The First Men in the Moon

by H.G. Wells

'As we saw it first it was the wildest and most desolate of scenes. We were in an enormous amphitheatre, a vast circular plain, the floor of the giant crater. Its cliff-like wall closed us in on every side . . .'

Thanks to the discovery of an anti-gravity metal, Cavorite, two Victorian Englishman decide to tackle the most prestigious goal - space travel. They construct a sphere that will ultimately take them to the moon. On landing, they encounter what seems like an utterly barren landscape but they soon find signs that the planet was once very much alive. Then they hear curious hammering sounds from beneath the surface, and come face to face with the Selenites, a race of insect-like aliens living in a rigidly organised hive society.

Genres: Science Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Audiobook, Fantasy, Adventure, Novels

171 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1901

About the author

Herbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.

He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.

More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...

http://www.online-literature.com/well...

http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t quite wrap my head around the impact this must have had in 1900. Putting this on paper back then,("clearly no big deal") flung the door wide open for the sci-fi I’ve loved and will love 'till I die.

[محمد مكرم · Rating 4 out of 5]

ما الذي يحدث لو صعد الأنسان إلى القمر؟
ظل ذلك السؤال يراود خيال الكثير من الأدباء والشعراء لمئات السنين، ونسجت الكثير من الأساطير عن القمر من بينها أن هناك حضارة اخرى على القمر، و كائنات مختلفة تحيا هناك، و هو ما تبناه هربرت جورج ويلز في عمله الحالي، حيث يقرر رجل أعمال وعالم غريب الأطوار القيام برحلة إلى القمر ليكتشفا أن القمر مسكون بحضارة فضائية متطورة وتحكمه كائنات عاقلة
بالطبع للرواية أبعاد اخرى غير جانب التشويق والأثارة العلمية، يحاول هربرت جورج ويلز نقد المجتمع الأرضي بأكمله، والحضارة الزائفة التى بناها البشر لتحكمها المادة على حساب الجوانب الأنسانية، ويعرض تصوراً لمجتمع أفضل من وجهة نظره مقارنة بمجتمع صناعي مريض كان يحكم أوربا في ذلك الوقت، و رغم النهاية الساذجة إلى حد ما، لكن الرواية بشكل عام رائعة وبها الكثير من العمق

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, this should be considered a timeless classic by Wells! The science is outdated and fantastical, but it has all the wonder and intrigue of science fiction. It is an eccentric blend of tongue in cheek humor, swashbuckling adventure, and chilling despair. It is one of the most entertaining science fiction books I've read, and this is from a major Isaac Asimov fan! I particularly love the imaginative and visually rich world that Wells has created! It is stunning, exotic, and wonderfully foreign, frightening, and bizarre. I won't say anything of what Cavor and Bedford find on the Moon, because it is best experienced first hand, but I wish the Moon was really like that!

So, if you want to give Wells a try, go for this one! It is excellent!

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social commentary and great adventure!

Mr Bedford, a recently bankrupt Victorian gentleman has retired to the English countryside to recover his spirit and write a play. He meets Dr Cavor, an eccentric, quaintly comical scientific genius researching the preparation of a compound he calls "Cavorite" that will be opaque to all radiation including gravity. When a laboratory error results in the wildly successful early completion of the Cavorite project, Bedord and Cavor use it to create a sphere that is capable of travel to the moon.

The science in HG Wells' First Men in the Moon is now known to be wildly off the mark - anti-gravity; a lunar atmosphere that freezes during the frigid lunar night and sublimates into a rarified but breathable air during the warmer day; an extraordinarily fecund flora that seeds itself, germinates, grows, blooms and completes its life cycle during the brief sunlight hours; and a civilized but strictly class structured lunar insect-like people living under the moon's surface that Bedord and Cavor called "Selenites".

Despite its failings in the light of current scientific knowledge, First Men in the Moon is still an enjoyable adventure written in typical late Victorian style that gives us an early taste of 20th century science fiction space opera to follow. Just as he did in his better known novel The Time Machine, Wells successfully uses his protagonists, Bedord and Cavor, as tools to discuss, satirize and critique deeply and dearly held British notions of class and imperialism.

Suspending your belief and accepting the science in terms of what was known and understood at the turn of the century will allow you to whisk yourself away on a space-faring adventure for an enlightening, enjoyable few hours. Recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Paul of Bethesda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing that I noticed, when I returned after many years to this 1901 science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells, was the great author’s peculiar choice of preposition for the novel's title. “The First Men in the Moon” – not on, but in. This phraseology, of course, goes against the way we of the modern world would ordinarily talk about a trip to the moon. We customarily say that, when Apollo 11 landed at Tranquility Base on 20 July 1969, and Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin took their historic first steps onto the lunar surface, they became the first men on the moon. “That’s one small step for a man – one giant leap for mankind.” But in Wells’s novel, the moon is a hollow sphere, honeycombed with a veritable labyrinth of horizontal and vertical passages, blessed with a great Central Sea at its core, and inhabited by sentient beings – all of which makes The First Men in the Moon quite a journey indeed.

H.G. Wells is, of course, one of the founding fathers of science fiction. Within just six years, he wrote The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), and The First Men in the Moon (1901) – five of the original classics of the SF genre. At the time, though, such works were not known as “science fiction”; rather, as SF novelist China Miéville explains in an introductory foreword, books of this kind were called “scientific romances” – works that extrapolated from known science of their time to tell an exciting and action-packed story.

Patrick Parrinder, who edited this edition of The First Men in the Moon, is a former Chairman of the H.G. Wells Society; and Steven McLean, who provides explanatory notes for this edition, was, at the time of this book’s Penguin Classics publication, Secretary of the Society. Accordingly, there is a good bit in this volume about how Wells, with his use of science fiction to provide social criticism, and his willingness to venture into genres other than SF, is much the superior of his predecessor Jules Verne. I respect their opinion; but I can’t help thinking that an edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Journey to the Center of the Earth, edited by leaders of the Société Jules Verne, might set forth different opinions regarding the relative merit of the two authors.

Yet Wellsians and Vernians alike can agree that The First Men in the Moon is a fun and engaging science-fiction novel – even if its Victorian-era lunar science is not exactly in line with what Armstrong and Aldrin found after announcing “The Eagle has landed” and stepping out of their lunar module.

As the novel begins, its narrator, a London businessman named Bedford, responds to his business failures by skipping out on his creditors and decamping to the Kentish coast; there, he plans to recoup his fortunes by writing a play that he hopes will become the hit of the season on the London stage. If this is Bedford’s idea of a can’t-miss, sure-thing way of making his fortune, then perhaps we have a sense of why his business ventures have not been successful to date.

Bedford’s dreams of becoming the literary toast of Covent Garden vanish when he encounters an absent-minded scientist named Cavor, who has got this idea for synthesizing an anti-gravity substance (Wells deliberately leaves the science of it all rather vague). Bedford, taken with the financial possibilities of it all, begins collaborating with Cavor on the quest to invent “Cavorite”; and some hint of the troubles to come occurs when Cavor, seeking to synthesize his Cavorite, accidentally causes an explosion that wrecks most of the homes and knocks down most of the trees in that part of Kent. And then there is the additional inconvenient detail that Cavor’s substance could have sucked all of the oxygen out of Earth’s atmosphere for a long enough time to asphyxiate every living thing on the planet. Oops!

