What do you think?
Rate this book
Shoot at the Moon
The Endeavour has made rocket ship history. With its automatic pilot and artificial gravity, anyone is qualified to fly to the moon. But the scientists who designed it did not envision the hidden dangers of lunar exploration. Nor did they foresee the kind of violence that could erupt among the five mismatched crew members in a lonely space capsule. The Endeavour's captain, Franz Brunel of the British Space Service, has to contend with the many perils that await him on the surface of the moon. Soon a murderer is among them. Now, contemporary readers have the chance to enjoy Temple's unusual blend of traditional SF with a darkly ironic tone.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
5 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
William F. Temple
60 books4 followersWilliam Frederick Temple was a British science fiction writer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 27, 2024
I was very pleasantly surprised at how entertaining “Shoot at the Moon” was. Although it didn’t have much of a plot (in fact if I hadn’t read the back cover I’d have been saying “where is this even going?” for half of it), I just enjoyed spending time with the oddball characters and sarcastic narration. Some of the more famous classic-era sci-fi novels I’ve read (“Midworld,” “Rendezvous with Rama,” “Planet of the Apes”) are populated with personality-free, interchangeable characters that only exist to guide the reader through cool settings. This book, whose settings took a backseat to its flawed, distinctive characters, felt closer to those “ascended” sci-fi novels like “Ender’s Game” and “Fahrenheit 451” that have great character work. Also, its “can humans be automated away?” theme felt just as relevant now as it must have in the 1960s.
Obligatory disclaimer: “Shoot at the Moon” definitely has a lot of the sexism you’d expect from a genre novel from the ‘60s. However… there is something to be said about the strength and characterization of the female lead. Although there were many aspects of her portrayal that were objectionable by today’s standards, I thought she was a step in the right direction compared to the women in, for example, “Rendezvous with Rama.” I’ll defer to my wiser friends for a better analysis.
Obligatory disclaimer: “Shoot at the Moon” definitely has a lot of the sexism you’d expect from a genre novel from the ‘60s. However… there is something to be said about the strength and characterization of the female lead. Although there were many aspects of her portrayal that were objectionable by today’s standards, I thought she was a step in the right direction compared to the women in, for example, “Rendezvous with Rama.” I’ll defer to my wiser friends for a better analysis.
September 18, 2017
A crusty late middle-aged spaceship pilot is picked for a trip to the moon in a spaceship that will largely fly itself—in essence auditioning his replacement—by a blustery plutocrat who's gotten (sub rosa) permission to investigate what he believes is the mother lode of gold veins. His companions are the rich man's unctuous doctor, a hangdog metallurgist with a knack for being the only survivor of dangerous missions, and the man's beautiful (when she's not fat) and literally insane daughter.
With this setup, I expected some eye-rolling as our hero (Franz, who is coincidentally about the same age as the author), becomes the romantic object of "Lou", the brilliant, but fat and juvenile daughter of his sponsor. To the extent that she sheds the pounds and aggressively pursues him into space.
And yet, setting aside the facile (but wholly traditional) treatment of insanity, the characters in this book ended up being fleshed out very well. Franz himself is a bit prickly, to say the least, and his views of other people tend to be that, well, he doesn't like them much. He particularly doesn't like or trust anyone on this journey, except (after a fair amount of persuasion) Lou, and this makes sense for the "lone wolf" character. Temple doesn't gild Franz, especially: His weakness for Lou has a genuine passion to it, but it's still a weakness, with heaps of jealousy and insecurity layered on it.
In fact, the real challenge of the book, I thought, was going to be getting through it with such unlikable characters, but Temple redeems them, slowly and imperfectly, and in a way that you don't want them to die.
Which is rather a pity when they start dying and the finger start pointing in all kinds of uncomfortable directions.
The sci-fi element adds a nice twist to the proceeding: it's not just window dressing and I didn't see it coming, though there were clues. The whole thing is rather competently done, with good writing and just the right amount of description to ground you in the settings.
I was pleasantly surprised.
With this setup, I expected some eye-rolling as our hero (Franz, who is coincidentally about the same age as the author), becomes the romantic object of "Lou", the brilliant, but fat and juvenile daughter of his sponsor. To the extent that she sheds the pounds and aggressively pursues him into space.
And yet, setting aside the facile (but wholly traditional) treatment of insanity, the characters in this book ended up being fleshed out very well. Franz himself is a bit prickly, to say the least, and his views of other people tend to be that, well, he doesn't like them much. He particularly doesn't like or trust anyone on this journey, except (after a fair amount of persuasion) Lou, and this makes sense for the "lone wolf" character. Temple doesn't gild Franz, especially: His weakness for Lou has a genuine passion to it, but it's still a weakness, with heaps of jealousy and insecurity layered on it.
