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First on the Moon
It was top secret, and yet the enemy knew. The Americans were about to send a manned rocket to the moon and thereby claim it. And they weren't going to let that happen. A life-or-death race to the moon between the superpowers
- GenresScience Fiction
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
3 people are currently reading
29 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Sutton
50 books4 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 26, 2023
listened to this as part of The Second Science Fiction Novel Megapack. It is will written with interesting well developed characters lots of action and misdirection leading to the conclusion. I woulld recommend it to readers of Science Fiction novels. 2023
September 23, 2022
Written in 1958, more than a decade before the first actual Moon landing, this novel takes us on an adventure that is part scientific speculation and part Cold War thriller. American Adam Crag is tapped to lead the first manned mission to the moon, racing against the Soviet Union to be the first. The reward, per UN doctrine, is the right to claim the entire lunar surface for the country that can be the first to get there and still be surviving when the final UN vote takes place. But as if the mission itself wasn’t enough risk for these astronauts, intelligence suggests the Soviets plan to destroy the American rocket ship before it can ever launch.
But those Americans can be tricky, and they have prepared for just such a contingency. Their primary rocket ship is merely a decoy, and so when it is, in fact, destroyed, their real ship is able to blast off into space and proceed with the mission. But hold on, the Soviets aren’t done yet. Word comes down that one of the American astronauts is secretly, a saboteur!
This novel was author Jeff Sutton’s first. As a former marine (including WW2 service on Guadalcanal) and now a research engineer for Convair-San Diego, Jeff Sutton was used to journalistic and technical writing. He specialized in high-altitude survival and this background novel served him well in all the myriad technical aspects of this spaceflight novel. Of course, much of the plot was speculative I nature, particularly what it would be like on the surface of the moon. The Cold War plot of pitting the two superpowers against each other in actual space combat and moon-surface gunplay seems a bit hokey looking back from our time, but it provided a pretty good action-adventure alternative to what could have been simply an overcome-the-technical-glitches plot.
I pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this novel. The technical parts were pretty spot-on but sometimes the characters acted in an unconvincing manner. For example, the American staff back on Earth desperately tried to determine which of the astronauts was the likely saboteur via background checks and interviews with their childhood teachers and so forth. We get to see some of that, but most occurs in the background. But when they finally think they have their man, they choose not to tell Commander Crag in case they have it wrong. They tell him they don’t want to poison his opinion of any of his crew. What? Why go to the trouble of figuring it out and then not tell him so he can take precautions. Poor Commander Crag must not only have to deal with fixing the rocket ship for a return flight, severe oxygen deficiency problems, incoming nuclear warheads launched from earth by the Soviets, crew morale problems, gun fights with a Soviet Moon landing crew, and more…he also has to battle the stupid bureaucrats back home. Yeah…probably more realistic now that I think about it.
So as long as you can take off your 21st century hat and insert yourself into 1958, this is a pretty good science fiction yarn. Jeff Sutton would go on to write 22 more novels in science fiction, war, political novels, and juvenile fiction. Most of them involved themes involving the space program.
But those Americans can be tricky, and they have prepared for just such a contingency. Their primary rocket ship is merely a decoy, and so when it is, in fact, destroyed, their real ship is able to blast off into space and proceed with the mission. But hold on, the Soviets aren’t done yet. Word comes down that one of the American astronauts is secretly, a saboteur!
This novel was author Jeff Sutton’s first. As a former marine (including WW2 service on Guadalcanal) and now a research engineer for Convair-San Diego, Jeff Sutton was used to journalistic and technical writing. He specialized in high-altitude survival and this background novel served him well in all the myriad technical aspects of this spaceflight novel. Of course, much of the plot was speculative I nature, particularly what it would be like on the surface of the moon. The Cold War plot of pitting the two superpowers against each other in actual space combat and moon-surface gunplay seems a bit hokey looking back from our time, but it provided a pretty good action-adventure alternative to what could have been simply an overcome-the-technical-glitches plot.
I pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this novel. The technical parts were pretty spot-on but sometimes the characters acted in an unconvincing manner. For example, the American staff back on Earth desperately tried to determine which of the astronauts was the likely saboteur via background checks and interviews with their childhood teachers and so forth. We get to see some of that, but most occurs in the background. But when they finally think they have their man, they choose not to tell Commander Crag in case they have it wrong. They tell him they don’t want to poison his opinion of any of his crew. What? Why go to the trouble of figuring it out and then not tell him so he can take precautions. Poor Commander Crag must not only have to deal with fixing the rocket ship for a return flight, severe oxygen deficiency problems, incoming nuclear warheads launched from earth by the Soviets, crew morale problems, gun fights with a Soviet Moon landing crew, and more…he also has to battle the stupid bureaucrats back home. Yeah…probably more realistic now that I think about it.