These two mismatched, ethically challenged misfits – Bedford with his eye forever on money and the “main chance,” Cavor with his blithe “pure research” dedication that utterly disregards the possible consequences of that research – impulsively decide upon a trip to the Moon. With none of the mainframe computer technology that made possible the Apollo moon missions of the 1960’s and 1970’s, they build a glass sphere with an aeration system, fire up the Cavorite, and successfully travel the 240,000 miles from the Earth to the Moon.

And what do they find? Unsurprisingly, Bedford and Cavor’s lunar observations from a 1901 science-fiction novel do not match Armstrong and Aldrin’s lunar data from Apollo 11 in 1969. For one thing, the moon – at least the part upon which the sun is shining at any given time – has air; Bedford notes that “the air just outside our glass”, with the onset of the lunar sunrise, “was running – it was boiling – like snow into which a white-hot rod is thrust. What had been solid air had suddenly, at the touch of the sun, become a paste, a mud, a slushy liquefaction that hissed and bubbled into gas” (p. 51). And the moon has life! – seeds that germinate with astonishing speed in the lunar daytime, causing Bedford to reflect joyfully that “our vast journey had not been made in vain, that we had come to no arid waste of minerals, but to a world that lived and moved!” (p. 55).

And life on the Moon is not limited to germinating plants – there are intelligent beings there as well, in the form of insect-like creatures called Selenites. Mind you, they do not call themselves Selenites: you will not encounter a scene where one of these lunar inhabitants says, “Greetings. I am Selenos, of the planet Selenium. I will now take you to our leader, Seleniak,” or something like that. Rather, “Selenite” comes from the ancient Greek σελήνη (selénē), meaning “moon,” and the term was coined by the Anglo-Welsh writer James Howell (1594-1666) as a way to refer to possible inhabitants of the Moon.

Readers of other Wells works like The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds will not be surprised to hear that the initial encounter between Earthlings and Selenites does not go well. Chained by the Selenites and ordered to cross an exceedingly narrow bridge over a vast chasm, Bedford takes his chained hand and lashes out at a Selenite who is trying to force him across the bridge with a sharp-pointed goad:

My mailed hand seemed to go clean through him. He smashed like some sort of sweetmeat with liquid in it. He broke right in. He squelched and splashed. It was like hitting a damp toadstool. The flimsy body went spinning a dozen yards and fell with a flabby impact. I was astonished. I was incredulous that any living thing could be so flimsy. For an instant I could have believed the whole thing a dream. (p. 104)

In the Moon’s lower gravity, Bedford and Cavor have strength beyond that of the Selenites, and can leap vast distances in a single bound. But in their exhilaration at making it to the moon, they managed not to mark the location of their space capsule. Some explorers they are!

As Bedford and Cavor seek to elude the Selenites and find their capsule, they learn a great deal about the Moon. For one thing, the network of aerated caves and caverns in which the Selenites live is illuminated by a glowing blue fluid that flows toward a vast Central Sea at the core of the Moon. For another thing, the Moon has gold! – a discovery that fires Bedford’s greedy heart once he gets a good look at his chains in natural light. Imagine if it were discovered today that there are gold deposits beneath the surface of the Moon. How many private lunar prospecting expeditions would be starting to fit out for their journey by the end of the day?

Bedford eventually finds the sphere and, concluding that Cavor must be dead or in the hands of the Selenites, returns to Earth. The NASA scientists at modern-day Cape Canaveral would be impressed to know that Bedford, with no prior experience or training in celestial mechanics or zero-gravity navigation, not only returns to Earth but manages to land safely on the beach at Littlestone, a Kentish town just seven miles from Lympne where the lunar journey began. Isn’t that a neat trick? With that moment, we get the first description I know of the physical strains of re-entry:

The air hit me on the chest so that I gasped. I dropped the glass screw. I cried out, put my hands to my chest and sat down. For a time I was in pain. Then I took deep breaths. At last I could rise and move about again….I did not attempt to stand up. It seemed to me that my body must be changed to lead – no Cavorite intervening. I sat down heedless of the water that came over my feet. (p. 150).

Bedford publishes the story of his trip to the moon as a science-fiction story, gaining (ironically enough) the literary success that he had originally hoped for when he first retreated to the coast of Kent; but then a Dutch scientist named Wendigee contacts Bedford, reporting that his Nikola Tesla-style radio device atop Monte Rosa on the Italian-Swiss border has picked up communications from the Moon. Not only is Cavor still alive on the Moon, but he is managing to phone home!

Through this rather awkward and strained plot device, Wells is able to share more information about the Selenites – particularly, the extraordinary degree of specialization that exists among workers and intellectuals in their society: like what one sees among social insects like ants and bees, only more so. Cavor even secures an audience with the leader of all the Selenites, the “Grand Lunar”; but his hopes of being able to spend a lifetime in truly original scientific research are set at naught when he imprudently tells the Grand Lunar about life on Earth – all about life on Earth, including the way human beings are capable of treating one another. As Bedford bitterly puts it,

His disastrous want of vulgar common sense had utterly betrayed him. He had talked of war, he had talked of all the strength and irrational violence of men, of their insatiable aggressions, their tireless futility of conflict. He had filled the whole moon world with this impression of our race, and then I think it is plain he admitted that upon himself alone hung the possibility – at least for a long time – of any other men reaching the moon. (p. 202)

The First Men in the Moon may not reach the heights of The Time Machine or The War of the Worlds, if only because known lunar science quickly pushed this book out of the realm of science fiction that extrapolates from known scientific fact, and firmly into the realm of space fantasy. Nonetheless, however, Wells comes to the task with his characteristic verve and energy, and sets forth a compelling story that combines its scientific-romance what-if’s with some compelling social criticism regarding human frailty. We may travel from the Earth to the Moon, H.G. Wells seems to say, but we can never get away from who and what we are.

[Blaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a little while, in a very little while, if I tell my secret, this planet to its deepest galleries will be strewn with human dead. Other things are doubtful, but that is certain. It is not as though man had any use for the moon. What good would the moon be to men? Even of their own planet what have they made but a battle-ground and theatre of infinite folly? Small as his world is, and short as his time, he has still in his little life down there far more than he can do. No! Science has toiled too long forging weapons for fools to use. It is time she held her hand. Let him find it out for himself again—in a thousand years’ time.”

Mr. Bedford was a young, failed businessman when he met Dr. Cavor, a scientific researcher on the brink of discovering a material that can be used to shield objects from gravity just as we can screen objects from light or heat. When Dr. Cavor succeeds in making his cavorite, the two embark—one for profit and one for discovery—on building a sphere with it that can safely transport them to the moon, where dangers await ….

The Time Machine is one of my favorite novels. That book, along with The War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau established H.G. Wells as one of the titans of science fiction. In addition to being original at the time of publication (I mean, he invented the phrase “time machine” and wrote the first alien invasion novel), each of those books is a dark story with an ultimately dark theme (respectively: how classism will literally separate humanity, the dangers of imperialism and humanity’s undeserved hubris as the pinnacle of life on earth, and the dangers of science gone too far and of scientists who believe they can and should wield the power of creation).

So, as I was reading The First Men in the Moon, I tried to figure out why I wasn’t being captivated in the same way by this work. As with those other works, there are some accurate predictions here: the awe felt on seeing the earth from space, the feeling of weightlessness in space and of reduced gravity on the moon. But those accuracies feel completely outweighed by the simply, provably false descriptions that underpin this story: a breathable atmosphere on the moon, plants growing rapidly in the sun, an underground sea, and a vast civilization of insects (think: (book: Starship Troopers] living inside the hollow moon. When, at the very end, The First Men in the Moon proves to be about something dark too—that humanity will be judged harshly for its warring nature—it feels out of place in this sillier, more fantastical tale.