In fact, the real challenge of the book, I thought, was going to be getting through it with such unlikable characters, but Temple redeems them, slowly and imperfectly, and in a way that you don't want them to die.
Which is rather a pity when they start dying and the finger start pointing in all kinds of uncomfortable directions.
The sci-fi element adds a nice twist to the proceeding: it's not just window dressing and I didn't see it coming, though there were clues. The whole thing is rather competently done, with good writing and just the right amount of description to ground you in the settings.
I was pleasantly surprised.
July 17, 2022
1982 grade B
2022 grade B
This story is a SciFi mystery and an unusual one at that. The author keeps the SciFi details minimal for the first half and more. Instead he concentrates on the five odd characters which is pretty interesting. An obsessed billionaire hires an experienced pilot to fly him to the moon in a computerized atomic spaceship he had hired others to build. The other three crew are family and friends- all scientific, but also mentally damaged people. The purpose of the SciFi is to isolate the people so the story can be told. The story is told from the pilot's POV. As a character study, the book is quite good up to the murder. After that there is way too much introspection which I had to speed read. The conclusion is good, though, and brings the SciFi much more into the story. I did guess the overall concept of the conclusion but not the details.
I can't recommend this book but at least I know why I graded it B 40 years ago. (B basically means "maybe.")
2022 grade B
This story is a SciFi mystery and an unusual one at that. The author keeps the SciFi details minimal for the first half and more. Instead he concentrates on the five odd characters which is pretty interesting. An obsessed billionaire hires an experienced pilot to fly him to the moon in a computerized atomic spaceship he had hired others to build. The other three crew are family and friends- all scientific, but also mentally damaged people. The purpose of the SciFi is to isolate the people so the story can be told. The story is told from the pilot's POV. As a character study, the book is quite good up to the murder. After that there is way too much introspection which I had to speed read. The conclusion is good, though, and brings the SciFi much more into the story. I did guess the overall concept of the conclusion but not the details.
I can't recommend this book but at least I know why I graded it B 40 years ago. (B basically means "maybe.")
May 24, 2019
I bought this because it sounded interesting when I was walking through the British library. As I started to read it, I was very bored at the beginning and frankly I clocked out for parts of it. Once we started getting to the mystery part and things started happening, I was roped in and could barely put it down.
It was an interesting book and I would recommend to people who enjoy sci-fi and mystery novels
It was an interesting book and I would recommend to people who enjoy sci-fi and mystery novels
November 9, 2020
It starts like a run-of-the-mill SF story: scientists have discovered something that looks like gold on the moon and they send a manned rocket to retrieve it. But the captain has no people skills whatsoever, and he is in love with a schizophrenic scientist whose "lovable" ex-husband is also a member of the, rather unlikable, crew... They make it to the moon, but then there is a murder...
Great story!
Great story!
November 25, 2018
Very entertaining and darkly funny. I particularly liked the fact that it was between genres, showing that whatever exciting things humanity will do the basics never change - greed, selfishness, awkward social interactions....
A lot of sci-fi is clever but has very two-dimensional and wooden characters, whereas Temple's characters, though eccentric, are believable and real. It mixes sci-fi with human drama with the most unsuited mixture of people on a spaceship imaginable.
A lot of sci-fi is clever but has very two-dimensional and wooden characters, whereas Temple's characters, though eccentric, are believable and real. It mixes sci-fi with human drama with the most unsuited mixture of people on a spaceship imaginable.
July 5, 2018
A boring, incredibly misogynistic 'murder mystery" on the moon. Yuck.
April 4, 2023
Slow Start but Thrilling Finish
This was one of William F Temple’s last books, finally re-published after the lapse of half a century. Good to see it back.
Frankly, when I first started reading, I could see only too well why it flopped at the time, and wondered whether the publishers should really have bothered. The five (British) astronauts were about the most unlikely crew I’ve met unless “Rupert and the Space Ship” counts. They managed to include both a divorced couple and an estranged father and grownup daughter. Their endless bickering and backbiting made the (roughly contemporary) casts of “Journey Into Space” and “Pathfinders In Space” seem like Prussian Guards in comparison. Between boredom and irritation, by the time I’d got halfway through the book I was very near to giving up on it.
This would have been a big mistake, as things liven up fast in the second half. In quick succession, two of the crew die in suspicious circumstances, and, finding no sign of any rival expedition, the three ill-matched survivors are uneasily looking over their shoulders at one another.
