Hugh Walters (1910–1993)

Not wonderful. The most interesting part of it was looking at what bits of science he got right, and what he got wrong, about rocket flight and a moon landing. Acceleration pressure right, earth-side control of landing rockets wrong (light-speed lag), moon dust...did the real thing dance? I think it did, which is neat. The story was a little frustrating, because it depends for its beginnings on two other books that I've never seen - the hero and a good many of the supporting cast have already been established and developed their relationships. That aside, it's a rather simple adventure novel, with a _lot_ of deus ex machina maneuvering (which, if described, would largely be spoilers - it's all the turning points of the plot!). The original threat and aim of the trip to the moon is based on the previous books (mysterious aliens built a thing on the moon that was irradiating the Earth, it was blown up last book). Not knowing those events, the point of this one is a bit diluted. Then there's rivalry between the Russians and the Brits/Americans (not indistinguishable, but working together - other nations too but those two are the primaries). The depiction of the Russians is a bit simplistic, but there are good guys and bad guys on both sides (for that period, that makes it high-end writing). Oh, it was published in 1960 - thus the interest in what it got right and wrong about a moon landing. And then a final frustration - the last page (two pages, front and back) of my copy was torn off! Now I know, 99.999%, what happened in those last paragraphs...but I want the words! Now I have to hunt down this silly book somewhere else just to get that last page. Sigh.… (more)