Hi again,

no time for a 'proper' review but some quick thoughts on applicability to Traveller. Minor (I hope) spoilers.

Firstly, I can't wholeheartedly recommend this despite it being by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's probably at least 150 pages too long, it massively breaks the rule of 'show don't tell' [1], the main three characters have a huge lack of agency, and it finishes, not quite in mid-sentence, but it might as well do. (So I suspect there may be more to come. Green Moon? Blue Moon?!) The 'telling' and the agency are definitely the biggest faults of the book. I have no idea how/why The Times reviewed this as "a masterpiece" as my paperback says on the cover. It has a major 'gadget' (quantum communicator) that seems at first to be key to the book but then disappointingly very little is made of.

It also has a lot of what we saw from Robinson in the Mars trilogy regarding politics and political philosophy and revolution. That might be a plus or a minus for you depending on your interest. (That and some ignorance and clear anti-faith writing is what made me vow not to reread the Mars trilogy - at least not for a long while). (I should say in his defence that I really enjoyed Aurora (generation ship) although it was very depressing).

On the upside the three main characters of Red Moon are interestingly different, very different from each other, and fascinatingly thrown together. Any of them could be a Traveller NPC or even Patron or perhaps most interestingly a trio as a Patron needing help from PCs - maybe 'as written'.

You get lots of detail/insight into Chinese culture and language (and politics) which is unusual and makes a change from more usual Western-centric novels. Of course, I can't speak to whether it's accurate but it feels as if KSR has done some research or had a good advisor (though none is acknowledged).

As for Traveller, it's a bit too near-Earth, near-future to be hugely usable, but if you do want mid-tech enclosed habitats there's some good stuff there. There are two excellently envisaged (and described) environments that would easily make interesting places for PCs to visit. You certainly might rethink how characters cope with low grav environments - which in my experience of Traveller games tends to get rather elided over (perhaps too easily). There's an AI presence which can be best be described as 'nascent', so if you don't want full AI in your game but like the idea of something new/emergent/basic it may provide food for thought. And if you've sat at the feet of Johnn Four and his Roleplaying Tips with ideas about more than one baddie - sorry faction, there's some great stuff here about multiple agencies not talking to each other and thus giving wiggle room for PCs to get up to their stuff... (There's a wonderfully not intentionally funny bit that reminds me of _The Life of Brian_ segment about the various People's Liberation Front of whatever.)

Oh and it has some pretty dreadful poetry but I'll forgive it this as I may have attempted similar myself in some writing I won't point you to... :-)

In short, if you've not got enough to read and you're looking for some hard science ideas and lots of political science inspiration, it might be worth your time. Otherwise, give _Misjump_ by Mark Long a go. I'm half way through thanks to Jeff Z's recommendation in Freelance Traveller and am loving its Travelleryness.

[1] Yes, I know rules are meant to be broken and can be broken by masters, but this doesn't do it to good effect. Some chapters inserted just as exposition and a huge chunk in the middle of the book which is nothing but.