- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Modern Library; New edition edition (Jun 10 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 081296831X
- ISBN-13: 978-0812968316
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.5 x 20.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 195 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #366,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“Written with astonishing animation and lucidity.” —G. K. Chesterton
Book Description
“Why do people read science fiction? In hopes of receiving such writing as this—a ravishingly accurate vision of things unseen; an utterly unexpected yet necessary beauty.” So says Ursula K. Le Guin in her Introduction to The First Men in the Moon, H. G. Wells’s 1901 tale of space travel. Heavily criticized upon publication for its fantastic ideas, it is now justly considered a science fiction classic.
Cavor, a brilliant scientist who accidentally produces a gravity-defying substance, builds a spaceship and, along with the materialistic Bedford, travels to the moon. The coldly intellectual Cavor seeks knowledge, while Bedford seeks fortune. Instead of insight and gold they encounter the Selenites, a horrifying race of biologically engineered creatures who viciously, and successfully, defend their home.
Cavor, a brilliant scientist who accidentally produces a gravity-defying substance, builds a spaceship and, along with the materialistic Bedford, travels to the moon. The coldly intellectual Cavor seeks knowledge, while Bedford seeks fortune. Instead of insight and gold they encounter the Selenites, a horrifying race of biologically engineered creatures who viciously, and successfully, defend their home.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The First Men in the Moon: How was it?,
This review is from: The First Men in the Moon (Paperback)
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!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Social commentary and great adventure!,
By
This review is from: First Men in the Moon (Paperback)
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
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Sci-fi classic,
By
This review is from: The First Men in the Moon (Paperback)
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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