Al voltant de la lluna (1870)

Fachl. Beratg u. Nachw.: Herbert Pfaffe. Ill. v. Eberhard Binder ( )

Segunda parte de la obra "De la Tierra a la Luna". Ambas partes quedan incompletas sin la otra, aunque curiosamente los editores se empeñen una y otra vez en publicarlas por separado, como si fueran novelas independientes. Y ello a pesar de tratarse de una de las más célebres, influyentes y proféticas obras del autor. ( )

Around the moon published in 1869 is the sequel to Verne's From the Earth to the Moon published four years earlier. It qualifies as the first real hard science fiction novel containing at one point an algebraic equation as proof of the speed necessary for the three adventures to leave the earths atmosphere. This sequel takes up the story of the earlier novel where the three adventurers (they cant really be called astronauts) are waiting for the enormous cannon to be fired that will launch their hollowed out bullet like capsule towards the moon. Two Americans: Barbican the President of the gun club and Nicholl the scientist along with the Frenchman the bon viveur Michael Ardan are resting on their water filled couches and awaiting the explosion. The cannon is successfully fired and the three men gradually regain consciousness and check their calculations to ensure that they will hit the moon.

On the journey to the moon they are knocked off course by a tiny asteroid and find themselves in orbit around the moon with their hopes dashed of making a landing and resigned to being entombed in a satellite that will forever circle the moon. It is at this point when the three men particularly the scientists have considered all their options that the Frenchman says 'There is only one thing that we can do - we must sit down and have lunch' and he cracks open a bottle of good quality french wine.

It is of course a preposterous story from the vantage of our 21st century knowledge of a journey to the moon, but Verne spends a large part of this novel bombarding the reader with factual detail, which includes a potted history of the use of telescopes and calculations of distances and speeds needed for a trip to the moon, much of this would appear to be accurate, but don't ask me as my eyes started to glaze over when I came across that equation. Perhaps Verne was trying to convince his readers in 1869 that such a trip under the circumstances that he imagined was possible, but all that will be lost on todays readers and all that is left for us to do is to verify what he got right. The devil may care attitude of the characters also rings hollow, although there are some amusing moments. This is a story where scientific detail gets in the way of a good story line - sounds like hard science fiction to me and so 3 stars. ( )

Not as mathy as the previous book, From the Earth to the Moon, and not as boring either but it was still a bit boring. Since they could only make observations from their capsule it's really just a lot of talking about the topography of the moon and what not. ( )

Possible spoilers, because I discuss the ending’s similarities to other works.

****

This story picks up almost immediately where From the Earth to the Moon leaves off—and good thing, too, because that cliffhanger was unbearable! Barbicane, Ardan and Nicholl are the first humans to go up into space in this fictional universe, and they are all abuzz with plans for when they touch down on the moon. But will they get there? And will the place be hospitable to Earthlings?

Overall, this was unintentionally funny in places (the 21st-century reader having the benefit of hindsight) but still maintained a reasonable level of suspense. The ending reminded me a bit of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, with everyone thrown back to earth unscathed. This ending was slightly less plausible than Journey, but admittedly more of a relief to this reader. I didn’t want it to end as macabrely as I thought it might.

I’d recommend this if you’ve read at least one of Verne’s other works or if you’re interested in early sci-fi. ( )