In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement.
I was recently excited to find out that two early speculations on space exploration, Space Platform and Space Tug, written by one of my long-time favorite authors, Murray Leinster, had a sequel. This additional book set on the moon brings back characters from the first two books, and picks up the same theme of explorers moving into the new frontier while battling saboteurs who want to foil their efforts.When I found a copy of City on the Moon, there was an added bonus, as it was part of an Ace Double that paired it with the anthology Men on the Moon. The two books, from 1957 and 1958 respectively, speculated about what lunar exploration might be like, from the perspective of a decade before humanity’s first landings actually took place.
I purchased the book through a small dealer, Pulpsguy, who sells old science fiction and fantasy books and magazines via Amazon. They obviously take a lot of pride in their work, because the book came wrapped in plastic, surrounded by packaging material, in a cardboard box, and was shipped the day after I ordered it. The book, while preserved as well as it could have been, was very brittle, with the binding glue giving way as the pages turned, and fragments of the pages cracked off on my fingers as I read it. I’m glad I saved that plastic sleeve the dealer put it in, because it will go back inside it when I put it on my shelf.
About the Author — City on the Moon
Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins (1896-1975), a leading American science fiction writer from right after World War I into the 1960s, who wrote groundbreaking stories in a wide range of sub-genres, including first contact, time travel, alternate history, and medical issues. Leinster had no higher education, but was self-taught in a variety of fields, and was an inventor as well as a writer. I previously reviewed the NESFA Press book entitled First Contacts: The Essential Murray Leinster (you can find that review here), the collection Med Ship (find the review here), and the two prequels to City on the Moon; Space Platform and Space Tug (find the review here). You can find a number of Leinster’s stories and novels on Project Gutenberg, including Space Platform and Space Tug.
About the Editor and Authors — Men on the Moon
Donald A. Wollheim (1914-1990) was an American science fiction editor, author, and fan. His fan publications led him to editing science fiction magazines, then to publishing anthologies (of which there were many), and eventually to founding DAW Books.
Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994) was a prominent American science fiction author who published a number of works from the late 1920s to the mid-1980s. You can read a review of The Best of Raymond Z. Gallun here.
A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984) was a British/Australian merchant marine officer and a long-time author of science fiction. He is best known for his Rim World series, and stories that followed the career of the fictional spacefaring officer John Grimes.
Frank M. Robinson (1926-2014) was an American journalist, speechwriter, and writer of science fiction and techno-thrillers. He is best known for works that became the basis for films, most notably The Glass Inferno, adapted as The Towering Inferno.
H. B. Fyfe (1918-1997) was an American science fiction author who wrote from the 1940s to 1960s, and whose work primarily appeared in Astounding/Analog magazine.
Murray Leinster’s biographical information is listed above.
Our Nearest Neighbor in Space
The Moon has long been a source of fascination for humanity. The Moon affects the pulse of our ocean tides, seismic activity, and even the biology and moods of Earth’s inhabitants. It is close enough to have been examined in detail for centuries, and once we had the ability to journey beyond our own planet, it was a natural first destination for explorers. But it is also a barren and airless wasteland, which somewhat lessens its attractiveness. After a handful of manned landings during the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, the Moon has not been visited for five decades.
Science fiction writers have long speculated on activities that could generate travel between the Earth and Moon. They predicted the Moon could provide a location for hidden nuclear missile bases, a site for experiments or manufacture too dangerous or pollution-heavy to be attempted on Earth, a source for food grown in underground caverns and sent to Earth via catapults, a source of minerals, a destination for tourists, or a refueling station for interplanetary voyages. One of the most recent suggestions involves harvesting Helium-3 suspected to be in the Moon’s surface dust, an isotope scarce on Earth, which could be used in nuclear fusion reactors. But even with gravity lighter than Earth’s, the Moon still is at the bottom of a fairly steep gravity well, and any minerals or materials that could be gathered there would be much easier to collect from asteroids.
City on the Moon
The book opens with Joe Kenmore and his co-worker Moreau in their moon-jeep, traveling back to the lunar outpost, Civilian City, after collecting a supply rocket that landed nearby. Joe originally joined the space program as a technical representative, flying to the Space Platform to maintain gyroscopes. The Space Platform is a US outpost, and since Joe’s world doesn’t have the Outer Space Treaty we have in the real world, the platform is armed with nuclear weapons the US uses to enforce stability on the Earth. Naturally, a lot of nations resent this, and the space program is plagued by not only sabotage, but eventually by open military attacks. Joe has distinguished himself by foiling some of this sabotage, and by flying a prototype Space Tug—first to defend the Space Platform, and then to rescue a military mission to the moon that ran into problems. Now he works at Civilian City, an international outpost, which shares the moon with radar observing outposts as well as secret US military missile installations. There is also a space-based atomic energy research facility in the LaGrange point on the far side of the moon.