However, all is not as it seems. They make an incredible discovery which both explains the deaths and alerts them to deadly danger. They escape from the Moon and get home in an exciting cliff-hanger which had me on the edge of my seat. It reminded me of the boys’ sf of which Temple had written quite a bit, but this time for adults.
There was also a sub-plot, which perhaps makes the republication timely. The space pilot is deeply perturbed by a technical innovation which could lead his profession being “automated” out of existence, with all pilots being replaced by machines. This reflects contemporary concerns about jobs being destroyed by mechanisation, much like today’s concern about AI. Needless to say, the hero gets them all safely home by means of improvisations which no autopilot could have performed, thus saving his job for the foreseeable future.
As a bonus, the front cover is based on a painting by Chesley Bonestell, and the frontispiece is another by Camille Flammarion. Get it.
This was one of William F Temple’s last books, finally re-published after the lapse of half a century. Good to see it back.
Frankly, when I first started reading, I could see only too well why it flopped at the time, and wondered whether the publishers should really have bothered. The five (British) astronauts were about the most unlikely crew I’ve met unless “Rupert and the Space Ship” counts. They managed to include both a divorced couple and an estranged father and grownup daughter. Their endless bickering and backbiting made the (roughly contemporary) casts of “Journey Into Space” and “Pathfinders In Space” seem like Prussian Guards in comparison. Between boredom and irritation, by the time I’d got halfway through the book I was very near to giving up on it.
This would have been a big mistake, as things liven up fast in the second half. In quick succession, two of the crew die in suspicious circumstances, and, finding no sign of any rival expedition, the three ill-matched survivors are uneasily looking over their shoulders at one another.
However, all is not as it seems. They make an incredible discovery which both explains the deaths and alerts them to deadly danger. They escape from the Moon and get home in an exciting cliff-hanger which had me on the edge of my seat. It reminded me of the boys’ sf of which Temple had written quite a bit, but this time for adults.
There was also a sub-plot, which perhaps makes the republication timely. The space pilot is deeply perturbed by a technical innovation which could lead his profession being “automated” out of existence, with all pilots being replaced by machines. This reflects contemporary concerns about jobs being destroyed by mechanisation, much like today’s concern about AI. Needless to say, the hero gets them all safely home by means of improvisations which no autopilot could have performed, thus saving his job for the foreseeable future.
As a bonus, the front cover is based on a painting by Chesley Bonestell, and the frontispiece is another by Camille Flammarion. Get it.
June 21, 2023
It would seem that I rather like old-school sci-fi novels - I enjoyed this one far more than I was expecting to.
Franz Brunel was a complicated hero but I very much appreciated the humour of his character and his interactions with the other crew members. This line (p. 73) demonstrates his temperament perfectly: 'I never hit a drunk man unless I'm drunk too. I was a long way from being drunk. But I could work at it. I poured myself another stiff one'. In fact, some of the lines could've come straight from a Naked Gun movie.
There were issues concerning the treatment of Lou which were perhaps a little troubling but I don't want to go into all that - since this book was published in 1966 Temple should've known better but maybe I'm just viewing things from a modern perspective. Instead I'll focus on my favourite paragraph in the book which was spoken by Lou (p. 92): 'One day I stayed to watch the sunset. then the stars began to come out and the moon rose like a big golden balloon. I lay watching it, and thinking: maybe people live on the moon. Nice, wise, kind people. Maybe they're looking down at this world, seeing it all in one piece. Not just the fields and woods around me to the edge of the sky, but all over. All over the oceans and Africa and America...Maybe they can even see me and where I fit into it all. One day, I promised myself, I shall go to the moon and ask those wise people: "Where do I fit in? You know, don't you? Please tell me'.
I really appreciated the utter randomness of the climax and the explanation for the cause of the two deaths during the mission and I am now looking forward to seeking out a copy of Temple's other famous work, The Four-sided Triangle.
Franz Brunel was a complicated hero but I very much appreciated the humour of his character and his interactions with the other crew members. This line (p. 73) demonstrates his temperament perfectly: 'I never hit a drunk man unless I'm drunk too. I was a long way from being drunk. But I could work at it. I poured myself another stiff one'. In fact, some of the lines could've come straight from a Naked Gun movie.
There were issues concerning the treatment of Lou which were perhaps a little troubling but I don't want to go into all that - since this book was published in 1966 Temple should've known better but maybe I'm just viewing things from a modern perspective. Instead I'll focus on my favourite paragraph in the book which was spoken by Lou (p. 92): 'One day I stayed to watch the sunset. then the stars began to come out and the moon rose like a big golden balloon. I lay watching it, and thinking: maybe people live on the moon. Nice, wise, kind people. Maybe they're looking down at this world, seeing it all in one piece. Not just the fields and woods around me to the edge of the sky, but all over. All over the oceans and Africa and America...Maybe they can even see me and where I fit into it all. One day, I promised myself, I shall go to the moon and ask those wise people: "Where do I fit in? You know, don't you? Please tell me'.
