I'm filing this as And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees because that's the title that persuaded me to read the book. Beneath the Shattered Moons is not a terrible title but it does not capture the essence of what Bishop has attempted to do with this short novel.

I will not summarize the plot. You can read reviews at Speculiction and Science Fiction Ruminations.

The book is ambitious but not entirely successful. It reminds me of Jack Vance, of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a little of Leigh Brackett (Shadow Over Mars) and at times of Rob Chilson (As the Curtain Falls). It is a planetary romance, but a melancholy and wistful one.

It’s also one where, in order to understand it, I must read and study a poem by Archibald MacLeish. (Links: You, Andrew Marvell, an analysis) And to understand that poem I must read a 17th century poem by Andrew Marvell. (Links: To His Coy Mistress, an analysis) This is too much poetry study for a planetary romance.