role; more of a minor set piece really.

Still, as much as I’ve railed on the book in this review, it wasn’t overly bad. The author does know how to string words together such that I don’t feel like I’m tripping over myself as I read. He tries to introduce the new characters with aspect and meaning to their lives, which is a good sight more than most Science Fiction authors will do. It was, in my estimation, a very typical Science Fiction book though. I’m just a bit miffed because my expectations had been set so high and the mark this book hit was so correspondingly low. And that’s too bad. Because GRAVEYARD was a really good book.

The Moons of Barsk follows Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard as the second in Lawrence M. Schoen's series set in a galaxy of uplifted (for those who've read David Brin) animals.

Long ago, the Fant, uplifted elephants universally despised for their lack of fur, were forcibly exiled from their worlds to rainy Barsk. There, they developed a pharmaceutical, koph, that allows talented Speakers to communicate with the dead. The first book introduced Fant Speaker/historian, Jorl and his best friend's small precognitive son Pizlo.

The latter is an outcast, even more so than India's untouchables. This 2nd in the series is mainly young Pizlo's story, as he fights back against the cruel treatment that those like him experience all their short lives, and makes his hero's journey.

I finished reading “The Moons of Barsk” a few weeks ago and wanted to put a review of it up for folks. This is the new book by the linguist, Lawrence M. Schoen and a sequel to his “Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard from a few years ago.

In complete transparency, I was given a review copy of Moons but I was such a huge fan of his first book that I had been actively waiting for more from him. Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard was an amazing book and a breath of fresh air in how it was full of ideas that hadn’t been rehashed to death as genre tropes (and even the ideas in it that were common enough tropes were handled in interesting ways). Moons continues on this vein and does not displease, though I do think it suffers a bit from being a “middle novel” in what I assume is a trilogy. It continues the story of the first book in new ways but does not, ultimately, tie the threads of story up completely but sets things up for continuance and conclusion later.

The basic setup of the series is a kind of Island of Dr. Moreau writ large and on a galactic scale. There is a federation and the denizens of this federation are different races of humanoid or uplifted animals. I do not wish to spoil the first book for readers so I cannot go into any history that is revealed but things are explained to a fair degree in the first novel. The main characters of both books are Fants, which are distinct but similar species of upright, humanoid elephants. They are despised and viewed with disgust by the rest of the federation for their horrid (it seems) appearance to others and have long ago but exiled to a single world, out of sight. The first book deals with the possibility of pogroms and genocidal plots against the Fants by others and revelations about the history of the Federation, in general, and the facts in particular.

In Moons, we pick up a few years after Graveyard, with the protagonist, Jorl, of the first book having grown a bit older and, possibly, a little wiser, but much of the emphasis in Moons is on Pizlo, who was a young child in Graveyard. He’ now an adolescent attempting to find a place in the world and with his abilities. He’s much more the focus of this book than Jorl (in my opinion) though Jorl is still a viewpoint character. In some ways, I find Jorl largely uninteresting. As a special sort of speaker, those members of the Federation who can recall the minds of the dead and communicate with them, he’s in most ways too powerful to be interesting. Pizlo is also a speaker and a pre-cognitive, but he’s young and deeply conflicted about his role in the universe and in fact society. Pizlo is a genetic outcast, meant to have been exposed and die at birth, because of the circumstances of his conception. As such, all members of fant society, with the exception of his mother, Jorl and, Jorl’s immediate family, pretend that Pizlo is invisible. If a confrontation is forced, it escalates. This is a radically alienating thing to a young man, growing up hated and unwanted, but knowing (due to the voices in his head that may just be his abilities) that he has some sort of role to play.

Where the first novel focused on the potential for violence and destruction towards the Fant from others, the second one has an exploration of violence from within Fant society, the kind of violence that clothes itself in necessity and “for the good of society.” Jorl and Pizlo both explore questions of Fant history and future in a universe that hates and despises them. What would members of Fant society do to protect it, from outsiders but also from other Fant who find out too much about Fant history and potentially secret activities of some to protect the denizens of Barsk, their planet of exile?