I wonder if this novel would be more widely read if it was about visiting someplace other than the Moon, someplace still mysterious. Still, The First Men in the Moon is not a bad book, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoyed H.G. Wells’ other, more popular works.

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

We will be doing an episode of The Literary Life Podcast
On this surprising influence on CS Lewis’s space trilogy. Quite an easy and fun read.

[W]

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin got to the moon in 1969,the astronauts of H.G.Wells were already there in 1900.

They get there courtesy of a new material,cavorite,which negates gravity.They find extraterrestrial life on the moon,which captures them.

They experience weightlessness and find gold on the moon.One comes back,the other is left on the moon.

I didn't enjoy it particularly.When Wells talks about the science of it,I found it fairly boring,and way too long.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

A businessman and an eccentric scientist shoot themselves to the moon, where they encounter an insect-like alien species that lives beneath the surface.


The science might be outdated but both the entertainment factor and the important message it tries to deliver still very much stand to this day.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

...and no cheese to be found...

When Mr Bedford's financial difficulties become pressing, he leaves London for the quiet of the Kentish countryside to write a play which he is sure will win him fame and fortune, despite him never having written anything before. Instead, he meets his new neighbour Mr Cavor, an eccentric scientist, and becomes intrigued and excited by the possibilities of the invention Cavor is working on – a substance that will defy gravity. Bedford, always with an eye for the main chance, begins to imagine the commercial possibilities of such a substance, but Cavor is more interested in the glory that he will gain from the scientific community. And so it is that these two mismatched men find themselves as partners on an incredible voyage – to the Moon!

I do not remember before that night thinking at all of the risks we were running. Now they came like that array of spectres that once beleaguered Prague, and camped around me. The strangeness of what we were about to do, the unearthliness of it, overwhelmed me. I was like a man awakened out of pleasant dreams to the most horrible surroundings. I lay, eyes wide open, and the sphere seemed to get more flimsy and feeble, and Cavor more unreal and fantastic, and the whole enterprise madder and madder every moment.
I got out of bed and wandered about. I sat at the window and stared at the immensity of space. Between the stars was the void, the unfathomable darkness!

I've been thoroughly enjoying revisiting some of the HG Wells stories I enjoyed in my youth, and reading for the first time the ones I missed back then. As with the others, I read the Oxford World's Classics version, which has the usual informative and enjoyable introduction, this time from Simon J James, Professor of Victorian Literature and Head of the Department of English Studies at Durham University, which sets the book in its historical and literary context. This is one I hadn't read before and perhaps it's fair to say it's one of the less well known ones, though only in comparison to the universal fame of some of the others, like The War of the Worlds or The Time Machine. While I think it hasn't got quite the depth of those, it's at least as enjoyable, if not more so.

Mostly this is because of the characterisation and the interplay between the two men, which give the book a lot of humour. Bedford, our narrator, is rather a selfish cad without too much going on in the way of ethics or heroism, but I found him impossible to dislike. He's so honest about his own personality, not apologising for it, but not hypocritically trying to make himself seem like anything other than what he is – someone who's out for what he can get. Cavor also has some issues with ethics, though in his case it's not about greed. He's one of these scientists who is so obsessed with his own theories and experiments, he doesn't much care what impact they might have on other people – even the possibility that he might accidentally destroy the world seems like an acceptable risk to him. He simply won't tell the world it's in danger, so nobody has to worry about it.

“It’s this accursed science,” I cried. “It’s the very Devil. The mediæval priests and persecutors were right and the Moderns are all wrong. You tamper with it—and it offers you gifts. And directly you take them it knocks you to pieces in some unexpected way. Old passions and new weapons—now it upsets your religion, now it upsets your social ideas, now it whirls you off to desolation and misery!”

To a large degree, this is a straightforward adventure novel with a great story and lots of danger and excitement. But, being Wells, there are also underlying themes relating to contemporary concerns: primarily two, in this case. Firstly, through Cavor's invention of Cavorite (the name gives an indication of Cavor's desire for glory, I feel!), Wells looks at the huge leaps that were being made in the fields of science and technology and issues a warning that, while these promise great progress for mankind, they also threaten potential catastrophe if the science isn't tempered by ethical controls. Secondly, through the race of beings that Cavor and Bedford find when they arrive on the moon, Wells speculates on a form of society so utopian in its social control that it becomes positively terrifying! He uses this society, though, as a vehicle to comment on the less than utopian situation back on Earth, though I couldn't help feeling he frequently had his tongue stuck firmly in his cheek as he did so.

The stuff was not unlike a terrestrial mushroom, only it was much laxer in texture, and, as one swallowed it, it warmed the throat. At first we experienced a mere mechanical satisfaction in eating; then our blood began to run warmer, and we tingled at the lips and fingers, and then new and slightly irrelevant ideas came bubbling up in our minds.
“It’s good,” said I. “Infernally good! What a home for our surplus population! Our poor surplus population,” and I broke off another large portion.

But the themes are treated more lightly in this one, and Wells allows his imagination free rein. One of the things I enjoyed most was how he includes a lot of realistic science even as he creates an impossible substance in Cavorite and an equally impossible race of moon-beings, the Selenites. Of course we've all looked down on Earth from planes now, but Wells imagines how it would look from space. He describes convincingly how to control a sphere covered in Cavorite by using gravity and the slingshot effect of planetary mass. He describes the weightlessness of zero gravity brilliantly, many decades before anyone had experienced it. His Selenites are a vision of evolved insect life, which frankly gave me the shivers, especially when he describes how they are bred, reared and surgically altered to happily fulfil a single function in life – a kind of precursor of the humans in Brave New World but with insect faces and arms!!

I won't give spoilers as to what happens to the men, but the ending gives a minor commentary on one of Wells' other recurring themes – man's tendency to look on other people's territory as fair game for invasion and colonisation. But since you're now thinking – but wait! That IS a spoiler! I assure you it's really not, but you'll have to read the book to find out why it's not. Or you could just read it because it's a great read – lots of humour, great descriptive writing, enough depth to keep it interesting without overwhelming the story, a couple of characters you can't help liking even though you feel you shouldn't, and plenty of excitement. What are you waiting for? Jump aboard the Cavorite sphere – you don't get the chance to go to the Moon every day of the week!

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Oxford World's Classics.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First Men in the Moon is a classic Wells science fiction (or scientific romance, as it was known at the time) novel that was serialized in The Strand (and you know what else they published!) in the U.K. and Cosmopolitan in the U.S. beginning in November of 1900 and was published in book format the next year. It's not as famous as The Time Machine or War of the Worlds but was a very influential work of those pre-radium-age days and can still be read as a fine science-fantasy. It has a good bit of social satire and political and economic philosophy but is more of a rousing adventure than many of his other books. It has more humor, too. It's frequently cited as being the first science fiction novel adapted to film. It was partially inspired by Verne's two novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon (from 1865 and 1869, respectively), and itself was a big influence on C.S. Lewis, Alan Moore, and the Larry Niven/Steven Barnes Dream Park novel, The Moon Maze Game. It's the story of an absent-minded professor who invents a gravity-nullifying substance he names Cavorite and uses it to visit the Moon with his friend Mr. Bedford. They encounter many perils, meet the strange Selenites, and only one of them makes it back alive. It's one of those classics that are still fun to read.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The First Men in the Moon’ by H. G. Wells charmed me despite the dark horrors it reveals! This is an entertaining 1901 science fiction story!

