Starts off interesting but the lack of detail and writing lets it down. A frustrating read ( )

It's been years since Steve Matuchek, werewolf, and Ginny Graylock Matuchek, licensed witch, rescued their daughter from Hell. Now they're living in the southwest, where Steve is an engineer with Project Selene, the big-budget NASA (that's National Astral Spellcraft Administration) project aimed at putting a celestonaut on the moon before the end of the decade, and Ginny does high-priced consulting--sometimes for Project Selene. On the side, they're both involved in Operation Luna, a low-budget private industry effort aiming at the same thing, but without the attendant publicity and overcomplication.

And then Project Selene's test launch is sabotaged, and the evidence, such as it is, seems to implicate Coyote, some Asian Beings about whom westerners know almost nothing, and Ginny's brother, Will Graylock. It's about this time that the Inquisition for Revenue Securement decides that it needs to audit the Matucheks. The Matucheks decide that they can't leave the investigation of these assorted problems in the hands of the FBI and their old buddy Bob Shining Knife, who has been assigned as the lead investigator; they need to take things into their own hands. And so they do, with help along the from a Zuni priest, various Native American gods and Beings, the Fair Folk living on the moon, a talking sword, and a bad-tempered Scandinavian dwarf. It perhaps doesn't quite have the intensity of Operation Chaos, but it's still a very enjoyable book with a fairly satisfying conclusion.
( )

This continues the story of Steve Matuchek (werwolf) and his wife Virginia (witch) and their daughter Valeria in a world in which magic produces the effects of modern technology. This volume describes that world equivalent of the Moon exploration program, complete with an equivalent of Werner von Braun who used to work for the Saracen Caliphate (defeated in the first story in the previous volume). To me, the story is distorted by Anderson's increasing obsession with the US space program (which I like but am not fanatical about) the the evils of the IRS (which I do not especially like, but regard as performing a necessary function). ( )

I don't know. Objectively, it's a great story - interesting universe, exciting challenges, scary threats, a major climax - and well-written, too. Yet somehow, every time I try to read it I find myself fidgeting and wanting to do other things - play games, craft, read other books...somehow it doesn't hold my attention. The memory is better than the reading. Not bad to read, just not quite absorbing - much less so than Operation Chaos (which should be more scattered, since it was written as separate stories...). Ah well. Val is 15 in this book, so 12 years after her adventure in Hell. Interesting discussions of non-European magic and beliefs - Chinese, Japanese, Zuni and other Native American, and Norse (well, that's European). In this case the diversion doesn't supply answers directly, though it does supply both general knowledge and the opportunity to enlist two major allies. And a wide variety of attacks, from physical to legal, deadly to harassing, and an internal traitor to make them all way too effective. Then Val gets caught in a trap not aimed at her, and all the various aspects of the struggle come down to one more-or-less physical fight - that part does catch me, but it's only at the very end. Some gorgeous imagery, too - American Southwest landscape, the moon-horse, the views of Earth from space, etc. Glad I read it, I'll probably read it again, but not soon. ( )