The novelette “The Fifth Dragon” by Ian McDonald was published for the first time in 2014.
Adriana Corta is working in the mines on the Moon there is having a love story with Achi Debasso, an ecologist of Syrian origin. They are two very different women who found each other in a frontier that’s hostile but in great expansion. For their future it will be crucial to decide whether to return to Earth or to keep on living on the Moon. The point of no return will be marked by the moment their bones are too atrophied to return to Earth.
In the novelette “The Fifth Dragon” Ian McDonald leaves the exotic locations on Earth in which he based a number of stories to return to extraterrestrials ones. Specifically, it’s the Moon, where increasing industrialization has led to the continuous expansion of the human colony.
In this scenario, there’s an almost feudal division among the leading families that control the key activities for the lunar economy, called the dragons in the slang. Job opportunities attract many people from Earth but the environment is still dangerous and the low gravity causes a progressive atrophy of their bones. The consequence is that people who go to work on the Moon only have a certain time to decide whether to return to Earth or to remain forever on the moon.
Adriana Corta tells firsthand her life on the Moon, her dreams and her relationship with Achi Debasso. She lives in a place of the frontier which however is already consolidated so in many ways it’s a normal life. There’s still the influence of lunar gravity on any action taken by the colonists and especially its long-term effects.
It’s a situation in which people arriving from Earth can aspire to a better life. However, the choice between staying or returning to the home planet is very conditioning. For this reason, “The fifth dragon” begins with one of the routine medical scans that tells Achi that she has still four weeks before reaching the point of no return.
Because of its short length, “The Fifth Dragon” gives us above all Adriana Corta’s feelings during her life on the Moon. It was impossible to see beyond the surface of the complexity of the Moon’s society and that’s why later Ian McDonald published the novel “Moon: New Moon”, which received a positive reception and is in a stage of adaptation to a TV series.
At this point, “The Fifth Dragon” can be considered a taste of “Moon: New Moon” but despite the limitations imposed by its length is still interesting to read as a stand-alone story. Especially if you like realistic stories of people who are all in all common living in a frontier that in the coming years could really open this is a must-read story. It’s available as an ebook on Amazon USA
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