Gentler reader, I am not speaking about any horrors in the astonishing discoveries the main protagonists, Bedford and Cavor, learn about the Selenite civilization on the moon. The Selenites have developed, apparently, a utopia of order and discipline, not at all peculiar for a race which resembles that of an ant colony on Earth. The amazing foodstuffs and moon climate and topography, the different types of Selenites and their machines, made me wish for illustrations! (Ok, we’ve learned the moon is different than what Wells imagined. So what? Bite me.) The horrors are brought by the shallow and narcissistic Bedford, an opportunist and a scoundrel. As Bedford is the narrator, he is clearly unaware of what kind of human being he is - a gambler, a waster, always looking for an easy buck, a failure at many enterprises he has tried. He has become a writer in his latest venture - an amusing tongue-in-cheek joke included by Wells I suspect. He believes he is simply a practical person.

Bedford thinks Cavor is stupid in the ways of the world, which unfortunately, he is. Cavor is a scientist, and he is very likely what conservatives are talking about when they call someone today “a snowflake.” Cavor sees an ideal civilization suitable to its environment and species, where Bedford sees intolerable differences, scary and possibly dangerous to his own life and beyond his ability to cope with.

Between these two characters, we have the basic inventors and engineers of most of Earth’s societies, our unfortunate Yin/Yang Human condition. Imho.

I have copied the book blurb:

”A pair of unlikely explorers journey to the moon in this imaginative tale of science and adventure from the author of The War of the Worlds.

Hounded by creditors, Mr. Bedford retreats to a remote English village, where he meets the eccentric Mr. Cavor. Though he may not look it, Cavor is a genius and one of the world’s greatest inventors. His breakthrough is cavorite, an astonishing new substance manufactured from helium that is not bound by the laws of gravity. Bedford immediately sees the business potential of Cavor’s creation, reckoning a ship made of cavorite could take him to the moon—the first step on a path to riches beyond his wildest dreams.  

When Bedford and Cavor set out for the moon in a cavorite sphere, they find the Earth’s satellite to be more wonderful than either of them ever imagined. But they soon discover they are not alone on the lush lunar surface—and the natives are not exactly friendly.   A thrilling adventure story that offers fascinating insights into the nature of mankind, The First Men in the Moon is a timeless classic from “the father of modern science fiction.”   This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.”  

In comparing the two best known authors of early speculative science fiction, H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, Wells, in my opinion, is the Father of all current science fiction! Every element we readers have come to expect from this now mainstream genre are there in this author’s books. Jules Verne is more of a proto-science fiction novelist, arguably so I guess, the grandfather to this type of genre. Verne focuses particularly on the speculative science in his imaginative books, reaching very hard for the possibility of real-life scientific validation of his fictional theories. He weaves a more secondary negative critique into his stories than Wells does of the ills of Humanity. Wells focuses more directly on the ills and foibles of Humanity screwing up the wonderful science and inventions individuals discover and invent, bringing on more of the intensity of a thriller into his tales, I think. Wells often has the wonderful science his characters make or find lead to deadly nightmares, causing his protagonists life-threatening thrills and chills! I much prefer the novels of H. G. Wells over Jules Verne’s, although some readers may find the archaic early-century English words a little tough to decipher.

That said, both Wells and Verne are much fun to read. But if you enjoy Michael Crichton novels, you will like H. G. Wells best over Verne, imho.

[Edgarr Alien Pooh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not basing my opinion on the science in this book. After all, it was written in 1900 and 1901. In fact, to a point, the science adds some humour to the story. Imagine men landing on the moon and meeting an underground population, so strange, are they inquisitive or nasty, intelligent or ignorant. Imagine at some point man trying to describe Earth and it's ways to these creatures but stating we don't know much about our planet and that we are frequently in wars, often over better land to produce foods.
And this in 1901? All before WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam and today's battles.
And to say we are ignorant of our own planet when we have learned the cause of Tsunaml, earthquake, hurricanes, global warming, volcanoes, the list goes on. Man's ignorance is not in our science, it is in our inability to grasp these things, eradicate stupid and needless hatred, and band together as a species and tackle these things.

Sorry, rant over!!

So, written in the first person, much as The Time Machine is, and not straying too far plot-wise. This is the story of a man who takes an expedition, to the moon in this case rather than another time zone, sort of verbally diarises his expedition and then it is over. The actual journey is about a third of the book whereas in The Time Machine the journey itself is hardly plotted, it is more about his discussions of it.
For me this was a bit of fun, absurd in many ways, and I guess a struggle at other moments. Perhaps it loses a bit of "fiction" when it gets dated. Today a lot of sci-fic is fantasy-based or intergalactic but this plays out on the moon and Earth. Two places that are not fictional, add to facts that have been cleared up over the years and some of the "fiction" just becomes 'incorrect'.
But yes it was a bit of fun. Think along the lines of the absurdities connected with shows like "The Land of the Giants" or "Gilligan's Island". You watched them, know they can't be real, so many things just factually wrong, but who cares? They are fun, they are silly, we laughed and enjoyed them.
And this is why books like these will always be welcome and should never go out of print. Pick up a book, read it, let your mind picture it, picture scenes, picture the faces of characters. I bet we all picture these differently in our own imaginations. PERFECT!! Or........... sit down and watch today's equivalent to TV entertainment?? "Reality" TV. So many more things factually wrong in one episode than would ever fit in a novel, unless you believe it is "reality". And if you do, ask yourself this. How did a camera happen to be filming onsite just when that happened? Is that reality, when every second of someone's waking life they are followed by a camera person. Hmmmm think scripted material.

OK closing and packing up soapbox. Thank you for reading my review/rant.

[Denisse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back when I read The War of the Worlds I had this dream that I was going to love every book by Wells. To be honest I'm in the cliché part with this author. Lets say I loved his most iconic works and got bored with his indie ones. I don't know what it was with The First Men in the Moon, it started very interesting I have no idea when it lost me. The first half was great but the second half, well, I have no idea. Anyway I can't go lower than 3 stars, the man was a visionary!


No es el estilo, ni la forma en que está escrito, ni el tema. No se que fue. Wells escribió todo con el mismo formato solo que usando ideas distintas y con cambios en el desarrollo, pero tiene una formula muy bien construida, una fórmula que me funciono de maravilla en La Máquina del Tiempo y La Guerra de los Mundos, por desgracia en esta nueva novela me perdió en algún momento a mitad de desarrollo.

Pero para ser honestos este hombre tenía una imaginación loquísima y unas ideas muy avanzadas. Sus descripciones son tan detalladas que sorprenden. Los primeros hombres en la Luna no es un libro tan dinámico como otras novelas del autor y hoy en día su mayor obstáculo seria que no puede competir con ellas ya que no encierra tanto misterio como antes. No podemos viajar en el tiempo y no sabemos a ciencia cierta si hay vida inteligente en otros planetas. Pero si tenemos información sobre la Luna, se sabe mucho mas de ella a cada día. Conforme pasas las paginas, la trama deja de ser ciencia ficción y se torna más en fantasía.

