Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Backstory
Review: Winter Moon was an okay, but by no means fantastic, read. The story goes like this: Jack McGarvey is a cop who gets shot up on the job in LA and decides that he just can't take the mean streets anymore. He moves his family out to a Montana ranch inherited from Eduardo Fernandez (his dead partner's father). Before his death, Fernandez discovers a strange 'alien' being of some kind that has no purpose or motivation other than to 'become' and 'hate'. A face to face confrontation with this being is what causes Fernandez'a ultimate demise, from a heart attack. When the McGarveys move to the ranch, they soon discover this being. Before long they find themselves in battle for their very survival.This story would have been much better, except for a couple of problems. 1.Way too much backstory. The whole first half of the book is literally split in two. You go back and forth between Jack's recovery from the shooting in an LA hospital and Fernandez's various encounters with the alien. Because it takes literally half the book for the main plot to get going, you feel like you are reading two different books, and end up unable to fully get involved with the plot of either. Really, DK could have split this up into two books that could have stood on their own. 2.The alien's lack of any motivation that the reader would be able to understand was just unsatisfying. While it might be true that we could never understand something that is truely alien, because of it's very 'alien-ness', it doesn't make for very satisfying story telling. This isn't the worst book I've ever read, but DK can (and has) done a lot better. As long-time fans know, he is a little hit or miss. Newcomers to DK novels should not let this novel put them off of future readings.
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