Scan barcode
mayoroffailure's review against another edition
2.0
As I’ve spoken about in other reviews, Mr. Clarke is certainly a writer that I would consider to be on the Mount Rushmore of classic science fiction writers, and it's not often that I’m let down by writers who I would consider to be on the rock face. My interactions with Mr. Clarke’s writing to this point have been completely positive and so when I noticed this book on Amazon and was intrigued by the proposed storyline, I bought it without hesitation. I would never have guessed that it would end up being the most boring thing that I would read in 2018.
What I find to be the strangest thing about this book is that all of the pieces are in place for an absolutely thrilling story about survival. You would think that writing a story about people trapped inside a vehicle where they will eventually suffocate would be an excellent table with which to lay all sorts of suspense, paranoia, and betrayal upon, but Mr. Clarke didn’t take this route. Instead, Mr. Clarke decided to use the situation to examine how engineers would potentially rescue the people trapped, and it’s an incredibly arduous read.
I’d like to take a moment to discuss why it is that you need to have some sort of conflict in your story beyond the basic igniting incident. In A Fall of Moondust the igniting incident is the sinking of the boat that our characters are on, this is the primary reason for all the story that is to follow. We find the characters in a situation where they have limited air and so the engineers have to race against the clock to find a solution that will either pull the boat up from beneath the dust or get the passengers out of the craft. Now, this would ordinarily provide all the suspense that you would need, but only if the reader is directly experiencing the events at hand, but when the reader can put the book down at any time or remove themselves from the story then the suspense of the initial conflict loses its potency.
So how do you keep a reader invested? You introduce more conflict into the story. Now, Mr. Clarke, credit where it’s due, did try to do a little of this. As the story progresses the engineers encounter issues with their plans and things don’t always go as they intended, but the fatal error in the writing here was that Mr. Clarke never introduced any conflict into the scenes where we see the people on the boat dealing with their life or death situation. Up until the last thirty pages or so, the people trapped on the vessel are completely calm, they don’t panic, they play cards and read books, and it's incredibly boring. When you marry that with the continuous technical talking of the engineering scenes A Fall of Moondust becomes a book that reads more like a fictitious training scenario for future safety engineers than anything else.
A comparison between this book and The Martian seems fairly apt in my opinion. Both of these books are hard science fiction that focuses on the real scientific implications of their situation, both involve a person or people stranded in a situation where rescue is needed, and both books contain two storylines that involve the stranded and their perspective rescuers. While I criticized some of the quality of the writing in my review of The Martian I think that it excels where A Fall of Moondust fails. As Mark Watney and his helpers continue to work towards his rescue on the Martian surface, they encounter issue after issue that keeps the tension high, raises the stakes, and keeps the reader continually invested in seeing him survive.
There is none of that in A Fall of Moondust as the people trapped in the sunken vessel would appear to be the calmest and compliant people, I think I’ve ever seen in a novel, and it almost becomes unrealistic to me. As things continually get worse for the people stuck inside the craft, they never get more upset or turn on each other or even argue. I can’t claim to be an expert on situations like the one presented in the book but I would find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be even a small amount of conflict between people trapped in their situation.
A book like A Fall of Moondust just proves that we can’t always expect the same standard of excellence that we get from a writer in the greatest of their works. While the writing in this novel is clear and well presented, its content leaves much to be desired. Hard science fiction can be the most difficult in the genre to write because the author has to balance technical details with writing an engaging story, and while Mr. Clarke may have failed on this go around my confidence in his face being on the Rushmore of science fiction is unchanged.
What I find to be the strangest thing about this book is that all of the pieces are in place for an absolutely thrilling story about survival. You would think that writing a story about people trapped inside a vehicle where they will eventually suffocate would be an excellent table with which to lay all sorts of suspense, paranoia, and betrayal upon, but Mr. Clarke didn’t take this route. Instead, Mr. Clarke decided to use the situation to examine how engineers would potentially rescue the people trapped, and it’s an incredibly arduous read.