Aun así, la idea es buena y la primera mitad muy interesante. No deja de sorprenderme la ciencia ficción vieja, tiene algo de especial, una chispa que no se encuentra con facilidad en libros actuales.

[César Bustíos · Rating 4 out of 5]

"So utterly at variance is Destiny with all the little plans of men."

What a fun trip this was! Reading the book at the dawn of the 20th century must have been even more exciting I guess. The book also served as inspiration for C. S. Lewis' science fiction books. And of course Cavorite, the name of the antigravity material used in the story, will later be borrowed for a myriad of works. ⠀
⠀
This is the journey of two men, a scientist and a businessman, to the moon. They will discover that the moon is inhabited by an extraterrestrial civilisation, the "selenites", whose society is based in specialisation. These insect-like beings come in different sizes and shapes and together they form an entomological nightmare that will haunt me until I kick the bucket. They live in an enormous system of caverns and, guess what, gold is the most common mineral.

To me, it's a criticism of the society of that time and the inescapable greed and violence of human nature. A satire, if you will. Even though it's dated and it's full of nonsense from a scientific point of view, it was a very enjoyable read for me. Sometimes I can't believe it was written 120 years ago.

[The Frahorus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Che bel romanzo fantascientifico... Un inventore inventa una specie di bolla volante che lo porta, assieme ad un amico, sulla Luna e qui scoprono che è abitata nel sottosuolo da una sorta di lunatici formichieri... Da leggere tutto d'un fiato!

---

Riletto a maggio 2019

Che dire, rileggerlo è stato un tuffo al cuore, visto che è stata una delle prime opere di Wells che scoprii e lessi di fantascienza nella mia adolescenza. Alcuni particolari della storia non li ricordavo e mentre lo leggevo sentivo quel sens of wonder che molti autori contemporanei non riescono più ad avere. Wells è incredibile, perfetto narratore che ti tiene incollato alle pagine, e nonostante molte ingenuità - come il credere che nella Luna vi fossero degli abitanti nel sottosuolo (chissà, forse ci credeva anche lui o ci sperava) - risente poco del centenario dalla sua pubblicazione e ci regala ancora una perfetta opera di fantascienza in grado di farci riflettere sulla nostra organizzazione sociale rispecchiata nei seleniti, gli abitanti della Luna (i quali non conoscono le guerre).
Capolavoro da rileggere e conservare, stra-consigliato.

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τέταρτο βιβλίο του Χ. Τζ. Γουέλς που διαβάζω, αλλά τόσα χρόνια που πέρασαν από την τελευταία φορά που διάβασα κάτι δικό του, είναι σαν να τον γνωρίζω για πρώτη φορά. Τα τρία προηγούμενα βιβλία του που έτυχε να πέσουν στα χέρια μου ("Ο αόρατος άνθρωπος", "Το νησί του δρ. Μορό" και "Η μηχανή του χρόνου") μου άρεσαν λίγο έως πολύ, και μπορώ να πω ότι το ίδιο μου άρεσε και αυτό (ίσως και λιγάκι παραπάνω από τα υπόλοιπα!). Το βιβλίο εκδόθηκε το 1901, οπότε μιλάμε για ένα παλαιάς κοπής μυθιστόρημα επιστημονικής φαντασίας, το οποίο βασίζεται στα επιστημονικά δεδομένα της εποχής του. Αυτό το λέω γιατί πολλά πράγματα που έχουν να κάνουν με τη Σφαίρα, το ταξίδι στο διάστημα, τις συνθήκες και τη... ζωή στη Σελήνη, στα μάτια των σημερινών αναγνωστών σίγουρα θα θεωρούνται όχι μόνο απλοϊκά, αλλά και λανθασμένα. Προσωπικά έβαλα στην άκρη όλα αυτά, και απόλαυσα ένα ενδιαφέρον και συναρπαστικό μυθιστόρημα, γεμάτο φαντασία, δράση και ωραίες εικόνες. Αν μη τι άλλο ο Γουέλς ήξερε να γράφει και να δημιουργεί ατμόσφαιρα, αλλά και να εξάπτει τη φαντασία των αναγνωστών του. Με τις περιγραφές του κατάφερε με περισσή ευκολία να με ταξιδέψει στη Σελήνη της δικής του φαντασίας, περιγράφοντας με αρκετά γλαφυρό τρόπο όλα όσα έζησαν και είδαν οι δυο πρωταγωνιστές της ιστορίας. Η γραφή του μπορεί να δείχνει λίγο τα χρόνια της, όμως είναι ωραία, ευκολοδιάβαστη και με μια λεπτή αίσθηση του χιούμορ, και το μόνο σίγουρο είναι ότι την απόλαυσα σε μεγάλο βαθμό. Γενικά, πρόκειται για ένα καλογραμμένο μυθιστόρημα επιστημονικής φαντασίας, που ναι μεν δείχνει τα χρόνια του, όμως καταφέρνει ακόμα να ψυχαγωγεί και να συναρπάζει.

[Anastasia Ts. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tο βιβλίο αυτό πρωτοδημοσιεύτηκε το 1901. Ο λόγος που αναφέρω την ημερομηνία έκδοσης είναι για να καταστεί σαφής η λογοτεχνική εφευρετικότητα αλλά και η ικανότητα του Wells να γράψει για ένα γεγονός που έλαβε χώρα μόλις 68 χρόνια μετά. Ο Wells στέλνει τους ήρωές του στο φεγγάρι μερικά χρόνια νωρίτερα. Ο απένταρος επιχειρηματίας Μπέντφορντ εγκαταλείπει την προσπάθειά του να γράψει ένα θεατρικό έργο για να ακολουθήσει το εγχείρημα του Κέιβορ να ταξιδέψουν στο φεγγάρι δημιουργώντας τον "Κεϊβορίτη" μια ουσία που εξουδετερώνει την βαρύτητα. Η επιθυμία προσεδάφισή τους στη σελήνη στηρίζεται σε ικανοποίηση διαφορετικών επιθυμιών. Ο μεν Μπέντφορντ επιθυμεί τον πλούτο, σε αντίθεση με τον Κέιβορ που στόχος του είναι η απόκτηση γνώσης. Το κείμενο είναι διανθισμένο με περιγραφές που γοητεύουν τον αναγνώστη λόγω της φαντασίας του συγγραφέα. Η ανάγνωση ρέει αβίαστα καθώς ο αναγνώστης παρασύρεται από τις σκηνές που ξετυλίγονται και τα ερωτήματα που δημιουργούνται αναφορικά με τις προτεραιότητες του ανθρώπου, με τη συμπεριφορά του, με τη λήψη αποφάσεων. Ο αναγνώστης του βιβλίου αυτού πρέπει να έχει πάντα κατά νου την χρονική περίοδο που γράφτηκε και υπό το πρίσμα αυτό να συλλογιστεί τους συμβολισμούς που κρύβονται στις σελίδες του και να τις συνδέσει με το σήμερα.

