Whoa, thank goodness I didn't read the back cover of the book, or else several fun surprises would be spoiled.

Holy Verne, it's been so long since my last fix of his work. Two years perhaps. From the Earth to the Moon is light but still well written. This book was published in 1865, more than a hundred years (!) prior to the first successful moon landing by the men of Apollo 11.

I'm not able to prove all the scientific calculation and details described so eloquently here, but they're sure as hell convincing enough. Again, Verne never ceases to amaze me with his knack of making technical details to be interesting.

He actually made some correct predictions, such as:
1. the country who successfully sent a manned mission to the moon is the US. Well, he did manage to include a French guy to join the mission - nationalistic interest perhaps?
2. the two states contesting to be the launch site were Florida and Texas. Yep, and Florida won too in real life.
3. the shape of the capsule and there were three people on board. Remember Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins?

Verne did see far into the future. And he complemented all of those with wisecracking humor in between. Je vous adore beaucoup, monsieur!

Distance is an empty word, distance does not exist!
Believe in the power of imagination and let it flow, because you'll never know what the future holds. ( )

While the science about the moon is certainly dated, this adventure is still chockful of enthusiastic suppositions about what might be on the moon. There were several sections which were dry calculations, but the chapters were short and the story kept moving. In fact, there were some assumptions Verne made which are very close to fact, and the troubles which the trio encounter in their projectile mirrored some of those of Apollo 13, many years later--and the characters prefigure some of the resolutions (think about the problems with oxygen). All in all, I enjoyed the read. ( )

This contemporary translation by Edward Roth is more entertaining than the other version of Journey to the Moon I have read and reviewed on LT (which though described as unabridged, was only two thirds of the length of this one). There are still large parts of these stories that are dry and technical and the sense of exuberance and naivety exhibited by the characters is quite hilarious and a bit wearing in the post-space age era. Worth reading as an example of 19th century SF adventure rather than anything else, perhaps. ( )

Mostly rather dull, lacking the sense of dynamism and adventure of Verne's other classics, at least until the final third of the novel when Captain Nicholls properly joins the plot as Michel Ardan's and Barbicane's antagonist. The early part of the book reads too much like a dry Victorian technical manual on casting cannons. I also find it difficult to get past the now ridiculous science. ( )

Innocent days when a cannon could be used to fire an inhabited shell to the Moon. In a nod to sanity, the shell was padded inside so as not to squish the occupants upon impact. I must have been about 10 when I read this, along with everything else by Verne.