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Sam Durell #26
Assignment - Moon Girl
THE GIRL FROM THE MOON
The Russians claimed her because she was half-Russian.
The Chinese claimed her because she was half-Chinese.
The Iranians claimed her because she was in their country.
The British said she didn't exist...and if she did she was a liar, a psychotic, or both.
And Har-Buri? He posed a deadly riddle with both the Lady and the Tiger.
This is the baffling and dangerous game Sam Durell is assigned to play, where the sky is literally the limit and the prize is the lovely girl who lived on the moon and returned to tell about it...
The Russians claimed her because she was half-Russian.
The Chinese claimed her because she was half-Chinese.
The Iranians claimed her because she was in their country.
The British said she didn't exist...and if she did she was a liar, a psychotic, or both.
And Har-Buri? He posed a deadly riddle with both the Lady and the Tiger.
This is the baffling and dangerous game Sam Durell is assigned to play, where the sky is literally the limit and the prize is the lovely girl who lived on the moon and returned to tell about it...
- GenresEspionage
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Edward S. Aarons
263 books17 followersAKA Paul Ayres, Edward Ronns.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 6, 2021
Edward S. Aarons penned some eighty books in his writing career, including 42 in his "Assignment" espionage series (with the final six attributed to his brother Will after Aaron's death, but ghost-written) from 1955 to 1983. The series paralleled the development of Ian Fleming's little-known espionage series which began with Casino Royals two years earlier. Every book in Aarons' series began the title with "Assignment" and starred big Cajun Sam Durrell. The series sported many exotic locales, action, and adventure.
"Assignment Moon Girl" sounds like it would be a science fiction story. It was published in 1968 just before Armstrong took that giant step. At the time, the space race was on and no one knew who would get there first. As the story begins, Soviet cosmonaut Tanya has been spotted in the desert outside Teheran, explaining she had just come from the moon, before disappearing again. Enter a three-way race in pre-revolutionary Iran between the Americans, the Soviets, and the Chinese to debrief the first person to walk on the moon. Sam Durrell doesn't know what to believe but he knows finding Tanya is the key. Meanwhile, Tanya finds herself confined without clothes to a pit with a young tiger as a fellow prisoner, eating what food he deigns to leave behind. She is scare out of her wits and can only repeat that she has just come from the moon.
The story is a little uneven as is the dialogue but shines at its best with the plentiful action scenes and the drug-induced madness that Durrell suffers from after his capture.
"Assignment Moon Girl" sounds like it would be a science fiction story. It was published in 1968 just before Armstrong took that giant step. At the time, the space race was on and no one knew who would get there first. As the story begins, Soviet cosmonaut Tanya has been spotted in the desert outside Teheran, explaining she had just come from the moon, before disappearing again. Enter a three-way race in pre-revolutionary Iran between the Americans, the Soviets, and the Chinese to debrief the first person to walk on the moon. Sam Durrell doesn't know what to believe but he knows finding Tanya is the key. Meanwhile, Tanya finds herself confined without clothes to a pit with a young tiger as a fellow prisoner, eating what food he deigns to leave behind. She is scare out of her wits and can only repeat that she has just come from the moon.
The story is a little uneven as is the dialogue but shines at its best with the plentiful action scenes and the drug-induced madness that Durrell suffers from after his capture.
might-read
May 3, 2016I saw this at Goodwill and it was too trashy to resist.
March 29, 2020
Better than I expected from the cover. A CIA agent tries to rescue a Russian girl from a pit in the Iranian desert, where she's guarded by a tiger. The girl claimed to have returned from a mission to the Moon, so everyone's after her. Chase through the desert, capture by bad guys, etc. and so forth.
I haven't read any James Bond novels, so can't compare it to those, but I've read a lot of pulp fiction and this is better than much of that, and better than hack writing by some popular modern authors as well. There is some gratuitous sex (nothing explicit) and violence, but not as much as the new Star Trek series. The author shows knowledge of the territory, and his writing style is fluid and skillful; it keeps the plot moving but blends in appropriate humor, humanity, and commentary -- not too much.
