From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne

From the Earth to the Moon is not one of Jules Verne's best works.

It is such a shame because I have really enjoyed the Jules Verne books that I have read recently those being Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days (which I am about 1/3 through reading on my iPhone).

From the Earth to the Moon was written in 1865 and is based on the adventures of the Gun Club, an influential American club that finds itself at a loss as to what to do with itself now that its weaponry invention services are no longer needed. The President of the club, Mr Barbicane decides that the time has come to send a projectile to the moon, and the rest of the book details how the Gun Club works toward achieving this goal.

Verne's storytelling in From the Earth to the Moon just doesn't compare to the other works of his that I have read. To be fair, the way in which the story unfolds is well done, but the content just didn't live up to what I have come to expect from Verne. The characters felt like caricatures (which perhaps they were supposed to be?) that were just so overdone as to make them unbelievable. My biggest complaint, however, was that the scientific discussion was just overdone. He was a little but guilty of this in A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but not nearly to the same extent as he is guilty of it in this book. No doubt for someone with a significant interest in space exploration or even just science would find this an interesting read, if only because of the insight it provides into post-civil war American scientific knowledge.

Ultimately though, this was a disappointment, and I didn't finish the book. If you are new to science fiction, this is definitely not one for you.

I am, however, still looking forward to finishing Around the World in 80 Days and starting 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

1 / 8

Couldn't even finish it

I would be interested to know what you thought of this book if you have read it, and how you thought it compared to some of his other works.

Originally posted 21 February 2011 Page Turners