Once again, sabotage rears its ugly head, and Joe’s moon-jeep is caught in what appears to be a deliberately caused avalanche. One of the four giant tires of the moon-jeep is damaged, and they cannot reach Civilian City via radio. Then, to make matters worse, they receive an emergency call from an incoming ship that can’t find a landing beacon. In addition to famed broadcaster Cecile Ducros, the rocket carries her assistant (and Joe’s fiancée) Arlene Grey. [I thought Joe’s romantic interest in the previous books was named Sally, so either he’s a more fickle romantic partner than I thought, or Leinster forgot the name of his female lead between volumes, or else a meddling editor changed the name.]
Joe and Moreau reach Civilian City to find it mostly depressurized and abandoned, except for the eccentric and grouchy Pitkin, who was left behind during a confused evacuation. When the domes began to fail, the leaders panicked, opening sealed directions, and heading out in their moon-jeeps to take shelter in the secret military bases. The depressurization was caused by slashing the plastic domes, and proves relatively simple to repair. After stabilizing Civilian City, Joe and Moreau head out to rescue Cecile and Arlene from their crashed rocket. They succeed, and are then visited by the supply shuttle for the atomic research laboratory, piloted by Joe’s diminutive old friend, Mike Scandia. Something is wrong at the laboratory, and they are ordered by Earth to deliver orders directly to the lab, which can’t be radioed directly because the Earth does not have a line of sight to the facility. Arlene convinces Joe to take her along, and he agrees largely because the shuttle seems safer than the partially repaired base. But the same saboteurs who damaged the domes have mixed more powerful solid fuel elements with the standard ones for the shuttle, and they crash. [Liquid fuel rockets have their maintenance issues, but the system of using small solid fuel boosters Leinster describes seems rather dubious as a workable alternative.]
They are rescued by a moon-jeep driven by another of Joe’s old friends, a steel-working Native American called Chief, who has been working at one of the radar tracking sites. Cecile starts broadcasting news stories, and proves to be a rather despicable character who lies as easily as she breathes, and takes credit for the accomplishments of others. The authorities on Earth insist their message must be delivered to the laboratory, so Joe and company repair the shuttle, replace the mis-labelled solid fuel boosters, and head out.
The staff of the laboratory has gone mad, and have overpressurized their facility, making it impossible for Joe to remove them without giving them the bends. They think they have discovered atomic secrets that could cause a universe-destroying chain reaction, and have decided to die rather than share the secrets (these kinds of universe-threatening events always sound phony to me, because if it was so easy to destroy a universe, it probably would have already happened). Joe realizes they can’t be reasoned with, and heads out just in time to avoid being blown up as they explode their facility (in a way that doesn’t destroy the universe).
There are still lots of challenges facing Joe, as the occupants of Civilian City have not reached the military facilities to which they were evacuating. And then they have to find the saboteurs, who take Arlene hostage, allowing the story to culminate with a thrilling rescue. But Joe is despondent because the end of the atomic laboratory dashes hopes that better space propulsion methods can be developed, and he fears getting to the moon might be the end of humanity’s exploration of space. Conveniently, a lunar scientist then shows up who has found flaws in the orbital laboratory staff’s theories; he’s developed the new form of atomic propulsion humanity needs, and invites Joe and Arlene to accompany him on the first ship built with this new propulsion system.
Man on the Moon
The flip side of the Ace Double turned out to be a collection of five short stories. And while not all the books paired in Ace Doubles had common themes, this one does, and the collection complements Leinster’s novel quite nicely.
The first story, “Operation Pumice,” by Raymond Z. Gallun, is a straightforward telling of the first mission to circle the moon and observe its far side. It describes how a single astronaut in a chemical rocket, launched from somewhere in the Western United States, carries out the mission, and is a pretty scientifically plausible account. What gives the story life is the presence of a young runaway at the launch site, whose determination in traveling across the country to see the launch has given the astronaut hope for further future exploration. It is a surprising sentimental tale.
