When
the planet Melela is overtaken by the brutal Relcor, the royal family is
sentenced to death. The day before their execution, the queen calls upon
military man Rez Cantor to help her young daughter, the princess, escape. Rez
manages to grab the princess and run, but as they attempt to leave the planet,
they are sucked into a portal and flung to the opposite side of the galaxy to
the planet Tiiana and its five moons: Urlena, Boutal, Zin, Aura, and Vashia.
Landing on Urlena with no princess in sight, Rez is kidnapped and enslaved,
just the beginning of his long journey to saving Melela from the Reclor.
From
the gargoyle-like Brata on Boutal to the water-breathing Aquella and Dolla on
Urlena to the menacing insect-like Zecla on Zin, dozens of species inhabit the
five moons. As Rez meets, befriends, and fights these creatures, he learns more
about them, how they live, and how they each contribute to the mysterious
circumstances surrounding Tiiana. Though there seem at first to be an unnecessarily
large number of species, each plays a central part in the way the society has
come to work. And while the Aquella, Rez’s captors and the first inhabitants he
meets, appear to be evil and controlling, they are in fact simply the
middle-man, the bourgeois of Tiiana. Though Rez is the novel’s protagonist, the
Aquella are perhaps the most human of the novel’s characters. They enslave and
brutalize the childlike Dolla, as well as Rez, forcing them to mine for metal
in an underwater cave, but in truth, this metal is meant to feed the enormous,
insatiable enemy hovering over their moon, sent there by the Zecla in an
attempt to destroy the moon so the Zecla could take over. The Aquella’s
efforts to save their planet mirror that of humanity’s survival methods:
sacrificing some morals when in dire circumstances.
Rez,
the novel’s first-person narrator, acts as the typical heroic figure, saving
the princess and the galaxy, befriending the “good guys,” and causing
irritation to the “bad guys.” The other characters that Rez comes to befriend or
to distrust each have distinctive and consistent personalities, creating an
intricate and realistic society. Each of the five moons as well has a specific
atmosphere and, along with its inhabitants, portrays a complex system in
balance. Paul T. Harry’s world-building skills are superb.
Some
grammar and punctuation errors are scattered throughout this 500 page epic, but
not enough to distract from the story, which has the reader clutching the book
in their firm grasp, unable to put it down. And while the main characters —
namely Rez, the princess, and the Relcor — are quite archetypical, they are
never clichés. The only issue that may create some uncertainty is the time
frame of the story. Rez in enslaved by the Aquella for two years while he is
separated from the princess and his home planet of Melela is overtaken by the
Relcor. It takes him at least five years to travel between the five moons and
to discover the simple truth behind this complex system of cohabitating
creatures. The fast pace of the action at times contradicts the time frame of
the story, leading the reader to feel as though the action has only taken Rez
across the galaxy in a matter a few weeks, though in truth he has been in
Tiiana for almost ten years. This matter, however, is the novel’s only distraction.
The 5 Moons of Tiiana is
an excellent specimen of the science fiction genre. It is a gripping adventure
with characters that come alive on the page and fast-paced action that will
keep readers turning the pages to discover how Rez will save his love, his friends,
and his galaxy.
