The Moon Children

by Jack Williamson

An excellent sf novel--fairly glitters w/imaginative devices & captures perfectly the sense of alienness, of other worlds, that makes it peculiarly science fiction. the characters are very strange, yet they become absorbingly real, so much so that you will hate to leave them. The story tells of 3 strange children born to astronauts after they return from a moon flight where they were exposed to some strange crystals from outer space. The children, two beautiful, one a shaggy monster, grow up w/unhuman capabilities.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

190 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1972

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

So as we start the UK lockdown I am finally getting to catch up on my reading - I wonder who else are finding themselves in this situation.

Anyway here we are - with a Jack Williamson book - I must admit in my question to read more classic (or is it Golden) age science fiction I have been looking forward to reading a Jack Williamson book for a while.

So here we go with the Moon Children - I must admit that as I read this I honestly did think it was a lot older than the early 70s publication date as a lot of the references and scientific ideas felt dated (although at some point would have been considered acceptable). This is not a bad thing and for all I know was an intention of the author.

But what of the book - well apart from reading a lot like a particular John Wyndham book (am sure you can guess it without giving any true spoilers) the book is a good old pulp science fiction romp which to be honest never really goes out of fashion.

the book itself was fun to read although I still struggle on how best to categorise it - true its not one of his best (or most famous) but I certainly enjoyed it.

[Mad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ad oggi risulta un po' datato. Un buon inizio, con premesse interessanti che però si perdono nell'ultima parte. Anche il ritmo subisce una brusca accelerata, in parte immotivata: si passa da piccoli indizi disseminati lungo anni a mille cose che succedono tutte di botto ...
Protagonista abbastanza inutile, e il finale su di lui... Meh
Lettura godibile ma senza grandi pretese

[Nicatel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jack Williamson nella sua carriera ha scritto ben di meglio che questo romanzetto sconclusionato che mescola viaggi lunari, invasioni aliene, scenari da dopobomba, “figli dell’invasione”, superpoteri misteriosi ed extraterrestri potentissimi per ottenere un risultato piuttosto noioso e sfilacciato, con vari episodi poco o nulla giustificati dalla trama e nella trama.

Poteva essere accettabile negli anni ’70 quando è stato scritto, ma ora non più (e forse non è un caso se in Italia non è mai più stato ristampato da allora).

P.S. per l'estensore della quarta di copertina: l'astronave è la Seeker 2, e l'ultima missione Apollo è stata nel 1972, mentre questo romanzo è del 1971.

[Andres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent classic Sci-Fi book by one of the masters. Haven't read it in a good 30 years, so I'm reading it again after tracking down a copy. I wish books like this one were still being authored, instead of the mindless drivel that most modern Sci-Fi has become.

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The three astronauts from Seeker Two have returned from investigating the crash of their predecessor mission on the lunar farside. They found some odd black tetrahedral crystal grit, which they brought back and which triggered a sequence of unsettling events. Firstly, the three astronauts' wives became pregnant. Two delivered premature but fully formed and recognisably human children. The third delivered an almost-chimera, bearlike but human. All three developed uncannily fast and with abilities not seen in children. Secondly, the removal of the grit apparently signalled extrasolar entities that we may be ready to join a vast conglomeration of intelligences. But the military see envoys that can't easily be stopped differently. A war begins between the Jovian snakes and the metallic ants and other odd space biocosms. Meanwhile a rift has developed between the bearlike Guy and his fellow Moon children, Nick and Kyrie. Guy has developed a way of using the power of the crystal to create something rather amazing which he calls a nexoid, but his real father, who dislikes his child, and his uncle (the viewpoint character who is fond of Guy) have different ideas about how to use this power. Guy has established a country of women, which he is getting pregnant as fast as possible to extend the inherited powers. Ultimately the goal is to build an intergalactic beacon but time is running out. Jack Williamson has written much better books than this, which is a bit of a mish-mash, and reads like it was written in the 1950s.

[James]

An international agency, COSMOS, is in charge of space exploration in the not very distant future. Odd forms of life have been discovered on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter; there may be a life form on Mercury; and finally something utterly mystifying is discovered on the moon. Three astronauts land and examine an installation that all three perceive as radically different - one sees a heap of gold, one a fort bristling with guns, one a space platform and space craft. They return to Earth with some crystals picked up at the mystery site. All three soon produce children - the moon children, gifted, precocious, and seemingly damned by the crystals their fathers had handled. Two are eerily beautiful, the third a grotesque monster. And the three soon discover that they are Earth's hope for survival, as interplanetary invasion brings overwhelming alien forces to bear on mankind.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote a review for this book on my blog:
The Real World According To Sam

I came across this book at my university's library. It was for sale and as a fan of science fiction I decided to pick it up. I'd never heard of this book, nor its author, before.

The book's main character and narrator is Kim Hodian, a Jewish man with a brother he doesn't really get along with, who gets roped into the lives of the moon children, seemingly by accident. He is called in by his brother, who is in a pretty high position, and ends up doing publicity jobs (writing press releases and the like). He is with the moon children over the course of their lives as presented within the book, and he often ends up becoming witness to the things they accomplish. As a main character, I can't say I much like him. He's of good moral character and is a good enough guy, but he has very little agency. His whole role is to relate his complacence within the story so that we understand what major things occurred in the world within the book.

The moon children were rather fascinating characters. I would have preferred to have the story told from one of their perspectives, but at the same time, considering how different they are from humans, I can understand how impossible a task it may be to have them tell their own story in a way that can be "understood to humans". As a result, we get a very laid back, generally inactive main character.

The story is very intriguing and it goes by rather quick. The pace sometimes rocks off kilter a little, but overall things are pretty seamless until near the end. Some parts felt a bit rushed, but that may be as a result of the story being published as a serialized version in a magazine (although it is labeled as being slightly different from that version). This still feels a bit like a serialized story, than a full novel to a certain degree. The ending of the book feels strongly like a 1970s sci-fi ending based on the little bit of sci-fi I know from the time in film/novels.

This novel also mixes some science with a lot of fiction, as can be expected. I mention this because I found many instances in which scientific information was presented and then largely left off to the side for a predominant amount of the novel. One major component is mentioned again towards the end, but overall there isn't a lot of science going on, and there is a lot more geometry, to a certain degree. I liked this about the book, but I also didn't, in a simultaneously, bizarre and paradoxical manner. I like when science is presented, but not left as largely moot to most of the book's happenings, although I see where it may be necessary considering that the narrator is not scientifically inclined. Kim is an average, and somewhat self-unappreciative person, with very little higher scientific knowledge. In some regards he is a bit of a simpleton, particularly when compared to the moon children and the astronauts or other space personnel at the beginning of the novel. He is more of an emotional, feeling person, than a contemplative one. I thought that was an interesting choice considering the patterns I've known science fiction to follow in what I've read up to this point. I'm used to characters having a bit more agency, so a narrator of this type is very different. I like how much it gives me to contemplate about the story and the kind of story we can get, but I think I still prefer my narrators and characters to have some more agency to them.

Overall, this was a very intriguing read and I'm glad that I picked it up. I'll definitely be contemplating this one for a while. Not because of the events of the story, but because of the elements used to TELL the story...the writing aspects and decisions made for it.

[Alien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Erkundung des Sonnensystems findet Aliens und lockt sie zur Erde. Sie sind unergründlich und sie beginnen die Erde zu vernichten. Mondastronauten haben Halluzinationen, sie bringen mysteriöse schwarze Steine zurück und kriegen 3 seltsame Kinder, die wohl von Alieneinflüssen geprägt sind.

Die Entwicklung der Kinder wird minutiös beschrieben. Das wird auf Dauer schon etwas langweilig. Es passiert zunehmend abgefahrenes Zeug. Aber schon irgendwie auch beeindruckend

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair science fiction novel read at the end of a winter break from school.

[SciFiOne]

1979 no grade