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kaine_'s review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
katzielonko's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
planetwhileaway's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
smiorganbaldhead's review against another edition
5.0
4.5/5. This is a very enjoyable book. It doesn't take long to get into the main plot, and stays engaging throughout the book. I really enjoyed the sequence of problems that arose and how they were resolved in a logical way. There's one subplot involving the passenger from New Zealand that didn't really work as well. It felt like comic relief, or perhaps meant as a link to The Sentinel / 2001. Still, that part is a minor distraction in an otherwise great book.
thisotherbookaccount's review against another edition
2.0
This clearly isn't Arthur C Clarke's best book, and it makes sense, since this is one of his earlier works. I just didn't expect it to be so dramatically different from his later books — which also happen to be some of my favourite science fictions of all time, mind you. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama are like beacons in a way, shining a light on what the genre can do to make readers think about bigger questions. What I love about Clarke is the way he asks big questions with simple, direct language, and he doesn't boggle the readers down with hard science details.
A Fall of Moondust isn't a overly complex love letter to science by any means, but it's not much of anything either. At the core of it, it is a rescue mission on the moon, and that's about it. Twenty-two passengers are stranded in a buried moon boat, and they have to be rescued by outside forces. The rest of the book is about the passengers and crew trying to survive, all while people on the outside try to get to them before time runs out.
I make it sound more exciting than it is, but it isn't. Clarke isn't good at writing tension. I'm guessing, since it was earlier on in his career, he was trying to write a pulpy disaster/adventure book to pay the rent. Judging by the accompanying text on my copy of the book, this book surely did quite well for Clarke and his career ("6 million copies sold!"). But this book is devoid of what makes Clarke Clarke, and the central event in this book isn't terribly exciting. The 'climax' of the book involves people on the outside drilling some holes into the hull — that's it. That's all there is to it.
The characters aren't particularly notable, either. You want to root for the people trapped inside the boat because, well, we are supposed to be spending a lot of time with them, right? But these characters are mostly caricatures you'd find in a science fiction story from the mid 20th century. Women, obviously, are completely sidelined and always on the verge of hysterics. Oh, there is one competent female crew, yes, but she turns out to be the love interest — as if we didn't see THAT coming.
I don't know what I was expecting with this book, to be honest. The Martian by Andy Weir from the golden age of science fiction, perhaps? Is that too much to ask for? The only thing going for this book is the fact that it isn't very long. At 215 pages, the staleness of the story goes away fairly quickly. Reading this book feels like a train trip through an unexciting countryside. There's nothing much to see outside the window, and you are stuck people-watching in the cabin — but it's OK, because the next stop is coming up soon.
A Fall of Moondust isn't a overly complex love letter to science by any means, but it's not much of anything either. At the core of it, it is a rescue mission on the moon, and that's about it. Twenty-two passengers are stranded in a buried moon boat, and they have to be rescued by outside forces. The rest of the book is about the passengers and crew trying to survive, all while people on the outside try to get to them before time runs out.
I make it sound more exciting than it is, but it isn't. Clarke isn't good at writing tension. I'm guessing, since it was earlier on in his career, he was trying to write a pulpy disaster/adventure book to pay the rent. Judging by the accompanying text on my copy of the book, this book surely did quite well for Clarke and his career ("6 million copies sold!"). But this book is devoid of what makes Clarke Clarke, and the central event in this book isn't terribly exciting. The 'climax' of the book involves people on the outside drilling some holes into the hull — that's it. That's all there is to it.
The characters aren't particularly notable, either. You want to root for the people trapped inside the boat because, well, we are supposed to be spending a lot of time with them, right? But these characters are mostly caricatures you'd find in a science fiction story from the mid 20th century. Women, obviously, are completely sidelined and always on the verge of hysterics. Oh, there is one competent female crew, yes, but she turns out to be the love interest — as if we didn't see THAT coming.
I don't know what I was expecting with this book, to be honest. The Martian by Andy Weir from the golden age of science fiction, perhaps? Is that too much to ask for? The only thing going for this book is the fact that it isn't very long. At 215 pages, the staleness of the story goes away fairly quickly. Reading this book feels like a train trip through an unexciting countryside. There's nothing much to see outside the window, and you are stuck people-watching in the cabin — but it's OK, because the next stop is coming up soon.
ep916's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
tacanderson's review against another edition
3.0
One of the best parts of reading sci-fi written before space travel is that everything was so speculative. The worst part is that it carries with it some of the predominant biases of the time (e.g. women don't really like math). It's hard to be critical of such an important writer (Brittain's preeminent science fiction literary award is named after him, after all), but this is not one of Arthur C Clarke's better known works for a reason. It's a little slow in parts and felt lacking in some of the character development in favor of explaining things like how broadcasting from the moon would work. Despite all that (and largely because of some of that), I still found this an interesting read. If you can look past the science and cultural flaws (much like reading [a:Jules Verne|696805|Jules Verne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322911579p2/696805.jpg]) and think of it more like an anthropological view into a very pivotal time for science fiction from one of sci-fi's most influential authors (much like reading [a:Jules Verne|696805|Jules Verne|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1322911579p2/696805.jpg]), then it's an enjoyable read.
fedor_ulysses's review
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
nakedcardboard's review
4.0
Arthur C. Clarke was in his early 40’s when he wrote A Fall Of Moondust. It was one of his first novels. I’ve never found Clarke’s prose particularly elegant, but it certainly became more nuanced over time. Earlier work, like Moondust, is more mechanical and workman-like. It’s got a raw quality to it. This is perhaps most evident when he tries to illustrate characters with detail, always seemingly written with a perfunctory attitude. The text is also riddled with the sexism of a middle aged white man in the 1960’s, but Clarke tries to be as progressive as he can. Where the book really shines is in the technical rumination of the rescue effort.
Clarke was a game-changer with his early books, being one of the first to bring “real science” into science-fiction. Though the soviets had landed an object on the moon a couple years prior, it would be a further 8 years before the first human beings walked on the moon - so data was scarce. This is evidenced by the imagining of “seas” of dust. While there was plenty of fine regolith covering the moon, it didn’t accumulate more than a few inches, or behave exactly as Clarke had surmised. Still, when his writing in Moondust focuses on the applied physics of the sunken Serene, it’s highly engaging and entertaining in the same way Andy Weir’s “The Martian” was. The reader might not be an engineer or a physicist, but most of us will understand the basic principles put forth by the writer, and that attention to technical detail mixed with the overarching survival story is what drives this book to greatness, and got it nominated for the Hugo award.
Clarke was a game-changer with his early books, being one of the first to bring “real science” into science-fiction. Though the soviets had landed an object on the moon a couple years prior, it would be a further 8 years before the first human beings walked on the moon - so data was scarce. This is evidenced by the imagining of “seas” of dust. While there was plenty of fine regolith covering the moon, it didn’t accumulate more than a few inches, or behave exactly as Clarke had surmised. Still, when his writing in Moondust focuses on the applied physics of the sunken Serene, it’s highly engaging and entertaining in the same way Andy Weir’s “The Martian” was. The reader might not be an engineer or a physicist, but most of us will understand the basic principles put forth by the writer, and that attention to technical detail mixed with the overarching survival story is what drives this book to greatness, and got it nominated for the Hugo award.