Moonwalker, Earthbound [Vol. 1 Complete]

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

"Like Pacific Rim, but with sad Asian lesbians." Six years ago, mech pilot superstar Rachel Kanagawa sacrificed herself and her mech - Tokyo Calling - to save the Free Republic of Hong Kong from the deadly sea-borne Megafauna. Now, her little sister Emma has come out of retirement to reluctantly sync with the remnants of Tokyo and try to pick up where her sister left off. Hong Kong wants her to be a savior; she just wants to find out what really happened to Rachel. The only person left alive who might know the answer is Rachel's old combat partner, Carol Chang, prodigy and heroine of the Rift. Complicating things: Carol is mysterious, standoffish, and annoyingly attractive. Emma is antisocial, bad at asking questions, and desperately gay. Also, every other pilot in Hong Kong's Unit 49 - especially the ones who knew Rachel personally - seems to hold a grudge against Emma, a pilot school dropout who's only here because, as Rachel's sister, she's mentally compatible with Tokyo Calling. Worse? The Megs Rachel sacrificed herself to kill aren't just still here: they're multiplying. So much for smooth sailing. Megs won't be the only monsters Emma faces as she struggles to survive long enough to find the answers she seeks.UpdatesTuesdays. Read4+ chapters ahead on my Patreon!Here I also publicly post full HD and process timelapses of my covers—which I always draw by hand—and patrons can also access exclusive art, BTS/side stories, excerpts from other WIPs, and more. TL;DR mostly butch, diverse lesbian cast pilot giant mechs against kaijus in climate change-challenged Hong Kong. Expect some slow-burn romance, occasional spice, and lots of angst. Much yuri, such sapphic. DISCLAIMER: This is fully original content with no AI involvement. If you see errors, please let me know so I can fix them and improve. Thank you! DISCLAIMER 2 - Electric Boogaloo: This story is written in 2nd person POV, a la Harrow the Ninth and Homestuck. You’ve been warned!

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Anaktoria

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 579
Views: 74,517

What readers say about Moonwalker, Earthbound [Vol. 1 Complete]

“This one's been in my read later list for a while and now that I've caught up, I feel I really should've started much sooner. It's great. Has everything you would want from a sci fi mech novel, vivid and unique fights, team dynamics, tension, angst, lots of…”
wooden chairRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“This story, described by its author as "like Pacific Rim, but with Asian lesbians," delivers exactly what it promises, and then some. Six years after her sister Rachel's heroic sacrifice, Emma steps into the very mech her sister died inside. The story handl…”
KhetiennRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

wooden chairRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This one's been in my read later list for a while and now that I've caught up, I feel I really should've started much sooner. It's great. Has everything you would want from a sci fi mech novel, vivid and unique fights, team dynamics, tension, angst, lots of angst, meaningful interactions, character growth and YURIII YIPEEEEEE. Love the way author describes the science on how things work, really enhances the reading experience for a science nerd like me. 10/10 (if there was more biology in the novel, I would rate it 11/10, no complaints)
KhetiennRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story, described by its author as "like Pacific Rim, but with Asian lesbians," delivers exactly what it promises, and then some.
Six years after her sister Rachel's heroic sacrifice, Emma steps into the very mech her sister died inside. The story handles this grief with nuance, as something that lives in the spaces between action scenes and in the tension of Emma's relationships with her squadmates, and in the complicated feelings Tokyo itself harbors. The trauma isn't just backdrop; it's woven into the story's bones.
The narrative choice to tell this story through the perspective of Tokyo Calling, a sentient battle mech addressing protagonist Emma Kanagawa in second person, is nothing short of inspired. It's a risk that pays off brilliantly. The AI's voice is sardonic, sharp, and unexpectedly tender in equal measure. Every "you" draws us deeper into Emma's skin, making us feel the chill of saltwater, the ghosts she carries.
The prose is genuinely exceptional for web fiction. Anaktoria writes with a confidence and lyricism that makes the underwater mech combat come alive. It's visceral, kinetic, and strangely beautiful. The world-building unfolds naturally through action and dialogue rather than infodumps, giving us just enough to understand the stakes without drowning us in exposition.
Moonwalker, Earthbound is ambitious, beautifully written, and emotionally resonant. It's the kind of story that makes you excited about what web fiction can be.
mithoRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Every character in this story miserable and I love it. The characters are all pretty endearing despite their biting/standoffish demeanors throughout most of the story. I also think the usage of 2nd person perspective is really interesting, I haven't read a story written in this way and it makes it really easy to get into the main characters head space surprisingly.
nyctophilusRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Let me tell you about this masterpiece. This is an updated review from my previous one. For transparency I know the author in a capacity that I sometimes provide very limited feedback to excerpts of this fiction or read things out of order or whatever, but does that not stop me from being a mega-fan!
Style: This is a joy to read. The prose is beautiful and spins images of engineering and mechanical marvels almost being a magic of their own. The author has a meandering style, where sentences circle around on themselves or are punctuated with asides and follow up thoughts. The second person writing almost lends this an intimacy with the fourth wall that is odd to describe. We are 'you', spoken to by Tokyo, but because it's also kind of first person, we are given more insight and detailed observation than Tokyo gives the 'you' whose shoes we wear (Emma). Tokyo explicitly goes out of their way sometimes to state that the things they are saying would be against protocol to say to Emma, but we hear them anyway. It's great fun to read and very unique, and Tokyo is uniquely positioned as a narrative tool to both provide intimate assessment of events, and sassy, alien, detached commentary of them. I love them.
Story: The core mech-fight-monster concepts are known, but delivered with the fresh spin the fiction promises. And all of that is well and good. Well, actually, that's too dismissive, they are amazing, and I'm jelly constantly, but they are not the things that this fiction leaves me with (nor am I really a mech fiction reader).
What this story is fundamentally about is emotions, at least to me. It's about mourning for people you loved and turning over images of them in your head and finding comfort and regret there. But it is also about being confronted by the evidence that lingers about those people not quite matching with the memories of them, and just being left with these legacies you don't really have the tools to reconcile. Worse - people are also comparing you t
FableFishRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Moonwalker, Earthboundhas honestly hooked me from the first chapter, mainly thanks to the brave narrative choice of blending first- and second-person narration, told from the perspective of a sardonically sarky sentient battle mech (oh, hell yes). The science fiction is grounded (as grounded as 1000-foot nautical battle mechs can be), but not so much that I feel like I'm having to wade through exposition like I'm stuck in front of a science teacher's blackboard. What really stands out to me, though, is how author Anaktoria handles the trauma associated with losing a loved one. For me, this came through most clearly in the chapter "8. Friendship is Magic_01". The emotion isn't melodramatic. The protagonist, Emma, is seeking answers from a cast of characters who are clearly processing the same loss in their own way, but she's also suppressing a lot herself, the logical mind coming at loggerheads with the emotional, creating a narrative that feels close to the bone and painfully real. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable—if heartwrenching—read!
OneDropRainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Second person narration sucks. It is never done well enough to warrants its use... Right?
No it's not right at all. Anaktoria is an arch-author, a master class writer that pulled it off so well I am caught in perpetual amazement.
This style so full of intimacy pulls me as a reader into this world. I feel both a fried and a trespasser. Person that should not be hearing what Helm has to say and yet I am. I am there with them. Slowly learning how the Tokyo Calling works. How its systems boot up, how it connects with soft human tissue. Everything is detailed, from the inner workings of a machine to those of a soul, because those mechs require soul-ware to operate. She can be unprepared, over her head, lost after her sister's mysterious demise and yet slowly grow in determination to follow after the ghost trail she left and connect with AI and people that were close to her, that are close to me now, because of how this AI keeps talking to her but also to me.
