Lunar Gothic Trilogy - Nathan Ballingrud - Book Rec

The Lunar Gothic trilogy, book three arrives later this year, is a 1920s take on science fiction filtered through a modern weird lit lens, from Nathan Ballingrud a rising star in the world of weird fiction.

Book one, Crypt of the Moon Spider, is good, but not great. It's full of great and interesting ideas, but I think it focuses on the wrong things for too much of it's short length. It tells the story of a home for melancholy women constructed on the moon, which is also inhabited by a cult of moon spider worshipers led by the Alabaster Scholars. The Scholars are also assassins who protect the moon spiders. There is a black market trade set up by mobsters on earth who harvest the silk produced by the moon spiders.

Book two, Cathedral of the Drowned, is incredible. It continues the tale of the moon spiders and the Alabaster Scholars / Assassins, and introduces the idea of the Catholic church sending Cathedral Ships into space to explore the solar system. It focuses on a character called Grub / Charlie from the first book, who is split into two - the Grub body is a golem like construct full of anger and violence, and the Charlie brain is good, and it's placed into a satellite and sent to Jupiter's moon Io.

There's also a centipede deacon that usurps one of the Cathedral Ships, and uses the drowned priests as a zombie army.

More than anything, these books remind of older Michael Cisco. Ballingrud has a similar style, focusing on atmosphere and haunting imagery. I do recommend these. They're full of interesting and unique ideas, and are generally well written. While I didn't love book one, I liked it enough to read book two, and now I'm very excited for book three later this year. It's a good time to pick these up, as they're still in print.