The following is a guest post from author Claire Barner, author of near-future sci-fi romance, Moonrising. Described as Sea of Tranquility meets Winter’s Orbit, Moonrising is told against the backdrop of the Moon’s first lunar colony, with a multicultural and LGBTQ+ cast, about a cynical agronomist and a charming Emirati businessman who fall in love and battle eco-terrorists. The book was released on July 8. Get your copy here.
International Moon Day honors the anniversary of the first humans to land on the Moon on July 20, 1969. As NASA prepares to return to the Moon with Project Artemis, I’m recommending my favorite books that feature the Moon.
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The ambitious novel Sea of Tranquility spans from the Canadian wilderness in 1912 to a Moon colony in both the 2200s and 2400s. I loved reading Mandel’s take on a Moon colony over several time periods as I was finalizing my own novel, Moonrising, about the founding of the first Moon colony in 2073. I especially enjoyed the Night City, a colony dome that lost the ability to project an artificial sky and was always black.
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
I was hooked from the incredible first line of Sevenevens: “The Moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.” This novel is an epic told in two parts—a near-future story of humanity’s race to survive the apocalypse and a far-future story about the return to Earth five thousand years later. In my own writing, I was inspired by Stephenson’s realistic take on the science of living in space, from the impact on the human body to the lack of resources.
Red Rising series by Pierce Brown
Red Rising tells the story of Darrow, a lowly Red performing dangerous work on Mars under brutal conditions, who disguises himself as a member of the Gold ruling class to bring down his enemies. While the first books focus on Mars, we see glimpses of the role the Earth’s Moon, Luna, plays. Luna is the capital planet and the seat of power for the solar system’s ruling family, House Lune. The low gravity and lack of atmosphere made Luna the ideal port for humankind to colonize other planets and moons in the solar system.
Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan and Don Davis
For a first-hand account of walking on the Moon, I recommend the astronaut memoir Last Man on the Moon. Approachable, funny, and poignant, Eugene Cernan tells the story of what it was like to be the last person to walk on the Moon in 1972. Eugene got a shout-out in my novel Moonrising, including the final statement he made before leaving the Moon: “And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we come and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”
Bonus: The Moon in Fantasy
I have several Moon-related fantasy books on my TBR. I’m looking forward to Higher Magic by Courtney Floyd, which features a fantasy magic system that relies on Moon phases. The novella Daughters of the Blue Moon by Millie Abecassis is an adult Red Riding Hood retelling where the Moon is an abstract deity. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan is a fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese Moon goddess, where the main character is raised on the Moon. I love how stories about the Moon capture the imagination in any genre.
Claire Barner is a sci-fi romance author. Her debut novel Moonrising was released in July 2025 by Diversion Books. Claire is an avid gardener, on a mission to maximize the number of tomatoes her small bungalow lot can produce. She lives with her family in Chicago, where she leads the parent engagement group at her children’s school and is committed to enhancing equity at Chicago Public Schools. This is her debut novel. For more information or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website.
