What do you think?
Rate this book
Moon Base
An undercover agent goes to the British Moon Base to seek out possible acts of sabotage.
192 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1964
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 11, 2025
review of
E. C. Tubb's Moon Base
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 10, 2025
I usually find out about writers when something that's called to my attn excites me, then I read something by them, perhaps I become motivated to read more. In the meantime, other writers might not seem that interesting to me. E. C. Tubb probably fits into that latter category, maybe I didn't find the titles of his bks very inspired or inspiring, maybe I just had a superficial impression of him as generic, maybe I saw that he wrote mostly serials, wch I generally avoid as too commercial. Whatever. But Tubb was recommended to me by John, the owner of Caliban Books, & I'll usually check out something that someone recommends SO I bought Moon Base & took my good ole time to read it. Once I did, even tho in some ways it WAS GENERIC in other ways it was well-written. What do I mean by "well-written"? Something about the writing had a personality to it, it's not written by someone who's trying to make sure they 'get it right' by removing any individuality in favor of conforming to 'rules'. Instead, Tubb writes like it's HIM writing, not some cheap imitation of someone else. Or something like that. At any rate, I liked this - in fact I liked it so much that I bought a lot of 16 more bks by him off of eBay. That was a bit of a gamble but I've read 2 of those so far & so far so good.
This is one of those bks from an era in wch a "CAST OF CHARACTERS" appears at the beginning - almost as if it's a play. I don't think that was 'necessary' but I like it anyway, for me, it has an 'old-fashioned charm'.
"Felix Larsen
"He was experienced in dealing with the aberrations of the human mind, but was it a human he was dealing with here?" - p 2
Felix is sent undercover to the Moon Base to investigate vague reports of a disturbance of an unknown nature. He's never been to the moon before & he has trouble adjusting to the low gravity.
""Something like that. All your life you have been used to a constant of gravity. Your reflexes are adjusted to a regular pull and your sense of balance is a delicate mechanism on which you rely. Up here everything is different. Your eyes tell you that a thing is a yard away but to your muscles it's only six inches. The co-ordination of the body finds itself at variance with the mental impulse-signals and sensory impressions. The result is an inner conflict as they try to adjust."" - p 30
One of the British projects at the Moon Base is a large brain they've grown. A group of visiting top brass is questioning one of the overeeing scientists about it.
""Very costly," said Connor. Ottoway flushed.
""I'm afraid I don't understand," he snapped. "Cost, surely, is a relative term. What we hope to do here may well affect the future of every human creature on the face of the Earth and beyond. I fail to see how anyone with an ounce of imagination can think of money in such a context."" - p 44
They're also engaged in biological warfare research.
""A person attacked by the virus becomes paralyzed, a helpless brain locked in unresponsive flesh. For a short while life, that is consciousness, will continue and then death provides a welcome relief. There is no cure, no natural resistance, no hope of survival once attacked. The death-rate is one hundred percent. Our calculations have shown that one single container of the virus, released in any large town, will totally destroy every inhabitant of that town within three hours. By selected dissemination, it is possible to literally wipe out all life, and I mean all life, animal as well as human, from the entire globe within three days."" - p 108
W/ that sort of action going on there's bound to be fear of sabotage. Felix is trying to figure out what's going on & what the dangers are.
"Felix stared at the chiseled stone of the roof. He had assessed the station as a group which had slipped from its original purpose. Discipline had seemed non-existent, the social barriers had vanished and the expected order had dissolved into apparent anarchy." - p 124
There it is, a popular boogeyman, anarchy. As an anarchist, I look for this sort of thing. It's always a disappointment when it shows up in an otherwise intelligent story. There are so few writers who recognize anarchy as a positive thing: Thomas Pynchon, Mack Reynolds.
"The chorus echoed from the tunnels as a dozen sweating men joined in.
"Keep on digging all the way
No more rockets, gas or bombs
So we can live as friends each day
No more color, creed or wrongs.
"It was odd to hear such men singing of peace. It was equal to a butcher singing of the delights of vegetarianism, but the analogy was hardly fair. All men basically wanted peace, sane men that is, but all butchers wanted to make a profit. Only politicians and professional soldiers had any use for war. Which, by inference, made such men insane." - p 133
All in all, an intrigueing story. Mix together Felix w/ ABIC, the artificial brain, w/ the role luck plays in life, & a Moon populated by bases from multiple competing nations, & there's plenty to keep things lively. I'm glad to discover another SF writer of interest in my waning yrs, I can regress to my youth w/o having to actually repeat myself.
E. C. Tubb's Moon Base
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 10, 2025
I usually find out about writers when something that's called to my attn excites me, then I read something by them, perhaps I become motivated to read more. In the meantime, other writers might not seem that interesting to me. E. C. Tubb probably fits into that latter category, maybe I didn't find the titles of his bks very inspired or inspiring, maybe I just had a superficial impression of him as generic, maybe I saw that he wrote mostly serials, wch I generally avoid as too commercial. Whatever. But Tubb was recommended to me by John, the owner of Caliban Books, & I'll usually check out something that someone recommends SO I bought Moon Base & took my good ole time to read it. Once I did, even tho in some ways it WAS GENERIC in other ways it was well-written. What do I mean by "well-written"? Something about the writing had a personality to it, it's not written by someone who's trying to make sure they 'get it right' by removing any individuality in favor of conforming to 'rules'. Instead, Tubb writes like it's HIM writing, not some cheap imitation of someone else. Or something like that. At any rate, I liked this - in fact I liked it so much that I bought a lot of 16 more bks by him off of eBay. That was a bit of a gamble but I've read 2 of those so far & so far so good.
This is one of those bks from an era in wch a "CAST OF CHARACTERS" appears at the beginning - almost as if it's a play. I don't think that was 'necessary' but I like it anyway, for me, it has an 'old-fashioned charm'.
"Felix Larsen
"He was experienced in dealing with the aberrations of the human mind, but was it a human he was dealing with here?" - p 2
Felix is sent undercover to the Moon Base to investigate vague reports of a disturbance of an unknown nature. He's never been to the moon before & he has trouble adjusting to the low gravity.
""Something like that. All your life you have been used to a constant of gravity. Your reflexes are adjusted to a regular pull and your sense of balance is a delicate mechanism on which you rely. Up here everything is different. Your eyes tell you that a thing is a yard away but to your muscles it's only six inches. The co-ordination of the body finds itself at variance with the mental impulse-signals and sensory impressions. The result is an inner conflict as they try to adjust."" - p 30
One of the British projects at the Moon Base is a large brain they've grown. A group of visiting top brass is questioning one of the overeeing scientists about it.
""Very costly," said Connor. Ottoway flushed.
""I'm afraid I don't understand," he snapped. "Cost, surely, is a relative term. What we hope to do here may well affect the future of every human creature on the face of the Earth and beyond. I fail to see how anyone with an ounce of imagination can think of money in such a context."" - p 44
They're also engaged in biological warfare research.
""A person attacked by the virus becomes paralyzed, a helpless brain locked in unresponsive flesh. For a short while life, that is consciousness, will continue and then death provides a welcome relief. There is no cure, no natural resistance, no hope of survival once attacked. The death-rate is one hundred percent. Our calculations have shown that one single container of the virus, released in any large town, will totally destroy every inhabitant of that town within three hours. By selected dissemination, it is possible to literally wipe out all life, and I mean all life, animal as well as human, from the entire globe within three days."" - p 108
W/ that sort of action going on there's bound to be fear of sabotage. Felix is trying to figure out what's going on & what the dangers are.
"Felix stared at the chiseled stone of the roof. He had assessed the station as a group which had slipped from its original purpose. Discipline had seemed non-existent, the social barriers had vanished and the expected order had dissolved into apparent anarchy." - p 124
There it is, a popular boogeyman, anarchy. As an anarchist, I look for this sort of thing. It's always a disappointment when it shows up in an otherwise intelligent story. There are so few writers who recognize anarchy as a positive thing: Thomas Pynchon, Mack Reynolds.
"The chorus echoed from the tunnels as a dozen sweating men joined in.
"Keep on digging all the way
No more rockets, gas or bombs
So we can live as friends each day
No more color, creed or wrongs.
"It was odd to hear such men singing of peace. It was equal to a butcher singing of the delights of vegetarianism, but the analogy was hardly fair. All men basically wanted peace, sane men that is, but all butchers wanted to make a profit. Only politicians and professional soldiers had any use for war. Which, by inference, made such men insane." - p 133
All in all, an intrigueing story. Mix together Felix w/ ABIC, the artificial brain, w/ the role luck plays in life, & a Moon populated by bases from multiple competing nations, & there's plenty to keep things lively. I'm glad to discover another SF writer of interest in my waning yrs, I can regress to my youth w/o having to actually repeat myself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review