Reviews for The Moon-Voyage

The average rating for The Moon-Voyage based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-07-07 00:00:00 Rodrigo Golla The Moon-Voyage, free on Amazon and in the public domain, is actually two stories, "From Earth To The Moon," and "Round The Moon." The first depicts the idea for going to the moon and the extensive preparations leading up to launch. The second describes the events after launch, as experienced by the three men inside the "bullet" as it's on its way to an encounter with the moon. As it begins it seems to be a farce, but the book is a tedious read in many places. Verne describes in detail almost every phase of construction in the preparations, and the science and engineering behind it. It's almost a tutorial on how to do it. Especially interesting, however, was the explanation of how the men inside the "bullet" would survive the firing of that bullet into space. Verne makes it all seem possible, but I get the feeling that he might have fudged a little. In fact, I'm sure he fudged almost all of it, but, again, he makes it seem plausible, almost as if the whole project could have indeed been built and carried out in 1865. And that's the real genius behind the book. That Jules Verne could have conceived of a trip to the moon at that time, and then fashion a detailed treatise on how to do it. His writing, of course, is very old-fashioned, not up to the level of some of his contemporaries like Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), and a slightly later founding father of Science Fiction, H. G. Wells. But Jules Verne indeed earned his spot in the annals of Science Fiction, and his stories should be read by all fans of the genre. His description of the moon close up is compelling and in many places sounds like what we've seen there. I do find fault with his characters, primarily the three men who make the trip. The characterization is sketchy, and from what we know of them they are tops in their respective fields. However, outside of their work, they appear spectacularly stupid, almost unbothered-even to the point of unrecognizing-the true dangers around them. Still, it's a fun read in some aspects. Its historical significance is immeasurable, and the knowledge and research involved in writing the story was considerable. It seemed to have been written for the scientifically minded at the time, but it caught on with the masses, which were fascinated by the details. It inspired the first Science Fiction movie, made in 1902. Much about Verne's science was wrong, but at the time he wrote it his depiction was pretty much state-of-the-art. For reasons I just described, and the fact that it's classic Jules Verne, I rate it at four stars out of five, and recommend this to all open-minded fans of Science Fiction.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-06-15 00:00:00 Jonathan Mulgrew One volume containing both 'From the Earth to the Moon' and 'Round the Moon' by Jules Verne...