Customer Reviews

Moonfall

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Forget "Armeggedon". Forget "Deep Impact". This is THE space/disaster book that SHOULD have been made into a movie. Jack McDevitt's "Moonfall" presents the reader with a gripping plot, solid character development, and cutting edge "hard" science fiction.

From the opening of "Moonbase" to the final hair-raising solutions, this book is not to be missed.

From the coattail-riding Vice-President who wants to be a real hero; the chaplain (yes, unlike many SF writers, McDevitt is not ashamed to recognize that most people have and need a faith) who truly discovers his own faith; the young wife who discovers that her "Casper Milquetoast" husband is far more of a hero than she ever believed; to the brilliant young scientist who finally discovers the solution which may save the planet, McDevitt's characters are deep and believable.

Finally, McDevitt's science is plausible. This is not a novel of the 24th century; rather it is set in the mid 21st century, using technological concepts quite feasible in the near future.

Of all the McDevitt books I own and have read (5), this one is my favorite. Buy it -- you won't regret it.

Good science fiction is just fun to read. In Moonfall, Jack McDevitt has given us a gripping, enjoyable story that held this reader's interest throughout. I don't know if all of the science presented herein is wholly believable, but the author certainly makes it sound plausible. The main characters are inherently interesting, especially Vice President Haskell; McDevitt actually makes the prominent politician very human, noble, and heroic. The story is an exciting twist on the old planetary catastrophe theme--rather than have a comet hit the earth, McDevitt has a comet hit the moon. That major event is really just the start of the action, though, as earth finds itself having to confront the effects of that spectacular explosion. The race to evacuate the newly established Moonbase and then to find a way to avert a potential extinction event on the earth is thrilling and happens in the context of a dramatic, well conceived pace.

While the "macro" story was riveting and well-done, the "micro" stories were slightly problematic. The events are related in a chronological fashion, with constant shifts from one scene to another and back again. It was hard to remember exactly who some of the secondary characters were, and some of them, especially those being employed to relate the devastating events happening on the earth, hardly seemed to belong in the story and, in a couple of cases, seemed to be left dangling at the novel's end. Many of the main characters reacted to events in ways I would not have anticipated. The president worried more about his "legacy" than the welfare of millions of Americans; many Americans refused to believe the situation was very serious at all; several astronauts were more worried about a future mission to Mars being scrubbed than losing the moon; even the main scientist suddenly risked the future of the planet out of narrow-mindedness. I was surprised that the possible devastating effects on earth's tides was not mentioned until well into the story and never really addressed again--that's the first thing I think of when I contemplate the sudden destruction of the moon.

For a suspenseful, thrilling science fiction adventure story, you will find few novels that surpass this one. It has more twists and complexities than your typical catastrophic science fiction story, and the plot is held together and developed very well. The small things that bothered me a little bit do not really hurt the story in any way and certainly do not slow down its compelling pace. Finally, as an added bonus, this book highlights the ingenuity, heroism, and greatness of the American spirit. This is the first McDevitt book I have ever read, but I have a feeling it will not be the last.

When I first saw this book, I thought, "Gosh, a meteor hitting the world. How fresh and new," and then rolled my eyes. It took me a second to clue in that the meteor was impacting the moon, not the Earth. At which point I thought, "Well, slightly different, but still likely to be pretty similar."

This wasn't the case. First off, Jack McDevitt's strength lies in his characters. There are a wonderful range of characters in this book, and you don't have a clue who will survive. That's another strength: the plot is not predictable, and the mortality rate is plausible given what is going on.

Set slightly ahead in the future, man has finally opened a base on the moon - just in time for the moon to be in the way of a high-speed meteor. Spotted by accident by an amateur astronomer (one of the only overdone "Seen-it-before" moments of the book), there's a kind of panic pace to the first half of the novel as the people of the moon try desperately to get back to earth and the orbital stations that support the colony.

The second half of the book deals with the fallout - having the moon shattered is even worse than the single meteor, as now the shards of the moon are threatening to fall from the sky...

