This was a gift from my partner, who bought it for me because she knows one of my favourite things is stories about stories and storytelling. Moonbound is certainly that: a loose retelling of Arthurian legend set 11,000 years after the end of human civilisation and with one eye on how stories shape the world.

The book is bursting with ideas. From a breathless prologue featuring AI constructs battling human-controlled giant robots to sequester humanity away from the horrors of a meaningless universe, Sloan has fun with seemingly every concept he can come up with. Sentient fungus, talking animals, thousands of years of failed civilisations, a corporation run by beavers, a college dedicated to studying the universe’s 43 million dimensions. There’s almost too much - sometimes I wished Sloan would slow down and let an idea settle for a moment.

This is allegedly the first of a planned trilogy, and I’m curious to see where the story goes, especially if it means that Sloan will have the space to flesh out his world more than he was able to in this first book.