I really appreciated the utter randomness of the climax and the explanation for the cause of the two deaths during the mission and I am now looking forward to seeking out a copy of Temple's other famous work, The Four-sided Triangle.
December 4, 2025
The author of this science fiction novel is a master class at telling you exactly what happened and throwing a barrel of red herrings at you straight after to sift through.
The murder mystery elements of the plot are perhaps stronger in their presence but they are something you’d expect from an Agatha Christie novel too. The sci-fi elements are reminiscent of Jules Verne and maybe the Hyperion series. The end solution would sit perfectly well in an episode of Doctor Who (think Peter Capaldi or the Original David Tennant run) - you won’t see it coming and a second read through might also draw out the subtle clues that don’t often go noticed on the first read through.
Lou is a slightly strange character and I’m not entirely certain how well the only female character was written - it felt unnecessary to make her so bipolar but that is just my opinion - but maybe she was also written that way to make the love interest side plot less convoluted in such a quick book to get through (when you aren’t constantly eating, working an early and sleeping - this is Christmas run up people. And retail at that.).
Highly recommend this book and its author anyway. Apparently he also wrote Four-Sided Triangle.
The murder mystery elements of the plot are perhaps stronger in their presence but they are something you’d expect from an Agatha Christie novel too. The sci-fi elements are reminiscent of Jules Verne and maybe the Hyperion series. The end solution would sit perfectly well in an episode of Doctor Who (think Peter Capaldi or the Original David Tennant run) - you won’t see it coming and a second read through might also draw out the subtle clues that don’t often go noticed on the first read through.
Lou is a slightly strange character and I’m not entirely certain how well the only female character was written - it felt unnecessary to make her so bipolar but that is just my opinion - but maybe she was also written that way to make the love interest side plot less convoluted in such a quick book to get through (when you aren’t constantly eating, working an early and sleeping - this is Christmas run up people. And retail at that.).
Highly recommend this book and its author anyway. Apparently he also wrote Four-Sided Triangle.
June 7, 2025
A dozen curate's eggs - sometimes the characterisation is flat and lifeless, then will spark alive for a moment or several, the writing can be beautifully imaginative and compelling but will drift off into passages of sterile tedium, the dialogue can capture your imagination ... then leave you skipping lines, looking for the next point of significance or interest.
And the story drifts. From time to time you feel it might build in intensity ... but, even allowing for the changed intellectual climate and knowledge base (the book was first published in 1966), there are chapters where the tale ties itself in knots which constrict your imagination and interest ... the story kept losing its dynamism.
I got to the halfway point, concluded I found the characters utterly boring ... and simply lost whatever interest I'd managed to sustain.
And the story drifts. From time to time you feel it might build in intensity ... but, even allowing for the changed intellectual climate and knowledge base (the book was first published in 1966), there are chapters where the tale ties itself in knots which constrict your imagination and interest ... the story kept losing its dynamism.
I got to the halfway point, concluded I found the characters utterly boring ... and simply lost whatever interest I'd managed to sustain.
June 30, 2020
Shoot at the Moon is a captivating story about how five misfits ended up with a huge scientific discovery on the Moon. Another glimpse of the never ending debate about the faculties of humans vs. robots.
August 10, 2023
Everyone should read this book. The beginning is a little slow, but after the first 15 pages, THIS BOOK IS PURE GOLD.
I could never have guessed the events as they unfolded. Everytime I thought I knew what happened, the story took a 180° turn. I couldn't put this book down!!!
I could never have guessed the events as they unfolded. Everytime I thought I knew what happened, the story took a 180° turn. I couldn't put this book down!!!
October 10, 2018
It felt like the book didn't know what genre it wanted to be
February 5, 2023
DNF. It's fine, it doesn't read like an old book, I just ... never really got what was going on.
December 3, 2023
An interesting chamber play set in space, with quirky characters and a surprising twist.
October 27, 2024
A good drama-mystery story disguised as a science fiction novel.
March 7, 2025
A little dated perhaps, but a good story. Unusually for the science fiction I usually read it had a love interest. Worth your time.
June 26, 2025
It didn’t age well.
September 10, 2010
Picked this up at a resale shop. It's a dated, near-future science fiction murder mystery novel. Nothing special.
August 22, 2015
Classic SciFi of the 60's which looks into the psychology and interactions of the people. What happens when you put 4 men and a woman into a tiny capsule.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews