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The Time Before the Moon was clearly a fun world-building exercise for Mr. Williams. The world is rich and feels lived-in. The characters are fully-fleshed out and act rationally but in fun, unexpected ways. As others have noted, the protagonist, Omi, was placed in many precarious situations which he was able to escape with relative ease. However, that did not take away from the character-building that takes place over the course of the novel, nor does it detract from the main plot.

The settings is an Earth-like world with cultural touches of the indigenous peoples of Mexico and South America. It is an epic adventure novel that follows patterns familiar to high-fantasy readers. That is not a knock on the book—just an observation that the author follows certain tropes that he is then able to twist to turn into interesting plot devices.

Overall, I loved the characters and I felt like I really understood, or even knew, Omi. He has a pet wolf for his adventures which is a fun quirk as a dog-lover myself. As his curiosity builds to rebellion he is placed in danger and has to run away from those clinging to the status quo and who are willing to do whatever it takes to maintain it.

Overall, this was a fun read with unique characters and settings. If you enjoy world-building, fun and intriguing characters, with a plot that continually moves forward, this is a great book. Go pick it up already!