Overall, it was a fun read. I did not find it quite as engaging as Graveyard but I put much of that down to the first book having a high degree of uniqueness and being so unexpected. Moons is not badly written but I very much want to read the next book to see where it all winds up, assuming that this is a trilogy. The ideas of Graveyard continue to build and be developed, as do the characters, and the world expands in scope and depth as well. What will an adult Pizlo be like as he comes into his prime? Will Jorl ever figure out his own longterm place in helping the Fant, even from themselveS? I look forward to finding out.

The Moons of Barsk is a worthy sequel to the impressive Barsk. But do not even try reading this one until after you have read the first book.

The Moons of Barsk is set in a far future when humans have been forgotten and animals, uplifted to advanced intelligence and civilized behavior, rule the universe with 87 distinct races on 4,000 planets in the Alliance. However, the other races have confined the two fant (elephant) species, the pariahs of this future, to the planet Barsk. This planet is also the only source of koph, a drug that enables Speakers to communicate with the dead.

The book begins with Ryne, a fant physics professor, following a compulsion common to all fants--to travel to a specific island not on any map when they know their death is looming. But instead of death, he discovers a secret advanced civilization, the Caudex, with offworld technology not found anywhere else on the planet. They offer to extend his life so he can continue researching and help save Barsk from the Alliance which is imposing more and more restrictions on the fants. The Caudex believes the Alliance wants all fants dead and that exiling them to Barsk was just a stopgap measure to their eventual extinction.

Meanwhile, the fourteen-year-old Pizlo, outcast from fant society as an abomination due to being born to parents out of wedlock, has discovered his own ability to Speak with the dead and is gaining greater control of his glimpses of the future expressed through conversations with the natural world. He believes he needs to go on his own hero's journey but is unsure what this would entail. He has become close to his mentor Jorl's daughter, Rina, one of the handful of fants who acknowledge his existence, resulting in cute scenes in which Pizlo tells her stories.

For his part, Jorl, a university scholar and historian, has become a member of the Alliance's Senate, using his extended Speaker powers to project his image offworld to fulfill his duties without leaving the planet. He advocates ending the isolation of the fants by allowing some to settle on other planets. Meanwhile, a member of the raccoon species has petitioned Joel, as Barsk's senator, to allow a group of raccoons to settle on Barsk, which would violate the Compact sundering the fants from the rest of the Alliance.

As with the first Barsk book, The Moons of Barsk is very philosophical, with conversations about meta-story and the hero's journey. Pizlo's own outcast status mirrors the relationship of the fants to the rest of the species in the Alliance. The conflict between the Caudex and Jorl is the conflict between isolationism and integration. Since this novel deals with speaking with the dead and precognition, it must address these issues of the nature of self and fate versus free will.

I found The Moons of Barsk to be excellent, but not quite as excellent as the first book. The original Barsk was plotted as a series of Russian nesting dolls, with each new revelation about the prophesied Silence later found to be inaccurate or at least incomplete. The Moons of Barsk lacks this spiral structure and, for the first third, seems to stumble as a series of unconnected incidents. Also, while many plotlines are resolved, the book ends with a cliffhanger that is literally life or death for a sympathetic character. Hopefully, a third book will swiftly appear to resolve this.

Readers who enjoy old fashioned idea science fiction of the sort popularized by Isaac Asimov (although with better characterization) will enjoy The Moons of Barsk. This book is ideal for readers who want books that make them think, that have new twists on science fiction concepts, and characters who ask important questions of themselves and the universe. Those who want space battles and violence may want to look elsewhere.

This is book two in a series and I think I missed a lot of the backstory and world building by not reading book one first. Even so the story is interesting and the characters well developed. The point of view changes as it weaves together different places and action.