The next story, “Jetsam,” by A. Bertram Chandler, relies on a twist at the end. You don’t see as many stories like this these days, probably because almost all the possible twists became clichés long ago. Human explorers land on the moon, only to find debris left behind by another incredibly ancient human expedition. Chandler’s seagoing experience shines through with a lot of small details that make the story feel real. The twist deals with who those ancient humans were, and while clever, hasn’t aged well.
The third story, “The Reluctant Heroes,” by Frank M. Robinson, is a tale of the first permanent outpost on the moon. The story is gritty and realistic, and deals with the hardships and boredom of living in a harsh environment. The protagonist wants nothing more than to return home, but after some cruel treatment and reversals of fortune, in the end, home comes to him.
The story “Moonwalk” comes from H.B. Fyfe, and is an intense tale of survival. An explorer has leaves his vehicle to examine something, only to watch as the vehicle and all his companions tumble over a cliff. All he can salvage from the wreckage is a large oxygen tank, and his only chance for survival is to begin a long trek across the lunar surface. Fyfe did his homework, and the result is a realistic and evocative tale of survival in a strange environment.
The final story in the collection, “Keyhole,” by Murray Leinster, is another one with a twist at the end, and it telegraphs that twist from the start with an anecdote about a psychologist who puts a chimpanzee into a room to observe his behavior, and looks through the keyhole of the door, only to see the eye of the chimpanzee looking back at him. So, when we join a researcher on the moon tasked with examining a lunar simian that has evolved to survive in the barren, airless environment, we are expecting to find that things are not what they seem. The simians have been attacking and killing humans, and humanity needs the moon as a stepping stone to other planets, so the researcher is expected to find a way for the simians to be destroyed. Instead, he finds the simians are much smarter than anyone anticipated, and while human arrogance almost spoils things, it turns out the simians are the ones with a solution to everyone’s dilemma.
Final Thoughts
I was delighted to find another installment in the series Leinster started with Space Platform and Space Tug, and City on the Moon lived up to my hopes. It was an entertaining tale, and while some of the technological speculation hasn’t aged well, it was a fun adventure that kept me turning pages. Joe, its everyman protagonist, keeps things grounded, and it’s a joy to see him solving one problem after another to save the day.
The companion short story collection, Men on the Moon, was also a good one, with tales well selected by Wollheim. I especially enjoyed the survival tale “Moonwalk,” and Leinster’s “Keyhole” story that brought the volume to a close.
And now I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these stories in particular, or on lunar adventures in general…
*eye-twitch*
That’s factually accurate, in the sense “some have proposed the Earth is flat” is technically accurate, but it overlooks all the reasons why it’s a silly idea, starting with “we don’t have fusion generators and will not any time soon, and if we did, they’d burn D+T.”
Comparing aneutronic fusion to flat-Earth theory is hyperbolic and incorrect. It’s not an ignorant fantasy, it’s a perfectly sound theory that simply has practical obstacles to implementation, including the greater difficulty of achieving an aneutronic reaction and the likely scarcity of He-3 in Lunar regolith. Maybe the Moon isn’t the best place to get He-3 from after all, but if we could get it (from the Solar wind, say), it would allow a safer, better form of fusion than D-T fusion, providing the practical obstacles could be overcome.
Also, the first fusion experiment that broke even and produced more energy than it consumed was achieved in 2022, so I’d say we’re a step closer to practical fusion than we’ve ever been before.
What’s inaccurate in the quoted passage is calling Lunar He-3 mining “one of the most recent suggestions.” The idea’s been around for nearly 40 years now. I still have a printout of a 1990 article about it, and I remember reading about it even earlier in a science magazine.
The Helium-3 idea, even if it has been around for a while, is still the most recent item on my “why visit the moon?” list.
Which make me sad, because it used to be each decade came up with its own unconvincing case for space:
John Jacob Astor IV: New animals to shoot!
.
.
Clarke: facilitate communications
Heinlein & company: the high ground from which to dominate The Enemy.
Cole and Cox: increasing human-occupied area in proportion to our increase in destructive potential.
O’Neill: solving the energy and resource crisis
Lunar 3He: a desperate bid to find something potentially useful not more easily obtained on Earth.
Clarke didn’t understand the rules of the game and provided a killer app.
Thanks for adding some context. I had a feeling the whole Helium-3 thing was more speculation than fact, but didn’t know enough about the topic to make a value judgement.