Out of the Cradle

[murphydyne]

See the full list of Lunar Science Fiction titles in the new Lunar Library v2.0 here at OutoftheCradle.net.

All of them will be reviewed here, in time.

Enjoy!

Ken
Lunar Librarian

[murphydyne]

"Rocket Ship Galileo" by Robert A. Heinlein (whose legacy prize I intend to win someday)

Published originally in 1947, my copy is an ACE reprint of unknown vintage (though from the Frazetta posters ad in back I'm going to guess 1970s). No errors noted.

Ross Jenkins, Art Mueller and Maurice Abrams are young rocketeers with a test stand and everything. 'Total October Sky', except 'October Sky' was based on the very real story of Homer Hickham. Whilst blowing up another engine (they use liquid propellants), they manage to bean Art's uncle, atomic bomb scientist Dr. Donald Cargraves, who's come to propose their assistance in a project that will put them at the head of the class once they get to trade school. Or did they bean him?

The boys manage to convince their parents that the project is a good learning experience, and off they go to the middle of nowhere to convert an old packet freighter rocket into an atomic powered Moon vessel. But are they alone in the middle of nowhere? Why do suspicious things keep happening? Soon there's outright sabotage, and the gang needs to break for the Moon before anything happens to thwart their plans.

Once there, they quickly set up shop, only to have a mysterious vessel (but clearly human) wreck their ship. Who are these no-goodniks, and how are they going to thwart their plans? Three words you never want to hear in the same sentence: Nazis, atomics, Moon. Especially in 1947.

This work is clearly one of Heinlein's earlier efforts, before he really hit his stride. I'm not sure about the wisdom of having super-heated zinc as an exhaust for a rocket. I certainly wouldn't want to be downwind of that flight path. Nonetheless, the work is considered a classic, and I have no doubt that it has inspired many a youngster over its nearly sixty years. It's still an enjoyable read, and is certainly recommended for budding prospects in the engineering trades (because they're the ones that make this stuff happen).

I'll give it a waxing half-Moon at perigee.

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"Mission to the Moon" by Lester del Rey

Published in 1956, my copy is an ex libris 6th ed. Holt, Rinehart & Winston printing from 1967 weighing in at 207 pages. No errors noted.

Jim Stanley is a man familiar with space. He made sure the world's first space station was finished, against all obstacles and certain failure (in a prior book Step to the Stars). Now he's back, to finish the all but abandoned Moon ship.

Politics on Earth are always the problem, and Jim is once again hampered in his job by decisions from below. At least until the Combine begins efforts on a space station of their own. America cannot allow the forces of tyranny to be our equal in space, and once again the space station becomes a hive of activity. Young Jim (now 19) works through the learning process of becoming a real boss, aided in no small part by his responsibility to help look after Freddy, the Station commander's risk-loving son.

Soon it becomes clear that the Combine has eyes on the Moon, and America cannot allow the forces of tyranny to be the first to get there and claim it for their own. An international trip is arranged for a loop around the Moon, with a neutral Swiss observer and Combine scientist Dr. Charkejian. This so incenses Freddy's patriotic instincts that when everyone is distracted with the return of the crewed probe he makes a break for the Moon in a ferry rocket. But it's too soon, and the Moon won't be where he needs it to be...or will it? A superhuman effort is made to finish the Moon rockets, but some can't wait and a ferry pilot makes a break for a delivery of supplies. All eyes are on the Moon five days later as both ships come in for landing at the Dewey Bay (Sinus Roris), and of course something goes wrong, setting the stage for a climactic trip to the Moon by a worldwide rescue crew.

This is an amazing little story, especially when so many of the details the author wrote about in 1956 came to pass, like the rod that descends below the Lunar landers to indicate contact with the surface, or may come to pass, like collapsible fuel tanks. The Combine is of course a thinly veiled reference to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the World Congress, where the smallest nations of the world win the right to also go to space, is based on the United Nations and a cunning premonition of the Outer Space Treaty of a decade later.

For me, the best part was the deed claim made by the ferry pilot as he lay dying on a small ledge, his back propped up so he could stare at the Earth as he cracked his faceplate. I won't spoil it, but it's the right deed claim.

This one gets a waxing three-quarter Moon, at perigee.

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[murphydyne]

Sunday Funnies Break

"The Outer Space Spirit: 1952" by Will Eisner and Wally Wood.

Published in 1983 by Kitchen Sink Press, it weighs in at 86 pages.

"The Spirit" was a comic strip that ran from 1940 to 1952 involving a masked free-lance vigilante for justice and truth. Conveyed in the "film noir" detective style popular in that era, the Spirit unceasingly battled against the criminals and ne'er-do-wells of society.

Towards the end of the series, the creator decided to have a little fun, and the world weary Spirit, ready perhaps to settle down, is drafted into a daring trip to the Moon. Not willing to take any risks with its free citizens, the government has offered full pardons to any criminal willing to risk the dangerous mission. It's felt that only the Spirit can handle such a crew of miscreants.

Danger and surprises await them on the Moon. What was Francisco Rivera doing there first? Why do the men explode when their spacesuits are exposed to sunlight or punctured? What is 'Dutch' going to do when he decides to stay behind?

This was a fun jaunt back to the days of 'Rocketship Galileo', 'Destination Moon', TinTin, and the like. The Moon looks like a Chesley Bonestell style drawing. The inclusion of a lot of artist's notes by Wally Wood breaks up the story a bit, but also fleshes out the story behind the story.

I'll give this one a waxing half Moon.

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"Moonrise" by Ben Bova

Published in December 1996 by Avon Books, it weighs in at 417 pages. No errors noted.

Paul Stavenger is a doomed man, but hasn't accepted it yet. Trudging across the Lunar surface, he wonders about the events that have led him here. From a young and ambitious engineer who rises to CEO of Masterson Aerospace on the wings of a suborbital/orbital clippership design, and ends up the Moon to install a test of nanotechnology bugs that could help keep the Moonbase on the edge of profitability.

What he didn't count on was the thoroughly psychotic nature of the suicidal ex-chairman's son, Greg Masterson, who is thoroughly psychotic at the idea of his mother installing her lover in the place of his father, and then fathering Paul's son. In a psychotic pique Greggie back-door requisitions some carbon gobbler nanobugs and plants them in the test.

Did Paul avoid contamination at the site? Um, no, but that's just Act I of the book. Next up is Act II, 18 years in the future and young Doug Stavenger is full of vim and vinegar and ready to lead the charge into humanity's frontier on the Moon. He finagles a trip to Moonbase, still teetering on the edge of profitability, and then finesses a trip to the South Pole to establish a facility on Mount "Wasser" (one of the Peaks of Eternal Light) so that Masterson Corp. can establish a peaceful use claim. This of course is right when the Sun decides to let loose a big burp and fling a lot of high energy particles towards cislunar space. The base is established on a suicide run (to beat a kamikaze run by the Yamagata Corp. who knows the Masterson mission is in trouble), but young Doug is irradiated to the edge of death. Only nanotechnology can save him. But nanotechnology is very, very poorly regarded on an Earth caught up in a frenzy of fundamentalist passion. In fact, most every nation is signing the anti-nanotech treaty (some under a lit bit of...forceful suasion) . And how did the Gregster end up as Administrator of Moonbase?

This novel is definitely one of the definitive Moon stories of modern times. Though a decade old, the story remains remarkably prescient in many ways. Of course, we're still not back at the Moon, nor anywhere close from NASA's standpoint. But the story is a quick read in the modern narrative style. It highlights all the major Lunar theories, from ice at the poles to using solar power towers on the Peaks of Eternal Light to power operations at that location. He also gives a nod to Neil P. Ruzic, whose brilliant works "the case for going to the Moon" and "Where the Winds Sleep" still stand as the first real reference on and best introduction to the ideas of the possibilities of Lunar mining and manufacturing.

His works "Welcome to Moonbase" (1987, a kind of future history employee training manual), "Moonrise", and the subsequent "Moonwar" stand as definitive evidence that Ben Bova is the modern master of Moon fiction. Moonbase is sprinkled throughout his other "Grand Tour" Solar System novels, and changes over time.

This one gets a Full Moon rating, and is highly recommended for modern Moon fiction.

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"Earthlight, Vol. 1" by Stuart Moore and illustrated by Christopher Schons.

Published 10/10/2006 by TOKYOPOP, it weighs in at 179 pages. Manga, but it reads front to back like a regular graphic novel, unlike say Planetes.

In every small town in America, and in every generation, there are those who climb the water tower to expand their vista. The first ones to do that on the Moon, in this case at an automated observatory tower, die. The year is 2068.

This leads to the replacement of the base director, whose Liverpudlian wife accompanies him as the new schoolmarm with their son in tow. Young Damon quickly becomes the "weeder" outsider targeted by the bullies of the class. He's in the 8-10 grade, and high school seems a lot rougher than when I was growing up. Damon seems to recognize another lost spirit in the pretty Lise, but she seems to be the chattel of the head bully, Xan. First day of class is what we would call a Fire Drill.

We then learn more about the base itself, Earthlight 1, and are introduced to the hyper-busy Aaron Cole, young Damon's father. The moonbase uses the Criswell approach to Solar power of forever building new PV arrays on the Moon to collect Sun power, which is channeled to an orbital station and beamed to a power hungry Earth that consumes 25 terawatts of power. Damon is hazed, and a field trip turns onto more than the young students bargained for at the climax of the story.

It's a worthy effort overall. The ending leaves you hooked, anticipating the next volume. The moonbase is fairly well realized, and there's a much more evident reason for it being there, the provision of energy to Earth, than a lot of people saw in Planetes. Still, Earthlight lacks the spiritual beauty of Planetes, which was much more metaphysical. It's rated T - 13+, as a result of a few swear words and inappropriate comments, and this seems fair.

I'll give it a solid three-quarter Moon.

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"Inherit the Stars" by James P. Hogan

Published in 1977 by Del Rey, it weighs in at 216 pages. A few minor spelling errors.

Dr. Victor Hunt is a sort of freelance genius at Metadyne Nucleonic Instrument Co., having invented the trimagniscope which can see inside things. The UN Space Authority has requisitioned a few of them, and need Dr. Hunt to come set them up and brief the scientists on their use.

It turns out the object that they want to take a look at is a body found on the Moon. A body that's some 50,000 years old, and therefore can't exist. Vic's job becomes that of piecing together the scraps of information uncovered. And what a cosmic scientific mystery it is.

This is a book that touches on evolution, catastrophes on a planetary scale, what humanity finds as it starts exploring its Solar neighborhood, and more. Titanic scientific egos clash, as theories, conjectures and hypotheses rise and fall with each breakthrough in understanding just what led to a very human astronaut on the Moon, at a time long before such a thing could have existed.

I'll give this one a waning three-quarter Moon.

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"Space: 1999 - Breakaway" by E.C. Tubb

Published in 1975 by Pocket Books, it weighs in at a brisk 141 pages. No errors noted.

The year is 1999. The world has gone to atomic power in a big way, but there's no place to store the waste. Well, how about the far side of the Moon? Commander John Koenig, who oversaw part of the intial installation of a Moonbase and waste containment facility, is coming back for another tour. Some odd things have been going on, and Earth needs a firm hand at the controls up there.

Dr. Helena Russell, meanwhile, is having to deal with random occasions of psychosis. Are they related to the dump sites? Nobel-prize winning physicist Prof. Victor Bergman races to discover how. But will it be fast enough.

Commander Koenig demands that Earth stop shipping up nuclear waste while he finds the solution, but it's already too late. Strange physical forces awaken in the the huge stockpile, turning the deeply buried waste into a nuclear rocket that propels the Moon out of orbit and up out of the plane of the ecliptic into an endless adventure through space.

They soon stumble upon a planet that has drifted near the Solar System from deep space. It appears to be a paradise, and is christened Terra Nova. But appearances can be deceiving, and the hopes of the denizens of Moonbase Alpha are tested by the mystery of their first chance at a new planetary home.

After escaping the Terra Nova trap, the Moon is approached by a strange probe, which seeks to tap the databanks of the Moon base. It was sent many years ago from the moon Triton on an exploratory probe around the Sun. Triton had disappeared and was believed to have been obliterated, but humanity had not yet gotten a probe out to investigate. Koenig uses this fact to his advantage, and the probe realease them, but with a message of impending doom.

For it appears that the Moon is headed towards what the Tritonian probe had called a Black Sun, and what the Alphans soon figure out is a black hole. Prof. Bergman uses the technology advances from their encounters with Terra Nova to advance a solution. But will it be enough to survive an encounter with a black hole?

Those familiar with the Space: 1999 TV series from IBC in England and aired in the 1970s will recognize that this first book in the series encompases the first four episodes of the show: (1) Breakaway, (2) Matter of Life & Death, (4) Ring Around the Moon, and (3) Black Sun. For some reason the last two are reversed, but it seems to make more sense in the story. A lot of the apparent inconsistencies in the TV shows are clarified a bit.

I have to admit that I'm biased in my rating. I lived in England for four years as a kid back in the 1970s, and this is the science fiction that I grew up with on TV, before we got back to the states and I was exposed to Star Trek reruns. I was such a fan that I used to build Lego Eagle spacecraft to have Moon base adventures with my friends.

I'll give it a waning Full Moon.

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"Red Moon" by David S. Michaels

Published in 2000 by FireWord Publishing, it weighs in at 617 pages. A few minor spelling errors.

The year is 2019, and an energy-hungry Earth is desperate. Dr. Milo Jefferson believes he has found a motherlode of cometary crystal ice in Mare Crisium. It's believed that the ancient impact, buried under a layer of regolith, may hold large amounts of heavy water and Helium-3.

An international team is dispatched to the Moon to find this treasure trove, but what they find instead could turn history upside down: the Luna 15 mission, launched right before the Apollo mission, was apparently manned. Dr. Jefferson is dispatched to Moscow to uncover the truth, but what he finds is a conspiracy stretching back decades, and around the world, to hide the truth so that those in power can remain so.

Will the astronauts on the Moon find the motherlode? Who is the saboteur on the mission? Will Dr. Jefferson be able to uncover the truth, or will sinister forces quash his efforts?

This is a nice work of speculative historical/futurical fiction. The story switches back and forth between 2019 and the late 1960s as the plot develops, slowly unveiling the clues. The suspense builds, and the action picks up steam as we head to the climax(es).

This one gets a three-quarter Moon.

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"le diable l'emporte" de rené barjavel

Publié en 1959, mon édition date de 27 février, 1976, par Éditions Denoël. Ça pese 239 pages. Quelques erreurs d'orthographie.

Ce qu'il faut souvenir avec cet livre est que même si ça soit publié en 1959, c'était écrit en 1948-49, un temps dûr pour l'Europe, rempli de cynicisme aprés le déclenchement de Hiroshima et Nagasaki sur les peuples du monde.

M. Collignot est traducteur qui habite avec sa famille à Paris. Sa fille Irene capte l'oeil d'un certain M. Gé qui, pendant que tout le monde clameur pour une expedition à la Lune, construit une Arche. Cette M. Gé a ses doigts un peu partout dans le monde, et il n'aime pas ce qu'il voit pendant ses voyages d'affaires. C'est à dire, la 3ième Guerre Mondiale est battu pour la Lune, et le droit d'y regner.

Mais c'est pas trop mal pour une guerre, et bientôt tout le monde est rempli de l'esprit d'aller à la Lune en fraternité au lieu d'hostilité, et M. Collignot a même l'opportunité d'y aller. le Moontown en Afrique prend une grande importance, sûrtout quand c'est découverte que quelques échantillons lunaire donnent de l'or.

Et donc le 4ième Guerre Mondiale est battu pour la Lune aussi , mais d'une façon si terrible que le futur de la vie de la Terre est en question.

Ce livre est bien differente de ce que je lis d'habitude en français. Ses speculations scientifiques sont bien interessant, meme s'ils sont un peu...extreme. Mais je crois que je comprends un peu le sens que le destin du soi n'est plus dans ses mains, mais la vie ou mort a depasse le controle qu'on peut exercer.

Je le donnerai un croissant quart de Lune.