The Moons of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley for getting this early.

I remember having a few issues with the first novel because of the feeling of aimlessness during the large opening. A hero's journey? Sure, but it wasn't until much later that the "abomination" started getting proactive and interesting in his own right. The end was particularly great. I love all the things that Speakers do: quantum stuff and memory stuff and speaking to the dead stuff all mixed into a heavy SF foam.

My other concern was about the REASONS for the total hate-on for the Fants, the humanoid elephants, by the rest of the other "humans" of different species. Some old wrong, the need to quarantine the whole race based on some kind of evil that even the ghosts of old grandmothers can't quite pin down. And yet, the Fants are still vilified.

Fast forward to this new novel. Our young elephant has gone from a 12-year-old to a 14-year-old and he has rockin powers, being able to split his consciousness, speak to the dead, have telepathy across space, unlimited by lightspeed. Coolness. And even his status as an "abomination" is mitigated by a ton of new friends he made during the first book. Excellent. And we continue on with a number of additional PoVs as well, including the Speakers, the ruling class, and some others, all of which add dimensions to the tale which I thought were pretty good. We're dealing with the issue of the Fants, the technology they developed on the sly, and their place in the greater galactic society.

Yes, the big driver is still a whole race's destiny, the prejudice surrounding them, and the possible "feel good" solution of mixing up the greater peoples with those of the Fants.

For the MOST part, I really enjoyed the drive, the meat of this whole novel, and the conclusion. We really had to make some sort of conflict and resolution with the ruling class of Speakers. And so we did, along with a drop-down, a kick-ass awesome scene full of quantum-memory goodness.

But.

And here's where I reduce this book from a total 5-star rating to a 4. Even though we were introduced to the possibility of the "big solution" that eventually comes at the end, how it is actually pulled off kinda leaves a lot to be desired. It's not officially a deus-ex-machina, but it seriously skirts the edges of one.

Other than that!? I think it's superior to the first. There are more hints as to the deep dark past for the Fants, there are great and interesting developments for the race, and our little abomination is getting kinda beast. :)

I was a big fan of Schoen’s first entry in this series, Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard, and therefore was excited to pick up its sequel, The Moons of Barsk. I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed, but despite suffering from a bit of a second-book slump, The Moons of Barsk does move the big story arcs along while broadening/deepening some characterization and so hasn’t lessened my interest in seeing where both story and character go moving forward.

For convenience’s sake (mine, not yours) I’m going to simply reuse my description of Barsk’s universe from my review of book one. And I’ll avoid spoilers for book one, save for references to characters that appear in both (thus letting you know they survive the events of the first book).

The setting is a federation of 4000+ worlds (the Alliance) made up of nearly a hundred different anthropomorphic and highly advanced mammal species known by either their common or Latinate scientific name (often shortened): Sloths (“Brady’s”), Dogs (“Cans”), Pandas (“Ailuros”), and Yaks (“Bos”) are just a few of the species we see. The major species in the novel are elephants (shortened to “Fants”), which are separated into two races: Eleph and Lox. Eight hundred years ago the Fants, which nearly all the other species despise for their lack of fur, were resettled on the planet Barsk, and both sides agreed via The Compact to a sort of benign non-involvement, barring the Fants’ export of pharmaceuticals. The most important of these is koph, a drug that allows particularly gifted users, known as Speakers, to converse with the dead.

The main character of book one, the Fant Historian- Speaker (and now Alliance Senator) Jorl, is back, continuing his crusade to reintegrate the Fant into the Alliance as respected, equal members despite the bigotry and planetary isolation they’ve endured for centuries. As one might imagine, it’s a tough slog, though he does find some surprising allies among the other Alliance species. Even more surprising though is Jorl’s discovery of a secret Fant society that has its own views about how the Fant should deal with the Alliance’s hostility and contempt. Much of the book deals with the careful, often suspicious dance between this group and Jorl as they learn more about each other’s goals and methods.