I haven't read any James Bond novels, so can't compare it to those, but I've read a lot of pulp fiction and this is better than much of that, and better than hack writing by some popular modern authors as well. There is some gratuitous sex (nothing explicit) and violence, but not as much as the new Star Trek series. The author shows knowledge of the territory, and his writing style is fluid and skillful; it keeps the plot moving but blends in appropriate humor, humanity, and commentary -- not too much.
December 31, 2021
The title of this Aarons novel, Assignment Moon Girl, made me suspicious, especially having just finished his Assignment Black Viking. That latter one was a disappointment, a thinly veiled James Bond imitation. I feared more of the same. But it turns out my worries were unnecessary. Moon Girl is a return to form for Aarons. Set in Iran, the story has CIA agent Sam Durell searching for a Russian cosmonaut. Something has gone wrong and she is caught in the wilderness of Iran's deserts. Sam isn't the only one looking for her. The Russians want her back, of course, and the British and Chinese are in on the hunt, too. Oh, yes, there is also this murky anti-government rebel group that wants the girl in order to gain support from the Chinese.
Remembering that this is a novel published in 1967, what is striking is how much Aarons gets right about the Iranian revolutionary forces that forced out the Shah in 1979. Aarons highlights the conservative Shia heartland and notes the resentment and superficiality of the Shah's attempts to modernize Iran. Aarons has his rebels led by a semi-mystical, semi-religious conservative icon. And while the rebels may lose out in Aarons' book, that wouldn't be the case twelve years later. Also interesting, in light of current day international relations, is Aarons' insightful realization that China and the rebel force would ally themselves with each other. Finally, Aarons returns to his remarkable observations of foreign cultures, architecture, and geography, with Iran/Persia the focus, here.
Remembering that this is a novel published in 1967, what is striking is how much Aarons gets right about the Iranian revolutionary forces that forced out the Shah in 1979. Aarons highlights the conservative Shia heartland and notes the resentment and superficiality of the Shah's attempts to modernize Iran. Aarons has his rebels led by a semi-mystical, semi-religious conservative icon. And while the rebels may lose out in Aarons' book, that wouldn't be the case twelve years later. Also interesting, in light of current day international relations, is Aarons' insightful realization that China and the rebel force would ally themselves with each other. Finally, Aarons returns to his remarkable observations of foreign cultures, architecture, and geography, with Iran/Persia the focus, here.
August 1, 2016
I picked this up for $0.25 at Zia Records on Thunderbird in Phoenix, mostly because I was next door at Barro's Pizza ordering dinner, then had 15 minutes or so to kill while they cooked it. The pulp-ish cover caught my eye, and I thought, "this looks so bad, it could be good - kinda looks like some Appendix N stuff!" So it was apparently part of a long-running series in the 60s about a hardboiled American espionage guy. It was actually surprisingly well-written, and I am willing to go as high as three stars for it because it actually kept my attention to the end. Kind of funny to read a spy novel from 1967 in which a big part of the plot is about whether or not a human being - a Russian - had been to the moon, and how unthinkable it would be if a human being actually set foot on the moon! Anyway, I wouldn't exactly recommend this book to anyone, but I didn't hate it either.
October 31, 2013
Adventurous and barely PG. Contains the CIA, pretty ladies, spaceships and dangerous foreign enemies.
May 22, 2017
Well-written, but not exactly my cup of tea. Dated. I liked some lines about what the moon means to people.
August 14, 2020
A strange women named Tanya Ouspenaya claims to have been on the Moon. Then she vanishes somewhere in Iran. The Russians, the Chinese, the British, the Iranians and Sam Durell are all looking for her, but Durell finds her - naked, in a pit with a tiger...
Another fun Sam Durell adventure, this one from 1967. It's fascinating to see a current account of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, with Aarons' customary care and research. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Another fun Sam Durell adventure, this one from 1967. It's fascinating to see a current account of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, with Aarons' customary care and research. Thoroughly enjoyable.
March 7, 2021
Best Sam Durell book I have read thus far. Madame Hung is a nasty, sinister, piece of business. But is she dead?
May 21, 2016
Interesting, however the pre space program story line was hard for me to really appreciate. Maybe just too dated for my own taste!
January 25, 2017
An excellent spy novel! Set in Iran Great characters; the danger of tiger in a pit; damsel in distress; world interests; just a great story.
January 15, 2011
Grade B+
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews