'Red Moon’ hooks readers with its claws

In some ways, Benjamin Percy's “Red Moon” (Grand Central Publishing, 533 pages, $25.99) could be seen as a logical next step following his 2010 debut novel, “The Wilding.”

"The Wilding” is about three generations of males facing the dangers of the natural world - and the menace they themselves create - together. It's grounded firmly in the real world, a world where natural spaces are under constant pressure as humans refashion them. The hunting trip the characters embark upon is darkly imagined, with threats both external and internal abounding. “The Wilding” is a book that sticks with you long after the cover is closed.

Much of what makes “The Wilding” successful is also on display in “Red Moon,” but in the new novel, the threat, to society and to individuals, takes the form of lycans - werewolves created by infectious proteins known as prions (though Percy employs them for his fictional purposes, prions are real). In Percy's alternate history, lycans in the United States are forced to take suppressing medication and are discriminated against in many ways. Meanwhile, the United States occupies The Republic, a lycan homeland created in 1948 that is rich in mineral wealth.

When a lycan terrorist group, which self-identifies as a group of freedom fighters, begins a series of shocking attacks, a set of interwoven stories is set in motion. Percy's cast is varied and complex, and his story raises plenty of moral questions about freedom and public safety and what might be justified in order to achieve either of those goals.

The prose in “Red Moon” is just as muscular as that found in “The Wilding,” but the necessities of a monster story occasionally mask the full force of what Percy is capable of. Also, the book is twice the length of his first novel, which while not necessarily a bad thing, does lead to more ebbing and flowing of texture and tone. For me, that made the book somewhat less affecting than “The Wilding.” Still, “Red Moon” and its lycans are likely to get their claws in many readers' imaginations this summer.