Well done. You have prepared something worth every praise there is and I can't give you all that you deserve, but certainly will give all that I can.
Roman StoneRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
So I'm going to pitch you as to why giving this story a chance will be very worth your while:
First off, this is a unique beast. The story's 'off-meta': not a single stat point was allocated during production, and the giant robots aren't cultivating their chi (so far). It's a straight up sci-fi adventure, and it absolutely excels in that arena.
Style: The story is narrated in the second person, meaning everything that happens is framed in the form of one character (in this case the super intelligent AI controlling the protagonist's mecha) telling another character (the protagonist) about themselves. This is the rarest narrative style--probably because it's the easiest to mess up. This author crushes it, and the story would be worth reading just as a successful example of second person narration. Luckily, it also has great:
Story: What's out so far has unfolded as a slow series of mysteries. Little bits of the world are teased here and there that make you want more, and you're going to keep digging until you find them. Why is there a military body dedicated to piloting giant, submarine robots? What are these mysterious megafauna they're fighting? Why is so much of the world underwater? How did AI get this advanced and human integrated? Mystery upon mystery, delivered at an expert pace that allows it to build in the background while you continue to read for the character dynamics.
Characters: This is my favorite part. The human characters themselves are a little trope-y, genderbent versions of classic mil fic stereotypes with a twist here and there. The genius is that you get to learn about them through the narrative voice of an AI dissecting how they make the protagonist feel, imparting a little of the world's mystery to each. The best part is how you learn about how the protagonist's character. I won't spoil it (it's halfway through chapter 1), but it hits really hard.
Grammar: professional and polished. There are a few minor scuffs, but they'll get cleaned up as a
RoyalEclipseRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story does contain mechs and megafauna and battles, yes, those are great and we love them, but it is also so much more. This is very much a character focused story, quite a bit deeper than your average silly romp.It sinks its teeth into you and drags you down into the mire that are the protagonists thoughts and emotions, shoves your face in it and you cannot help but watch, much like one cannot look away from a burning train plummeting off of a cliff, no matter how painful it might be.First of all from a technical/style standpoint, the narration takes some getting used to (second person quasi-omniscient?) but when it clicks its just makes it all so much better. Fascinating really. But it does genuinely elevate the story, at points you are unsure where the narrator ends and the protagonist begins.The protagonist herself is unabashedly flawed and jagged and self destructive and the inner monologue will be very relatable to some, or at least to a degree. Trying to watch her navigate social encounters is much like attempting to pet a hedgehog, as she is a complicated bundle of self loathing, bravery, anxiety and dogged determination and just chefs kiss.I am taking a star off just because the rest of the cast is rather large and apart from some exceptions not all that memorable, i was absolutely lost on who is who, because the entire team got introduced almost at once and while they have their own personalities to a degree, they remain, as of right now, mostly two dimensional.As for the story, so far its light, there is an overarching plot, clearly, but it takes a backseat to the main focus, which is character interactions and the protagonists journey to becoming a true pilot, which is where the authors strengths lie and it is just interesting enough to keep me interested while watching the protagonist struggle to be a person.Good job, please continue, i will be reading.
Serana the EmperorRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
5/5 for sure.
I didn't really expect a professional work until I read this one, "Moonwalker, Earthbound."
The second-person narrative, the character development, the emotional depth, the unique style, and the control over details. It's hard to say a book with 100 pages is perfect, but Moonwalker, Earthbound definitely can be perfect as long as it moves forward.
Again, it is PROFESSIONAL. I don't think I have to say too much, like an ad. And I like it.
LucentLagombiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
What's out of this at the time I'm writing the review is pretty fantastic. It really is just a well written love letter to pacific rim. The style is a sort of pseudo second person that's interesting, the prose is neither too flowery or dry. It has a world that feels lived in which doesn't have any obvious points at which it disconnects from reality.
I gave the story a 4 and that's really only because it's a pretty well trodden idea. Not really something good or bad. What's there so far is done well.
My only real complaints revolve around the characters. Our main character sorta sucks a lot, not as in how they're written (which is believable and well done), but just as a person. That's not necessarily a bad thing except that they haven't really been showing much growth yet either. The most recent chapter might be a turning point on that which is why I put a 4 there rather than a 3.5. All of the other characters, have the kind of character interactions that draw you in and make you want to understand what they're thinking about towards eachother, which is a hallmark of good character driven fiction IMO. I just hope to start actually liking any of them other than the narrator who is perfect.
I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of this goes. It's got a ton of potential and I wouldn't be surprised if by the time we're another arc or two deep the few complaints I do have are lessened or gone entirely.
As a final note, this is definitely more a novel style of writing. If you're on here looking for light reading this may be a little on the heavy end of the spectrum. You should give it a shot anyway though!