4.0 out of 5 stars
The First Men in the Moon: How was it?, April 27 2012
We find ourselves immersed in a time well before space travel became a reality. Our hero discovers a scientist who has an idea for a revolutionary material! They eventually produce this wondrous material and adventure ensues!
There are silly moments, happy moments, sad moments, and action-packed moments. All in all, this book was an excellent read, though someone used to the works of more recent authors may require some time to overcome the language of Wells. I would recommend it whole heartedly!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Social commentary and great adventure!, Aug 5 2007
Mr Bedford, a recently bankrupt Victorian gentleman has retired to the English countryside to recover his spirit and write a play. He meets Dr Cavor, an eccentric, quaintly comical scientific genius researching the preparation of a compound he calls "Cavorite" that will be opaque to all radiation including gravity. When a laboratory error results in the wildly successful early completion of the Cavorite project, Bedord and Cavor use it to create a sphere that is capable of travel to the moon.
The science in HG Wells' "First Men in the Moon" is now known to be wildly off the mark - anti-gravity; a lunar atmosphere that freezes during the frigid lunar night and sublimates into a rarified but breathable air during the warmer day; an extraordinarily fecund flora that seeds itself, germinates, grows, blooms and completes its life cycle during the brief sunlight hours; and a civilized but strictly class structured lunar insect-like people living under the moon's surface that Bedord and Cavor called "Selenites".
Despite its failings in the light of current scientific knowledge, "First Men in the Moon" is still an enjoyable adventure written in typical late Victorian style that gives us an early taste of 20th century science fiction space opera to follow. Just as he did in his better known novel "The Time Machine", Wells successfully uses his protagonists, Bedord and Cavor, as tools to discuss, satirize and critique deeply and dearly held British notions of class and imperialism.
Suspending your belief and accepting the science in terms of what was known and understood at the turn of the century will allow you to whisk yourself away on a space-faring adventure for an enlightening, enjoyable few hours.
Recommended.
Paul Weiss
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sci-fi classic, April 21 2011
I decided to try reading this book in order to check out the Kindle reader for iPhone. It made sense since I've always been a big fan of H. G. Wells, and the book was free. In the end I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book is quite good in its own right and makes for an engaging and gripping read. Even though the Moon does not hold the same fascination in our mind as to this day Mars does, and many of the "scientific" ideas presented in the book nowadays seem downright silly, the narrative is still very compelling and makes for a fascinating read. H. G. Wells is very good at developing an action-packed plot, and if we can somehow suspend over hundred years of new knowledge, the events and premises in the novel become very plausible. Another fascinating aspect of Wells' novels is the use of Sci-fi genre as a tool of social and political critique, and the last part of this book has a good dose of it as well. This may not be as good of a book as perhaps "The War of the Worlds" or "The Time Machine" are, but it still entertains and provokes thought after all this time has passed. I would strongly recommend it to all the classic Sci-fi fans out there.
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