I’d like to take a moment to discuss why it is that you need to have some sort of conflict in your story beyond the basic igniting incident. In A Fall of Moondust the igniting incident is the sinking of the boat that our characters are on, this is the primary reason for all the story that is to follow. We find the characters in a situation where they have limited air and so the engineers have to race against the clock to find a solution that will either pull the boat up from beneath the dust or get the passengers out of the craft. Now, this would ordinarily provide all the suspense that you would need, but only if the reader is directly experiencing the events at hand, but when the reader can put the book down at any time or remove themselves from the story then the suspense of the initial conflict loses its potency.
So how do you keep a reader invested? You introduce more conflict into the story. Now, Mr. Clarke, credit where it’s due, did try to do a little of this. As the story progresses the engineers encounter issues with their plans and things don’t always go as they intended, but the fatal error in the writing here was that Mr. Clarke never introduced any conflict into the scenes where we see the people on the boat dealing with their life or death situation. Up until the last thirty pages or so, the people trapped on the vessel are completely calm, they don’t panic, they play cards and read books, and it's incredibly boring. When you marry that with the continuous technical talking of the engineering scenes A Fall of Moondust becomes a book that reads more like a fictitious training scenario for future safety engineers than anything else.
A comparison between this book and The Martian seems fairly apt in my opinion. Both of these books are hard science fiction that focuses on the real scientific implications of their situation, both involve a person or people stranded in a situation where rescue is needed, and both books contain two storylines that involve the stranded and their perspective rescuers. While I criticized some of the quality of the writing in my review of The Martian I think that it excels where A Fall of Moondust fails. As Mark Watney and his helpers continue to work towards his rescue on the Martian surface, they encounter issue after issue that keeps the tension high, raises the stakes, and keeps the reader continually invested in seeing him survive.
There is none of that in A Fall of Moondust as the people trapped in the sunken vessel would appear to be the calmest and compliant people, I think I’ve ever seen in a novel, and it almost becomes unrealistic to me. As things continually get worse for the people stuck inside the craft, they never get more upset or turn on each other or even argue. I can’t claim to be an expert on situations like the one presented in the book but I would find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be even a small amount of conflict between people trapped in their situation.
A book like A Fall of Moondust just proves that we can’t always expect the same standard of excellence that we get from a writer in the greatest of their works. While the writing in this novel is clear and well presented, its content leaves much to be desired. Hard science fiction can be the most difficult in the genre to write because the author has to balance technical details with writing an engaging story, and while Mr. Clarke may have failed on this go around my confidence in his face being on the Rushmore of science fiction is unchanged.
sonofthunder's review against another edition
4.0
And now for something a bit lighter! This was a brilliant little sci-fi novel. Published in 1961, this is truly a classic sci-fi work of the golden age. I need to start reading more Clarke! I loved this book because it posited a future in which man has a colony on the Moon...and that's just perfectly normal! The plot of the book revolves around a "tourist bus" of sorts being sucked into a sea of dust on the face of the moon...and the struggle for survival by the crew and passengers of the bus while meanwhile the sturdy engineers from the colony attempt to mount a search/extract/rescue operation. This book was a thrill ride...just when you think things are all well and safe...guess again! And I of course loved all the detailed accounts of the engineers' efforts to rescue the people. Plenty of delicious engineering details. The characters are sketched just enough for one to care about them, although they may come across a bit flat to modern sensibilities. But the sheer competence and intelligence of most of the main characters was a joy to experience. Heartily recommend, would read again. (And yes, I do need to read more by Clarke now)
folly_problem's review against another edition
4.0
A fun little story full of conversation and engineering, the two staples of Clarke's golden age sci-fi. This one more than others I've read deals with topics related more to the then-contemporary Earth, and it is maybe these that most show the age of the book, or rather perhaps some of the more uncomfortable views that may have been totally unquestioned at the time.
For example infrequent but repeated mentions of a woman's weight, emphasising at the end how the journey has influenced the men, and a brief mention of Australian history that manages to mention both the violence of colonialism and yet also claim it turned out okay. None of these derails the book, they are small details, not much dwelt upon, which can pull you out of the experience for a few sentences before you once more immerse yourself.
In spite of this the majority of the book plays out like a nice little thriller, how will they get out? How will they cope? And the pacing is good as always in Clarke's work.