Throughout this high-paced background however, it is the characters who shine through this novel. It was the first McDevitt I'd read, and it launched me on a McDevitt jag for quite a while after. Give it a shot - there are no Aerosmith soundtracks to make it hurt.

I enjoy catastrophe books, especially dealing with cataclismic natural events. This book about a comet smashing into the moon, with subsequent large chunks of the moon threatening the earth is very intreguing. The characters are well developed, although there may be a few too many characters. The detail in the book is very good and relatively realistic, given its setting in the year 2024. There's also a pretty good jab at Clinton in this book! The only disappointment I felt was that the ending was far too abrupt and anti-climatic, I felt. I had some questions at the end. I would recommend this book.

I read this book shortly after seeing Armaggedon, which, if you really like SF, you will agree was an absolutely horrid movie. Everything that is wrong with that movie is right with this book. I do not know about the comment about Seattle made in a earlier review, but my impression of this book is that it stuck with REALITY to build suspense. No rules of physics are violated (at least not obviously) which leads to a particularly riveting conclusion. It makes you wonder why garbage like Armageddon has to be made.

Do you remember the body changer movies of the '80's? You know, where a father and son swap lives for a week or so? There were a bunch of them, all bad, until Tom Hanks came out with "Big."

This book is "Big."

Same ground as "Deep Impact", and "Meteor", and that Bruce Willis film that best remains nameless, but Mr. McDevitt takes a Tom Clancy approach and has the comet destroy the moon instead of the earth with the fall out of the moon debris being dealt with with a cast of wonderful, well written characters, and a plot that keeps you at the edge of your seat to the very last page.

I've rarely read better fiction than what Jack McDevitt is putting to paper. Almost every book has it's own unique style and so far, they all are wonderful!

Fellow Amazonians may have read my previous 1-star review of Lucifer's Hammer...And after reading Moonfall, I'll stand by that rating AND the 5 stars I give Jack McDermott...Indeed, he took a theme that has been done to death and given it a new twist...The near-future technology, the politics, and particularly the characters flowed so well...

Make no mistake, this is a heavyweight book...But unlike Lucifer's Hammer (a great premise written badly, AND forcing you to suffer through over 600 pages), Shiva Descending (a great premise written well with near-impossible overkill), and The Hermes Fall (a great premise written all over the darned map), Moonfall keeps it together wire to wire...This is what sci-fi is all about!!

It's not that the book itself in unbelievable. What is unbelievable is that a modern writer could make such a wonderful story out of what anyone would say a priori was going to be a hackneyed rehash of a million previous disaster ("When Worlds Collide" type) science fiction books. Having just read McDevitt's book of short stories I realized he was a writer of the highest class, but this? I was not expecting a book that was a "page turner" from the beginning to the end. It was really hard to put down in order to get some sleep! As with a few other such writers, it is a sad thing that you can't find hard cover versions of most of his works. In this case I got one and will treasure it. All of his back stuff I will have to read in disintegrating pulp paper. He deserves better - Like David Weber who is just now getting many of his older books reissued in hard cover.

Do not waste your time and money on any of the "end-of-the-world-by-asteroid" movies curently available. Read this thrilling story instead. Politics, science, action, disaster, hardware, loss, adventure, thrills and real characters combine in one of the best sci-fi books you will ever read. In fact it will likely be one of your quickest reads as the story wont let you put it down once you begin. I found myself extending my lunch breaks and staying up way too late in order to read just one more chapter. You will not be dissapointed.

Intelligent, but not pretentious, is the simplest way to put it. This story is totally believable. McDevitt's 21st century makes historical and evolutionary sense. Some authors degenerate their futurism into the esoteric. Not so here. And, with so many people involved in the story, the characters could have been shallow. Their involvement, and their personalities, could have been "knee-jerk". None of that here, either. The author has a knack for explaining whatever technical facts you need to know in colorful detail. I also found that if I was in the dark about some fact that he introduced, it was explained, no problem, a few pages down the road. (There's probably a name for this in literary circles; but, when I'm reading, I just want these things taken care of :-) This book will not sit closed on my shelf for very long. I'll be reading it again. An excellent, exciting and imaginative work. Thanks, Jack.