Meanwhile, we’re also reintroduced to Jorl’s young friend Pizlo, still shunned by Fant society as an “abomination” thanks to his parentage. Pizlo’s story interacts now and then with Jorl’s, especially toward the end where he has a huge impact, but early on he’s very much his own story as he, due to his interaction with an ancient AI built as a repository of human stories, decides he needs to go on a Quest to complete his own Hero’s Journey.

To begin with the positives, I continue to be intrigued by Schoen’s universe, which is utterly fascinating in its originality and execution. We don’t see quite as many species here as we did in book one, but we do get to meet a racoon close up and also get more details of the Alliance filled in, regarding both its current structure and its attitudes — historical and current day — toward the Fant.

Another strength held over from the first book is characterization. Pizlo especially is a deeply poignant creation and his growth over the time period of book one to the end here is both inspiring and oh-so-painful, with many emotionally fraught scenes and monologues (including an absolutely crushing one). Jorl’s curiosity, warm-heartedness, and determination to help his people gain their rightful place all combine to make him a character to root for. Meanwhile a new character (Klarce), a high-ranking member of the Fant secret society is just as driven toward the same goal, though via different methodology and with a sense of ruthlessness Jorl lacks. That ruthlessness doesn’t come without a sense of inner conflict, however, and it is this that makes her a vividly compelling character.

What drives these characters is their response to bigotry, whether on the galactic scale in the way the Alliance races banished the Fant to their own single planet and speak of them with both contempt and fear (they raise their kids on tales of Fant “monsters”) or on a smaller societal scale in how the Fant themselves display bigotry via their cultural designation of Pizlo as “abomination.” This reaction of a hated group — to find some other group they can in turn feel contemptuous toward — is all too familiar in our own world, as are all the other aspects of bigotry we see in The Moons of Barsk. When one listens to another Alliance senator counsel Jorl that of course he — the senator — thinks bigotry is bad but one can’t expect to just turn around years of it quickly . . . it’s impossible not to hear echoes of our own societal debate on the same issue. The same is true of objections regarding potential social unrest (“schools will be disrupted!”, “the morale of the military will suffer!”) or the more intimate impact on individuals (“Do you really want your daughter to be the only fill-in-the-blank at her school/workplace and suffer what you know she’ll suffer?”) Generally, this theme is another of the novel’s strengths, adding a level of depth and seriousness and providing lots of room for conflicts between people with worthy intentions as opposed to the far less interesting good people vs. villains.

I say the theme is “generally” a strength because at times the execution can be a little too on the nose or overly didactic. A lighter touch in this area would improve the book I’d say. I’m a bit similarly conflicted on Schoen’s use of the AI storyteller and the meta-fictional aspect of bringing so overtly into the discussion the Hero’s Journey and Quest Narratives. I like some of the subtler ways this is used and didn’t much care for Pizlo’s direct dialogues/monologues on the topic. The same held true for the theme of free will, which is an important one throughout. Your mileage may vary on these.

Plot-wise there were a few times where things seemed a bit contrived or things were resolved too easily, and one major plot arc emanated from a decision that just seemed highly implausible to me. And it’s slowed at times by some heavy/overt exposition, especially in the first third or so of the novel.

Like book one, Moons of Barsk resolves the major issue in the novel while leaving room for further exploration of the universe and its characters. Unlike that first book though, Moons points ahead via a hell of a last line, one of those that the reader is well prepared for and might even predict in general terms but is still walloped by the line itself. That, combined with the expansion of setting and the clear move toward potential conflict between the Alliance and the Fant means that while Moons of Barsk is a bit of a disappointment compared to book one, it still ratchets up excitement for book three. Here’s hoping the wait isn’t too long.