For example infrequent but repeated mentions of a woman's weight, emphasising at the end how the journey has influenced the men, and a brief mention of Australian history that manages to mention both the violence of colonialism and yet also claim it turned out okay. None of these derails the book, they are small details, not much dwelt upon, which can pull you out of the experience for a few sentences before you once more immerse yourself.
In spite of this the majority of the book plays out like a nice little thriller, how will they get out? How will they cope? And the pacing is good as always in Clarke's work.
charlottej's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
One of the first novels by Arthur C Clarke that I read as a kid. Part hard science fiction, part suspenseful thriller, it was a good story then and now.
This is a book about saving the lives of people on the moon. It is along the same lines as The Martian, using science and clever ideas to overcome setbacks. Instead of one person trapped, it is a group of 20, and Clarke has fun with their group dynamic. He also uses them as a vehicle to discuss the cult of UFO watchers. Other characters are also solid, from the savvy reporter to the unlikable genius who runs the rescue effort. Some of the science is a bit dated, but this was written almost a decade before anyone walked on the moon.
As to rereading this, I remembered the basic situation and form of rescue, but the various dialog and interactions of the trapped tourists was forgotten. The reality does not detract from the nostalgia. Though my teen self may have rated this a 5 star book, I think it is closer to 4.5 stars.
This is a book about saving the lives of people on the moon. It is along the same lines as The Martian, using science and clever ideas to overcome setbacks. Instead of one person trapped, it is a group of 20, and Clarke has fun with their group dynamic. He also uses them as a vehicle to discuss the cult of UFO watchers. Other characters are also solid, from the savvy reporter to the unlikable genius who runs the rescue effort. Some of the science is a bit dated, but this was written almost a decade before anyone walked on the moon.
As to rereading this, I remembered the basic situation and form of rescue, but the various dialog and interactions of the trapped tourists was forgotten. The reality does not detract from the nostalgia. Though my teen self may have rated this a 5 star book, I think it is closer to 4.5 stars.
sbeni's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
cybergit's review
5.0
Somethings just don't age and a truly well written, science based novel is one of them. Re-read this book after what must be forty years and it was still good. OK some of the attitudes were a little off particularly around the role of women, bit these are just historical anomalies and don't really distract from a cracking good story.
Interestingly this book was first published in 1964 well before the moon landings. At one point in the narrative Clarke mentions the fact that from the surface of the moon you cannot see the stars because of the brightness of the moons surface. Strangely the fact that you cannot see the stars in pictures from the Apollo moon landing is often cited as proof that we did not go there by the lunatics who think the moon landings were staged! The power of reasoned logic escapes some people - ho hum :-)
Interestingly this book was first published in 1964 well before the moon landings. At one point in the narrative Clarke mentions the fact that from the surface of the moon you cannot see the stars because of the brightness of the moons surface. Strangely the fact that you cannot see the stars in pictures from the Apollo moon landing is often cited as proof that we did not go there by the lunatics who think the moon landings were staged! The power of reasoned logic escapes some people - ho hum :-)
scytale's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-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
4.0
alex_ellermann's review
5.0
What a brilliant novel.
Combining "man against nature" with "small group in a pressure cooker," A FALL OF MOONDUST provides drama, a bit of comedy, and bucketloads of suspense. Clarke's novel, written in 1961, prefigures stories such as APOLLO 13, ALL IS LOST, and THE MARTIAN.
If you enjoy plausible (for its time) science fiction, problem solving, and tightly-plotted novels, this book's for you.
Combining "man against nature" with "small group in a pressure cooker," A FALL OF MOONDUST provides drama, a bit of comedy, and bucketloads of suspense. Clarke's novel, written in 1961, prefigures stories such as APOLLO 13, ALL IS LOST, and THE MARTIAN.
If you enjoy plausible (for its time) science fiction, problem solving, and tightly-plotted novels, this book's for you.
eleanor_nicbhatair's review
4.0
I very much enjoyed this book! It gave me The Martian vibes and is another great book by Arthur C Clarke. He is a brilliant storyteller and I love seeing The Moon from this classic angle. I greatly enjoy classic Science Fiction for its futuristic ideas that seem silly to us now.