[Gary Inbinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is narrated by Bedford, an impecunious entrepreneur and would-be playwright; the narrative begins in a light and somewhat humorous vein. Bedford has sought refuge in the country to escape his London creditors while writing a play that he hopes will solve his financial woes. He encounters his neighbor Cavor, an eccentric genius with little common sense and a tenuous grip on reality. Cavor is involved in an experiment that, if successful, would produce a gravity-defying substance. The inventor reveals his secret to his new friend; the entrepreneur ponders the commercial possibilities. Thinking Cavor’s experiment might pan out better than a play, Bedford enters into a partnership with the inventor. Discovery of the substance is precipitated by an accident; Cavor’s bumbling assistants fail to tend a furnace with explosive results. Cavorite enters the world with a big bang followed by a cyclone. Realizing his experiment might have blown a hole in earth’s atmosphere, sucked out all the oxygen and left behind a dead planet, Cavor, the single-minded scientist declares:

"If we can possibly avoid wrecking this little planet of ours, we will. But—there must be risks! There must be. In experimental work there always are.”

Now that the partners have Cavorite, they start thinking about its practical applications. Cavor comes up with the idea of space exploration. After some soul-searching Bedford reluctantly agrees to join Cavor for a journey to the moon. The hesitant Bedford soon warms to the adventure and the wonders of outer space.

"Those who have only seen the starry sky from the earth cannot imagine its appearance when the vague, half luminous veil of our air has been withdrawn. The stars we see on earth are the mere scattered survivors that penetrate our misty atmosphere. But now at last I could realise the meaning of the hosts of heaven!”

After landing safely on the moon, they discover strange life forms and a breathable atmosphere. But things soon go awry. While practicing their leaps and bounds in a weightless atmosphere, they lose track of the sphere. They also discover that they aren’t alone; the moon is inhabited by intelligent, insect-like beings: the Selenites. Worse yet, while trying to satisfy their growing hunger, Bedford and Cavor eat moon mushrooms, with psychedelic results. What ensues might be described as a cross between Hieronymus Bosch and Gustave Doré’s visualizations of hell and Ren and Stimpy’s “Space Madness”.

The hapless astronauts are captured by the Selenites and subsequently escape. During the following struggles, the more aggressive Bedford discovers his human advantage over the physically weak Selenites:

"My...hand seemed to go clean through him. He smashed.. like some softish.. sweet with liquid in it!.... He squelched and splashed. It was like hitting a damp toadstool. The flimsy body went spinning a dozen yards, and fell with a flabby impact. I was astonished. I was incredulous that any living thing could be so flimsy.”

"....we had met with things like mad mockeries of men...and had walked in fear before them... And behold, they had smashed like wax and scattered like chaff, and fled and vanished like the creatures of a dream! I rubbed my eyes, doubting whether we had not slept and dreamt these things by reason of the fungus we had eaten.”

Having, escaped their captors, the pair sets a marker and splits up to search for the sphere. The first to find the sphere will signal to the other. Now completely alone in a hostile alien world, Bedford’s narrative turns reflective:

"What good would the moon be to men? Even of their own planet what have they made but a battle-ground and theatre of infinite folly? Small as his world is, and short as his time, he has still in his little life down there far more than he can do.”

"Assuming I was to die a castaway upon the moon, I failed..to see what purpose I had served. I got no light on that point, but..it was clearer to me than it had ever been...that I was not serving my own purpose, that all my life I had...never served the purposes of my private life. Whose purposes, what purposes, was I serving?”

On the brink of despair, Bedford locates the sphere. But he must find Cavor, and Cavor is not to be found. Bedford discovers a bloody note. Cavor has been injured, and taken captive by the Selenites. Giving his companion up for dead, Bedford returns to the sphere and pilots it back to earth, where he fortuitously lands in the sea near the English coastline. And he doesn’t return empty-handed. Some heavy Selenite tools he used as weapons are made of pure gold.

While Bedford recovers at a seaside hotel, the sphere, which was temporarily left on the beach, is activated by a curious boy. The sphere, with the unfortunate boy inside, takes off for outer space, never to return. Along with the sphere and the boy, the secret of Cavorite and the means of returning to the moon are lost.

The scene shifts to Amalfi where Bedford, living off his moon gold, has resumed work on his play. While there, he learns of mysterious radio signals coming from the moon.

"...a Dutch electrician, who has been experimenting with certain apparatus akin to the apparatus used by Mr. Tesla in America, in the hope of discovering some method of communication with Mars, was receiving day by day a curiously fragmentary message in English, which was indisputably emanating from Mr. Cavor in the moon.”

The remainder of the novel focuses on Cavor’s radio transmissions documenting his life among the Selenites. At this point, Wells turns to incisive political satire.

Cavor’s narrative of Selenite society may be read as a parody of Plato’s Republic and other Utopian fantasies. The Selenites are separated by their natural tendencies, abilities and talents and then educated and trained along those lines. Moreover, they are physically, chemically and psychologically altered to form a perfect fit into their ant-like “World-Machine.”

“In the moon," says Cavor, "every citizen knows his place. He is born to that place, and the elaborate discipline of training and education and surgery he undergoes fits him at last so completely to it that he has neither ideas nor organs for any purpose beyond it.”

"And to rule over these things and order any erring tendency there might be in some aberrant natures are the most muscular beings I have seen in the moon, a sort of lunar police, who must have been trained from their earliest years to give a perfect respect and obedience to the swollen heads.”

“These beings with big heads, on whom the intellectual labours fall, form a sort of aristocracy in this strange society, and at the head of them, quintessential of the moon, is that marvellous gigantic ganglion the Grand Lunar, into whose presence I am finally to come.”

The Selenites treat Cavor like an honored guest. He is assigned two specialists who communicate with him in English, and he’s provided with materials to construct the wireless telegraph that he uses to communicate with earth. All goes well until Cavor is brought before the Grand Lunar, the master of the moon, a huge brain with a vestigial insect-like body. The Grand Lunar questions Cavor about earth, and Cavor answers ingenuously.

"His disastrous want of vulgar common sense had utterly betrayed him. He had talked of war, he had talked of all the strength and irrational violence of men, of their insatiable aggressions, their tireless futility of conflict. He had filled the whole moon world with this impression of our race...”

The novel was originally serialized in The Strand Magazine from December 1900 to August 1901 and published in hardcover in 1901. At the time, the British Empire was at its zenith, and was engaged in the Second Boer War. Cavor mentions a battle of that war in response to the Grand Lunar’s questions. The Victorian era ended with the Queen’s death in January, 1901.

[Alex Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Men in the Moon was an unsuspected, joyful surprise! The narration I listened to, by Alexander Vlahos was excellent -- just over-the-top enough to bring the Wells' story to life. In any case, it's immensely satisfying to have a story so well told that its visualization is both intricate and easy for the listener/reader.

This late-Victorian novel (1901) tells the story of a naive, idealistic scientist named Cavor, and his industrialist/capitalist companion, Bedford, who also serves as the primary narrator. Cavor builds a sphere which conveys them to the moon, where Bedford hopes to find something, anything, to make him (them, perhaps) rich. They are completely at odds in their view of the world and, consequently, the moon. That's the set up, but the story is so much more fantastical than anything I could have imagined.

I honestly didn't expect this to be so brilliantly funny, having only read The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, which aren't comedic in the slightest. What surprised me further was that it's more satire than science fiction, at least to modern eyes, and reminds me a great deal of Gulliver's Travels crossed with A Brave New World.

Wells handles his pseudo sciences of space travel and social engineering with such a lightness and joviality as to render the audience nearly pacified in the wake of his underlying commentary on humanity until closer to the end. Wells certainly had his finger on the pulse of human greed, arrogance, ignorance, and violence -- especially when it comes to its relationship to anything it perceives as "other." Bedford encapsulates this pulse, while Cavor represents... what? The hope Wells has for the best of humanity. If, perhaps, a bit too credulous. (Side note: Part of me wonders if it's all a commentary on the stupid, arrogant white man and his colonialism.)


