Stark, Sonja (18 January 2010). "The First Men in the Moon in 3-D". Times Union. Archived from the original on 7 October 2011 . Retrieved 13 February 2010. This is a non-fiction book so amazing that makes me wonder if I'm ever going to read Science Fiction again - of course I am, but damn it Chaikin you've set an unreasonable high bar now. The story has everything in it: inspiration, awe, struggles, personality, style.

I think the most likable thing, for me, about this book is definitely the illustrations, they are bright and exciting to look at; especially the aliens as there appear to be lots of different kinds that are different colours, shapes and sizes. The fact that Bob does not believe in aliens, but they are ever present in the illustrations really creates an exciting opportunity for the reader to spot all the aliens that Bob seems to be oblivious to. Especially in scenes such as the rush hour, where aliens can be seen walking through the streets, on public transport and in local homes. This could be an interesting talking point with students, why do we think Bob does not think aliens are real? Why do we think he does not notice the aliens? This is the big puzzle of the book. On the way to the Moon, they experience weightlessness, which Bedford finds "exceedingly restful". [7] On the surface of the Moon the two men discover a desolate landscape, but as the Sun rises, the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporises and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. Bedford and Cavor leave the capsule, but in romping about get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. They hear for the first time a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet. They encounter "great beasts", "monsters of mere fatness", that they dub "mooncalves", and five-foot-high "Selenites" tending them. At first they hide and crawl about, but growing hungry partake of some "monstrous coralline growths" of fungus that inebriate them. They wander drunkenly until they encounter a party of six extraterrestrials, who capture them. [8] The insectoid lunar natives (referred to as "Selenites", after Selene, the Greek moon goddess) are part of a complex and technologically sophisticated society that lives underground, but this is revealed only in radio communications received from Cavor after Bedford's return to Earth. The events of The First Men in the Moon are used as the precursor to the player's adventure in Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' " Dream Park" series adventure novel, The Moon Maze Game, which describes a fantasy role playing game being played on (and televised from) a crater and tunnels on the Moon.Indeed, the most appealing aspect of A Man on the Moon is how Chaikin puts a face on the missions and men that are far from famous, from the other astronauts to the mission controllers and even those people involved in the design and manufacture of the space crafts. The usual suspects (Apollo 8, 11 and 13) are covered in detail. As is the tragedy of Apollo 1. But Chaikin also gives a lot of room to the Apollo 12 and 14-17 missions. The third part of the book mostly being about Lunar geology. Robert Godwin, H.G. Wells: The First Men in the Moon: The Story of the 1919 Film, Apogee Space Books, ISBN 978-1926837-31-4 A Trip to the Moon (1902) was released one year after the publication of Wells's book. Some film historians, most notably Georges Sadoul, have regarded the film as a combination of two Jules Verne novels ( From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon) plus adventures on the Moon taken from Wells's book. More recent scholarship, however, suggests that A Trip to the Moon draws on a wider variety of source materials, and it is unclear to what extent its filmmaker was familiar with Wells. [16] The personal stories of the astronauts are fascinating.What was amiss,however,was sufficient mention of the competing Soviet space programme.

It is clearly meant to be a patriotic book meant to convey that the US won the space race.But it conveniently forgets to mention that the Soviets won a number of earlier space battles.That prompted President Kennedy to launch the outrageously expensive Apollo programme.It was a battle of the Cold War. Creating a timeline of Bob’s day looking at sequencers, first, then, next... Children then create their own timelines of their ideal day on the moon. Stableford, Brian (1993). "Dystopias". In John Clute; Peter Nicholls (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2nded.). Orbit, London. pp.360–362. ISBN 1-85723-124-4. If you ask anyone about the topic of 'astronauts' and the 'moon' the frequent return of data starts with 'Neil Armstrong'. Before reading this book much of my knowledge of the moon landings were hazy and my ability to recall the 12 men who have walked on the moon extremely limited. Chaikin explores the lives of the Apollo astronauts in detail and as a reader I found this personal development crucial. This is an incredible look at the entire Apollo mission, not just the "popular" flights (1, 8, 11, 13). I really loved getting to know each of the Apollo astronauts and learning more about what each flight involved and accomplished.In general, the author’s focus is more on the astronauts and their personal experiences than on the engineering side of it all. That’s fine. But he lost me somewhere along the way. Because those experiences got a little too samey at some point. I am alone now, truely alone and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God knows what on this side. I feel this powerfully-not as fear or loneliness-but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation" A great space book looking at, as the title suggests, a day in the life of Bob. I really enjoyed the style of this book as it was told in 3rd person, present tense. It gives a different perspective and you feel as if you are a fly-on-the-wall in Bob's day. McLean, S. (17 April 2009). The Early Fiction of H.G. Wells: Fantasies of Science. Springer. ISBN 9780230236639 . Retrieved 31 January 2018.

I was 10 years old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. I truly felt that this “giant leap for mankind” represented not so much the culmination and achievement of a hard-fought, eight-year goal, but more of a new beginning of a far more wondrous and adventurous future. It inspired me to want to be an active participant in the shaping of that future. Soon after the publication of The First Men in the Moon, Wells was accused by the Irish writer Robert Cromie of having stolen from his novel A Plunge into Space (1890), which used an antigravity device similar to that in Chrysostom Trueman's The History of a Voyage to the Moon (1864). [19] Both novels had certain elements in common, such as a globular spaceship built in secret after inventing a way to overcome Earth's gravity. Wells simply replied: "I have never heard of Mr Cromie nor of the book he attempts to advertise by insinuations of plagiarism on my part." [20]And after reading the afterword by Chaikin on how hard was to translate the magic surrounding every aspect of the space program into a book, and the amazing performance in the Audiobook by Pinchot, I dare to say that this is one of the most well executed non-fiction pieces ever. If you were to ask me before I read this book "who is Frank Borman?" I would not have been able to tell you. Commander of Apollo 8, they were the first crew to complete trans-lunar injection and travel the quarter of a billion miles to reach lunar orbit. The first crew to ever orbit the moon. There were numerous times during this book where I had to stop reading and fully comprehend the importance and synergistic meaning behind each Apollo mission. I am not a believer in the conspiracy theory of the moon landings. There were just too many people involved, and that many people simply can't be counted upon to keep their mouths shut for all these years.

As mentioned, this book gives me almost unlimited ideas of ways it could be used with a KS1 class across the curriculum, not just an English, so I think it could be a really affective text with the right class. Also, can use the ‘day in the life’ style of the book to talk about telling the time- the book does refer to the time, such as Bob having lunch at twelve-thirty. Also,there was hardly any discussion of the colossal amounts spent to get to the moon,and the environmental impact of the moon missions. The First Men in the Moon has been adapted to film four times, and once prior to that as a mash-up Verne-Wells film: A quote which summed up the enormity and meaning of space travel to me was captured in a recording from Apollo 11 (first moon landing) astronaut Mike Collins from the far side of the moon. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made historic footprints on eons old moon soil at the other side of the moon, he was orbiting through the far side of the moon on his own.The book ends with a look at the things people did after Apollo had ended. But at this point I had mostly lost interest. I don’t remember any zero-gravity peeing happening in that chapter. History will,however,always remember Neil Armstrong as the first man on the moon.The others,have largely been forgotten. Squeezing in one more, this time a space-going hero that we have loved right from the very start of this blog...! In his book The Three-Body Problem (novel) the self-confessed HG Wells fan, [15] author Liu Cixin, names one of his scientists monitoring deep space for signs of life as Ye Wenjie, a role similar to that of Mr. Julius Wendigee in The First Men In The Moon. from 1961 to 1972, the objective was as clear and inspiring as any you could ask for. You had only to go outside at night and look at it.