So as long as you can take off your 21st century hat and insert yourself into 1958, this is a pretty good science fiction yarn. Jeff Sutton would go on to write 22 more novels in science fiction, war, political novels, and juvenile fiction. Most of them involved themes involving the space program.
March 31, 2012
The flight to the moon and the mechanics of the rocket ships were the best parts of the book. Sutton didn't think through too clearly how the two nations would react in such a close race to build a station on the moon. He also over estimated how much redudancy the US would have in terms of equipment and the ability to rescue someone "stranded" on the moon.
November 2, 2019
This is Jeff Sutton's first book, and unlike the later one I've read, Apollo at Go, which is a very hard sci-fi vision of the first Moon Landing, this one is more of a cold war adventure.
The main Character, Adam Crag, is one of three alternates to go on the first moon mission, and gets thrust into the command chair when the other two are assassinated by Russian agents. The rocket get off the ground, but so do the Russians,and whoever gets a base set up first gets to claim the moon as their own.
Sutton pictured atomic rockets, that were just about read to go, but the staged rockets of the time had to go first to get there before the Russians could.
There is lots of spy stuff, and an actual battle on the moon between the two crews, and nuclear missiles shot at the landed ships.
While realism was definitely sacrificed for adventure, it is definitely a fun book, especially if your a fan of cold war era fiction with evil Russians.
The main Character, Adam Crag, is one of three alternates to go on the first moon mission, and gets thrust into the command chair when the other two are assassinated by Russian agents. The rocket get off the ground, but so do the Russians,and whoever gets a base set up first gets to claim the moon as their own.
Sutton pictured atomic rockets, that were just about read to go, but the staged rockets of the time had to go first to get there before the Russians could.
There is lots of spy stuff, and an actual battle on the moon between the two crews, and nuclear missiles shot at the landed ships.
While realism was definitely sacrificed for adventure, it is definitely a fun book, especially if your a fan of cold war era fiction with evil Russians.
January 16, 2024
What a fun book; written in 1958, its depiction of the first moon landing predates the actual event by more than a decade. The author takes a somewhat realistic approach, so some stuff is surprisingly grounded, but the twists and turns of the story are impeccably pulpy. See the amazing cover illustration? This book is that image, in word form.
April 20, 2022
Entertaining and exciting race to the moon.
December 25, 2015
Space-race sci-fi adventure informed by Cold War paranoia and the desperation to beat the Reds to the moon, nominally to get hold of some uranium located in the Arzachel crater, but more importantly to win the stars.
The subterfuge required to keep the progress of the Aztec project uncertain is fairly incredible, involving dummy spaceships, secret locations, and even body doubles of the astronauts. You'd think that the Reds were indeed under the bed, they seem to know everything.
Apart from being infiltrated at every step, one other aspect of the planning struck me as less than well thought out. Inexplicably the crew only meet each other for the first time at liftoff. Not the best way to encourage teamwork that. True enough, one of them turns out to be a traitor.
The cover blurb on the author mentions that he worked as a professional aviation research engineer and that this was his first work of fiction. He is certainly at his strongest when describing the rocket - the liftoff was particularly well depicted - and the cartography and terrain of the Moon, a 'lithic wonderland' of shadowy desolation.
However, maybe because this was his first stab at a novel, he doesn't do anything like as well with his characters, plotting, prose. Plenty goes wrong when they get to the moon to keep the tension going, but the actions of the mystery saboteur just simply don't make any sense, nor does the hero Crag's laxity in smoking him out.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had a much better time of it.
The subterfuge required to keep the progress of the Aztec project uncertain is fairly incredible, involving dummy spaceships, secret locations, and even body doubles of the astronauts. You'd think that the Reds were indeed under the bed, they seem to know everything.
Apart from being infiltrated at every step, one other aspect of the planning struck me as less than well thought out. Inexplicably the crew only meet each other for the first time at liftoff. Not the best way to encourage teamwork that. True enough, one of them turns out to be a traitor.
The cover blurb on the author mentions that he worked as a professional aviation research engineer and that this was his first work of fiction. He is certainly at his strongest when describing the rocket - the liftoff was particularly well depicted - and the cartography and terrain of the Moon, a 'lithic wonderland' of shadowy desolation.
However, maybe because this was his first stab at a novel, he doesn't do anything like as well with his characters, plotting, prose. Plenty goes wrong when they get to the moon to keep the tension going, but the actions of the mystery saboteur just simply don't make any sense, nor does the hero Crag's laxity in smoking him out.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had a much better time of it.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews