Review: Apollo’s Outcasts “Apollo’s Outcasts” by Allen Steele. Published in 2012 by Pyr/Prometheus it weighs in at 311 pages all-in. A handful of spelling and editing errors noted throughout. Currently available in the Teen Adventure section of your local bookstore. The year is 2097. Jamey Barlowe is your average kid-in-a-wheelchair, … Continue reading →

“Crater” by Homer Hickam. Published in 2012 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., it weighs in at 302 pages, plus a two-page Reading Group Guide. Reviewer is particularly pleased that no editing errors were noted. Crater Trueblood is an orphan on the Moon, raised in a Lunar company town that mines Helium-3 … Continue reading →

[Note: This review is reprinted from the May 2011 issue of Moon Miner's Manifesto] “Blogging the Moon” by Paul D. Spudis. Published in 2011 by Apogee Prime, it weighs in at 328 pages, plus a DVD of his talk “Luna Nova” and a slideshow of his personal Moon quest over … Continue reading →

“Back to the Moon” by Travis Taylor and Les Johnson. Published in 2010 by Baen Books, it weighs in at 303 pages with Afterword. Three editing errors noted. The time is the near future,sometime late in the 20-teens or early 2020s. NASA is engaged in an a dry-run of the … Continue reading →

“Luna” by Garon Whited. Published in 2007 by Xlibris, it weighs in at 340 pages. Some editing and fact errors noted, but not bad for a self-published work of that length. Sometime in the near future, there’s a crew on the way to the Moon to check-out and turn the … Continue reading →

Published in 1965 by McGraw-Hill, it weighs in at 138 pages plus a short but excellent glossary, and index. Old school, so no editing errors noted. Folks on the LEAG mailing list recently received news that one of the early pioneers of modern Moon science, Ralph Baldwin, had passed away. … Continue reading →

“The Next Continent” by Issui Ogawa. Translated from Japanese by Jim Hubbert. Published in 2010 by Haikasoru, it weighs in at 416 pages. No editing errors noted. The year is 2025. Tae Toenji is a 13-year old college graduate with a plan. Think Doogie Howser but totally precocious. Her grandfather, … Continue reading →

“The Seventh Landing” written and illustrated by Michael Carroll. Published in 2009 by Springer Science+Business Media, it weighs in at 174 pages all in. About a half-dozen editing errors noted, including the rather unusual “tikonauts” for “taikonauts” (the name for Chinese astronauts, like the Russian cosmonaut or French spationaute). One … Continue reading →

“Shadow on the Moon” by Charles Lee Lesher. Published in 2010 by Writers Cramp Publishing, it weighs in at 485 pages all-in. This book combines an updated version of his previous novel “Evolution’s Child” with his new story “Revelation’s Child”. Some editing errors noted, though this time around I sent … Continue reading →

“Red Moon” by Chris Berman. Published in 2010 by Xpress Yourself Publishing, it weighs in at 298 pages. A variety of editing errors, mainly in the last third of the book. My favorite was Atkins Basin for Aitken Basin. The time is the near future, 2017. A joint Russo-American mission … Continue reading →

“Lunar Settlements”, edited by Haym Benaroya. Published in 2010 by CRC Press, it weighs in at 783 pages all told. A handful of errors, the most notable the use of decent for descent in a number of papers, a typical spellcheck oversight. These are the conference proceedings of the Rutgers … Continue reading →

“Platinum Moon” by Bill White. Published in 2010 by Higher Hill Publishing, it weighs in at 299 pages. A handful of editing errors – surprisingly few for a self-published title. Just what I like, some near-future, near-Earth science fiction for summer. Some folks call it Solar Sci Fi, to distinguish … Continue reading →

“Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration” by Brian Harvey. Published in 2007 by Springer/Praxis, it weighs in at 317 pages all in. One or two minor editing errors. I can’t speak to the accuracy of the Russian details. Most everyone knows about Apollo. There has been an endless stream of books … Continue reading →

“The Big Splat, or How Or Moon Came to Be” by Dana Mackenzie. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2003, it weighs in at 232 pages all-in. No errors noted. Having looked at the origins of the Moon from a Christian creationist perspective, I figured it would be … Continue reading →

I needed a break from the Lunar mineralogy, so I decided to delve into the Cultura Lunaris section of the Lunar Library to see if I could find something interesting. I’m not terribly interested in reviewing the Moon-hoaxer books, in part because I have no desire to attract that kind … Continue reading →

“The Once and Future Moon”by Paul Spudis. Published in 1996 by the Smithsonian Institution Press, it weighs in at 308 pages all-in. No errors noted. I decided to re-visit this one for a review when I realized that I couldn’t remember when I first read it, having read so many … Continue reading →

“Lunar Mineralogy” written by Judith Frondel, published by Wiley-Interscience, and weighing in at 323 pages with index. Whereas the last Moon rocks book reviewed here at OotC, “The Lunar Rocks” was in large part the story of the study of the first samples from the Moon, by the time this … Continue reading →

Moon 3-D by Jim Bell, published in 2009 by Sterling Publishing, it weighs in at 148 pages. One edit error noted. This book bills itself as bringing the Lunar surface to life, and boy is it not kidding. Through a variety of techniques the author presents a large number of … Continue reading →

Written by Brian Mason and William Melson of the Smithsonian Institution, The Lunar Rocks was published in 1970 by Wiley-Interscience and weighs in at 179 pages all in. A couple of errors noted. The book describes itself as: “an attempt to provide a concise and coherent account of the scientific … Continue reading →

While the mainstream media fixates on history from two generations past (what most would call the Apollo program), I thought I’d offer up some forward-looking visions of our Moon. One of the neat things about having an enormous collection of Moon-related materials is that I can just pop over to … Continue reading →

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and oft told is the tale of when Galileo turned his telescope from terrestrial objects to heavenly bodies, an ongoing view of amazement and wonder that helped to change the nature of astronomy forever. Most astronomers have wandered far afield from Galileo’s first … Continue reading →

To be released on May 19th, 2009, it weighs in at 124 pages. No errors noted. I first learned of Jim Ottaviani‘s work when I picked up a copy of the graphic novel Two-Fisted Science. Later I found Dignifying Science, and was quite pleased to learn that there was someone … Continue reading →