The Selenites -- oh, the Selenites! They were wonderfully imaginative! As were the descriptions of the moon and everything on and in it. But I'll leave that for others to discover. I'm glad I went into this narrative with few preconceived notions, because it only added to my astonishment that such a whimsical (and thought-provoking) novel could be written by H. G. Wells.

[بسام عبد العزيز · Rating 5 out of 5]

جورج ويلز كان بالفعل عبقريا!

رجل بكل هذا الخيال الجامح الذي يجعله يتخيل عوالم آخرى.. كواكب آخرى.. مخلوقات آخرى.. مستقبل آخر.. في الوقت التي كانت قمة التكنولوجيا فيه هى المحرك البخاري و لم يكن شخص ليتصور أنه يوما ما سيستطيع أن يتحدث مع شخص من قارة آخرى من خلال جهاز لا يزيد حجمه عن راحة اليد.. لابد أن يكون شخصا عبقريا!

البداية كانت بطئية نوعا ما.. و لكن مع توالي الصفحات ازداد انغماسي في الرواية.. حتى وصلت قمتها في نهاية الصفحات في الحديث بين العالم الأرضي و الرئيس القمري.. وهي النقطة التي يفصح فيها ويلز عن هدفه الحقيقي من الرواية.. البحث عن حياة أفضل للبشر..
إنها نفس القيمة العليا التي صاحبته تقريبا في معظم كتاباته الخيالية.. نقد سلبيات المجتمع البشري طرح الصورة الطوباوية التي يجب ان يكون عليها.. وما هى هذه الصورة؟ لابد بالطبع أن تكون مجتمعا اشتراكيا..
نفس صورة المجتمع في رواية بشر كالآلهة.. لكن مع فارق بسيط.. هو وجود نوعا من المركزية التي تحكم قرارات المجتمع القمري .. على العكس من اللامركزية التي تحكم كائنات العالم الآخر في بشر كالآلهة.. وهو تقريبا نفس التدرج في الانتقال من المجتمع الاشتراكي إلى المجتمع الشيوعي.. و نلاحظ في هذا أن الترتيب الزمني للقصتين متناسب تماما مع هذا الانتقال الفكري..

لكن ليست فقط فكرة المجتمع الطوباوي تلك هى التي يطرحها ويلز.. الفكرة الأخرى هى كيف يتواصل الانسان مع البيئة؟ كيف يتعامل الانسان مع وجود كائنات أخرى عاقلة؟
وللأسف كبشر لن نتقبل وجود كائنات أخرى عاقلة.. كبرياء الجنس البشري يمنعه من الاعتراف أنه ليس أهم مخلوق في الكون! فكما حاول البشر استعمار العالم الآخر في بشر كالآلهة فنجد البشر هنا يرون القمريين ككائنات حقيرة و غبية لا تستحق سوى القتل فقط لأنها "تشبه الحشرات" على حد وصف صديق العالم!

فالإنسان لابد أن يكون هو سيد العالم .. و كل ما في الكون من مخلوقات و طبيعة في نظره مسخرة فقط لإشباع حاجاته! وللغرابة فهذه النظرة موجودة حتى في الأديان السماوية! على الرغم من أن العلم الحديث يتوقع وجود ما يقارب من 17 مليار كوكب آخر مشابه للأرض!!! و على الرغم من كون كوكب الأرض بالنسبة لحجم مجرتنا وحدها فقط كالنسبة بين ذرة ملح واحدة و حجم الأرض!!! ومع ذلك لا نخجل من الاعتقاد أننا أكبر من الكون باكمله!!

نهاية الرواية كانت غاية في الهزلية.. ابتسمت فيها كثيرا.. ويلز يسخر من الحياة الأرضية العجيبة من خلال عدم تصديق الكائن الفضائي لما يسمعه عن حياة الأرضيين.. فنجده في كل مرة يعرف معلومة جديدة عن الأرض يشعر بحالة من الاندهاش الشديدة من كم الغباء اللامتناهي الذي نعيش فيه كبشر..
بالقطع ويلز استخدم صورة الكائن الفضائي كرمز لشخص متجرد تماما من الاتصال بالحضارة الأرضية.. و بالتالي لن تكون احكامه علي حياتنا أحكاما متأثرة بأي شيء على الأرض.. هذا جعل العالم الأرضي مثلا يفشل تماما في توضيح الهدف من الحروب للكائن القمري...

على أي حال.. بالرغم من عدم مطابقة الكثير من الافتراضات التي تخيلها ويلز عن القمر للحقيقة.. فإن الرواية لو نشرت في عصرنا الحالي و استبدل القمر بكوكب في مجرة أخرى فإنها ستكون ملائمة تماما و لن تخلو الافتراضات العلمية وقتها من جانب كبير من الصحة.. ملمح آخر من ملامح عبقرية ويلز!

[Alexander Theofanidis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Μπορεί να φταίει εκείνη η τραγική μετάφραση που έπεσε στα χέρια μου το καλοκαίρι του 1985, μπορεί να φταίει που συνέπεσε με το Χόμπιτ αναγνωστικά και οτιδήποτε άλλο επισκιάστηκε, μπορεί... ο,τιδήποτε, αλλά το βρήκα σχεδόν τραγικό και δε μάζεψα ποτέ το κουράγιο να το διαβάσω αμετάφραστο...

Δύο κύριοι της Βικτωριανής εποχής χάρη στον καρβονίτη, ένα μέταλλο ή κράμα με αντιβαρυτικές ιδιότητες επισκέπτονται το δορυφόρο της γης και συναντούν τους μυρμηγκόμορφους (;) κατοίκους του που έχουν όλως τυχαίως και μια κοινωνική δομή που παραπέμπει σε έντομα.

Χωρίς να φτάνει ποτέ το εύρος και το μεγαλείο του Η Μηχανή του Χρόνου, υποφέρεται αν σκεφτείς ότι γράφτηκε μια εποχή όπου δε γνωρίζαμε καν για άλλους γαλαξίες και η Ανδρομέδα θεωρείτο νεφέλωμα, ήταν στα πάνω της η θεωρία του "αιθέρα", οι νόμοι του Νεύτωνα δεν είχαν δεχτεί ακόμη τα φαλλοραπίσματα της θεωρίας της σχετικότητας και τα περί καμπύλωσης του χωροχρόνου, ενώ ο Πλούτωνας δεν είχε καν ανακαλυφθεί (για να βιώσει αργότερα την πίκρα της υποβάθμισης σε πλανήτη-νάνο, περίμενω έναν πολιτικώς ορθό αστρονόμο να τοποθετηθεί επ' αυτού του χαρακτηρισμού). Κι αν φώναζες σε επιστημονικό συνέδριο "ΚΟΥΑΡΚ" σε πετούσαν έξω γιατί νόμιζαν ότι έχεις τρελαθεί ή κάνεις την πάπια.

Η περιπέτεια δε συναρπάζει ακριβώς, ούτε και οι χαρακτήρες καθίστανται ιδιαίτερα αξιομνημόνευτοι. Αν πάντως διαβάσω το πρωτότυπο και αλλάξω γνώμη, θα ανακαλέσω δημόσια, για εσάς τους 1,5-2 που διαβάζετε αυτές τις κριτικές.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was most interesting and quite an adventure.

Two men, namely Bedford and Cavor, travel to the moon in a sphere designed by Cavor. When they arrive there, they are most amazed at what they see, something like snow, plants growing at alarming rates, and strange beings called Selenites among others. The adventure actually takes place 'inside' the moon after Bedford falls into a crevice as the two explore the surface, after the 'snow' lures them out of the safety of thier sphere.
Well after an entire range of adventures, including a fight with the moon beings, eating moon plants, having to endure a disgusting blue light, and finally separating, Bedford finds the sphere, tries looking for and signalling to Cavor but never finds him, and finally heads back to earth.
After many months elapse and Bedford gets his earthly life back in order, he receives a message from a Julius Wendigee regarding messages being received form space in english. Well the messages actually emanate from Cavor who day by day has been and continues to send messages regarding his experiences. This continues until one day the messages stop. This is the last that Bedford hears of Cavor.

Well in the usual Wells style, a great adventure.

I've left out too much detail, so hear what, JUST READ IT!

[Matthew Ted · Rating 2 out of 5]

7th book of 2024.

2.5. My fourth or fifth Wells novel and certainly a lesser book of his. I suppose his visions of the moon (breathable air, vegetation, and insect aliens living under the surface) in light of our later explorations make it a little ridiculous. The plot is more action-packed and less philosophical than his magnum opus, which, at this point in time, is still The Time Machine. Enjoyable for the silliness of the plot and scoring his imagination (wild as ever!) against our 21stC knowledge.

[Noah Goats · Rating 4 out of 5]

These old science fiction novels are handy reminders that some of the knowledge we have now, and that seems perfectly obvious to anyone who grew up with it, was unknown not that long ago. The craters on the moon are discussed in this book in a way that makes it clear that H.G. Wells didn't know about asteroid strikes. I do not hold this against him, of course, these glimpses back into the state of the science over 100 years ago are one of the reasons I like to read old science fiction.

This novel is an enjoyable read. The protagonist narrator, Bedford, is an amoral scoundrel who would definitely exploit the dickens out of the aliens who live on the moon if only he gets the opportunity. In some of the other novels I've read by Wells, his protagonists have seemed pretty boring, but Bedford is a lot of fun. It's interesting that 120 years ago the idea that we might abuse the aliens rather than visa versa had already occurred to at least one writer of the genre. Bedford is also stupid. Having a stupid narrator is helpful in science fiction because you don't have to make any real attempt at explaining the (likely nonsensical) science that drives the book. The narrator can just say, as Bedford does, "He talked with an air of being extremely lucid about the 'ether' and 'tubes of force' and 'gravitational potential'. . .but I do not think he ever suspected how much I did not understand him." I have employed the device of the ignorant narrator in my own science fiction writing, and it really gets you off the hook of having to explain anything.

I do not think I would want to put Wells in charge of creating the government or society that I live under. In The World Set Free he seems to be arguing for a kind of benevolent totalitarianism, and it creeps in here as well where he describes the society of the creatures living in the moon (the Selenites) where, "every citizen knows his place. He is born to that place, and the elaborate discipline of training and education and surgery he undergoes fits him at last so completely to it that he has neither ideas nor organs for any purpose beyond it." In fact, the society of the Selenites is a lot like the one described by Huxley in Brave New World, except that I think Wells largely approves of it, or at least finds it attractive. His sympathetic human character is uncomfortable with certain aspects of the way society is organized on the moon, but on the whole, he seems to think it's better than what we are doing on earth.

If you like old science fiction, this book is not to be missed. Lots of interesting stuff in here. Out of the H.G. Wells novels I've read (including The War of the Worlds, The World Set Free, and The Invisible Man), it's probably my favorite, with The War of the Worlds coming in a close second and the other two tied for a very distant third.

[Gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel was such an unexpected fun recounting of how an idealistic explorer and a businessman fly to the moon.
The tone of the narration is pleasantly tongue-in-cheek and doesn't take itself seriously. And the moon ... what a wonderful vivid imagination.

Forget that it is dated, just enjoy.

[Margret Melissa (ladybug) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story where Mr. Bedford (a penniless Business man) meets a Scientist name of Dr. Cavor. Dr Cavor has invented a substance that can neutralize the effects of Gravity. Mr Bedford sees a chance to change his fortunes using this substance to travel to the Moon. While on the Moon, Mr Bedford and Dr Cavor find such strange sights as the Selenites, plants growing at alarming rates and other such awe inspiring things.

While this book was written by the Author of The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau, this book isn't as well known. I often wondered why people were taken in by the "War of the World's" radio play, but having listened to this book I can see it. At this point of time, people didn't know what was on the Moon. It was a mysteries force that was unknown and at this time unexplored. Anything could be there. There is life on Earth, why not the moon and mars? H.G. Wells, a genius of descriptions, brings you to the moon along with his characters. You can see the Selenites, the warrens under the Moons surface, actually even breathe the thin air with Mr. Bedford and Dr Cavor. You can see Dr Cavor waving his arms around and being non-confrontational and Mr. Bedford in his antagonistic best.

The last few chapters tended to drag for me, but overall a wonderful early SciFi book about space and the possibilities to be found there.

[Antje · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wells konnte mich mit diesem Roman nicht so überzeugen wie mit seinem "Krieg der Welten" und "Der Unsichtbare". Vor allem Cavors endlosen wissenschaftlichen Ausführungen zu Beginn langweilten mich, weil ich sie nicht verstand. Auch die Beschreibungen der Mondleute, Mondkälber und deren Umgebung waren mir zu unverständlich. Es gelang mir einfach nicht, sie mir bildlich vorzustellen. Auch die sogenannte Sphäre, mit der Cavor und Bedford zum Mond fliegen, entstand nur vage in meiner Phantasie.
Nichtsdestotrotz wartet Wells mit einer spannenden Idee auf, darüber, welche Lebewesen und auf welcher Art auf dem Mond existieren könnten; wie sie den Erdenmenschen begegnen würden und auch wie sich die Menschen ihnen gegenüber verhalten. Die Weise, wie die beiden Laien-Astronauten ihre Flugbahn zum Mond und zurück bestimmten, liest sich interessant und wirkt sogar etwas ulkig. Trotz der ganzen scheinbaren Naivität, funktioniert aber Wells abenteuerliche Utopie. So gelingen ihm erstaunliche dramaturgische Wendungen, die nicht vorhersehbar sind, u.a. - Vorsicht Spoiler!!! - der Junge, der in der Sphäre spielt und ....rumms....damit ins Nirgendwo verschwindet oder die informationsreichen Botschaften Cavors vom Mond an die Erde. Und letztlich setzt er den großen Showdown durch die Unterhaltung Cavors mit dem Mondherren, in dem er ihm vom Leben auf der Erde und auch den Kriegen darauf berichtet. Ein tolles Ende zum anschließenden Austausch und Philosophieren.

[Book2Dragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Granted that HG Wells is a great writer. Maybe it was the pre-NASA age of this book, but I found it less than Astounding. What men of 1901 imagined might be on the moon and its possibilities for saving our planet from itself, full of gold and untapped resources. come nowhere near the reality of a barren landscape. When the Selenites found out how we operated here on Earth, they wisely chose to remain a mystery and delay any exploration from the Earth.

Historically an interesting view of the imagination in 1901. Could easily have been 100 pages shorter (for me anyway).

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biographical Note
Introduction
Further Reading
Note on the Text

--The First Men in the Moon

Notes