I read, two years ago, "Barsk, the elephant graveyard" and it was an incredible read. The kind of read I, even after having read thousands of books as I've had, will never forget. I'm getting more and more touchy and demanding with my readings, not by vice, but because having read so many books, and review some hundreds, and wrote some more, have made me very critical: I now know what I like, what I don't want to read about, and what  I can't read on regardless some obvious narrative, psychological or logical flaws. "Barsk, the elephants' graveyard" was an outstanding read, just perfect, so rare...

At the time I didn't know that a sequel was to be expected. When I saw "The moons of Barsk" on Netgalley, I couldn't believe my luck! I immediately pre-ordered the pbook (such a beautiful cover!) and ask for the ARC. I was very proud and happy when my request was accepted and took care to re read the first Barsk Book before, as I've already planed to do this summer (premonition, eh? ).

I particularly appreciated to re-read the first book before this one, but if you don't feel like doing so, you may spare yourself: all the principal elements are cleverly reintroduced in the beginning of the book, you won't feel lost (you probably will feel nostalgic and sorry not to have reread Barsk Book One, but... your mistake ^-^)

The story takes place a few years after the end of the first book. Pizlo is now fourteen years old, and not much have changed for him, except for the fact that he's now a speaker, but just able to Speak with Jorl, his best friend, his mentor. Jorl has a good life, married, with a beloved child, Rina, and is juggling between his work as an historian, his family time and his role as a senator.

Very quickly the story explodes in an incredible revelation, quite credible and logical in fact, and exhilarating in its fairness and cleverness. I can't say more about it, but I can tell that this new development is perfectly carved out and used to tell an exciting story. The new characters are perfect, a so human blend of brilliancy, humanity, lucidity and also thirst for power, egotism and weaknesses.

If I loved this second book as much as the first one, I needed to read it slowly, to chew over it. I loved how the author chose to intensify his ideas, nurturing them in exciting and inspiring directions. For such an imaginary concept, Speaking is handled in a perfectly scientific way, which I applaud! Not complicated per se, but thorough, imaginative and cleverly used to make the story unforgettable. Again. A perfect "food for thoughts" book!

If Pizlo isn't a child anymore, thinking much more a very wise and kind adult, suffering differently due to his life as a pariah, Lawrence M. Schoen demonstrates again how able he's to introduce believable and touching children, especially gifted ones with, this time, Jorl's daughter, Rina. And her doll, the very special Kokab!

A riveting read, as clever, subtle and heart-warming as the first one, very human for all the extraordinary perfect exposition of elephant-like post-humans. A book which will, I can't doubt about it after reading the last sentence (so cruel for the reader...) be followed by a third one. I already can't wait, so happy to have found, by pure chance, a so special and perfect read for me!

Disclaimers first: I know Lawrence M. Schoen slightly on social media (we have never met IRL), and he has hosted me on his Eating Authors blog series. I received an unedited copy via Netgalley for purposes of review; I won't comment specifically on the copy editing, on the assumption that it will get some more attention before publication.

I enjoyed the first of this series - despite what seemed to me considerable stretches, even holes, in the worldbuilding - because it had a lot of heart and I felt for the characters and their situation. The sequel is no different, although it held together better for me, and (unlike the first book) the ultimate resolution didn't seem excessively tidy, or depend on something that I saw as a plot hole or deus ex machina.

There's an interesting theme at the heart of this one, which was alluded to in the first book: that the future is fixed if people act in the ways that their culture has programmed them to, but if they rise above that and exercise free choice, they can change the world. One of the several viewpoint characters, Pizlo, carries most of this theme and expresses it most clearly, and he, as an outsider to his society and a precognitive, is in a position to know.

The other two viewpoint characters are set up as antagonists to one another, though they have more common cause than reason to fight one another (as one, but not the other, realizes). The tension between them was well sustained and well resolved, providing a strong emotional arc for all three viewpoint characters and for the book as a whole.

Though I could quibble with the worldbuilding and some of the sentence-level writing, the storytelling here is at an excellent level, and if that's what you mostly go to a book for, this might well be the book for you.