Okay, now in English

What has to be remembered in reading this book is that even if it was published in 1959, it was written in 1948-49, a difficult time for Europe, given to cynicism after the unleashing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the peoples of the world.

Mr. Collignot is a translator who lives with his family in Paris. His daughter Irene has caught the eye of a certain Mr. Gé who, while everyone is clamoring to go to the Moon, is building an underground Ark. This Mr. Gé has his fingers a little bit everywhere in the world, and doesn't like what he sees during his business trips. That is to say, the 3rd World War is fought for the Moon, and the right to reign there.

But it's not too bad for a war, and soon the world is filled with the spirit to go to the Moon in brotherhood instead of bloodshed, and Mr. Collignot even has an opportunity to go there. Moontown in Africa becomes very important when it's discovered that certain Lunar samples contain gold.

And so the 4th World War is fought for the Moon also, but in so terrible a fashion that the future of life on Earth is in question.

This book is quite different from what I normally read in French. Its scientific speculations are rather interesting, even if a bit...extreme. But I think I understand a bit the sense of one's destiny no longer being in one's hands, that life and death have surpassed the control that one can exercise.

I'll give it a waxing quarter Moon.

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[murphydyne]

"Brigands of the Moon" by Ray Cummings

Published in 1931 by ACE Books, it weighs in at 224 pages. Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction in 1930. One or two minor errors.

Gregg Haljan is a pilot of an interplanetary cruiser, the Planetera. He's informed of a secret mission, one where after he drops off his passengers he will return to near-Moon space, as an outpost has discovered and mined a valuable store of materials desperately needed by Earth.

All his passengers, though, are not as they seem. Especially the dastardly Martians, who it turns out have teamed up with some space pirates to hijack the Planetera and steal the radiactum. What ensues is an edge-of-the-seat thriller with more ups and downs than a roller coaster. Will the brigands succeed? Will the good guys marooned on the Moon be able to hold out until help arrives (if they've even seen the SOS)? And will the hero get the girl?

This is classic sci-fi, written in the 'Golden Age', and with clear influences from E.E. "Doc" Smith. A number of technologies are explored, like invisibility cloaks and domed Moon bases. The women are strong, the pirates (and Martians) bad, and the plucky hero is resourceful. What's not to like?

I'll give this one a half Moon.

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"The Shot Into Infinity" by Otto Willi Gail

Published in Germany in (I think) 1929, my copy is a Garland Library of Science Fiction reprint published in 1975 of the original Science Wonder Quarterly translation. It weighs in at 77 pages with illustrations.

NB: Apogee Books will be publishing a reprint in the near future. Stay tuned!

August Korf is the famous chief engineer of the national airport in Friederichshafen, and coincidently the solver of the problem of having enough energy in one's dynamic cartridges to surpass the pull of the Earth to travel around the Moon. Setbacks and financial hardships in 1920s Germany make his project seem futile, especially after his lab burns and his assistant disappears. Little does he know that others also have designs on launching a rocket Moonward to highlight the technical prowess of their country.

The world is stunned when a rocket is launched from deep in the Carpathian mountains northwest of Bucharest. The Roumanians are the first into space! To everyone's horror the rocket seems to experience problems once at the Moon, and an observant observatory spots an S.O.S. from the distressed spacecraft. Can the lonely traveler be rescued in time?

The race is on for Korf to get his ship built, which uses liquid fuel dynamic cartridges for propulsion and is therefore more efficient than the solid fuel cartridges used by the Roumanians, and funds pour in from around the world. Soon the day arrives for a second shot into infinity. Will they be in time?

Wow. This book was phenomenal. Mr. Gail worked with top German rocket thinkers in the really, really early days of rocketry, and a lot of very accurate ideas are conveyed. Korf's ship is staged. He uses propulsion guns for space-walk maneuverability. The space navigation problem of frames of reference of moving objects for computing trajectories is explained in a really interesting example. It's also a mystery story and surprise romance. This story is an excellent example of early sci-fi.

This one gets a waning Full Moon.

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"Moonquake" by Alan Binder

Published in 2006 by Apogee Books, it weighs in at 310 pages with appendices. A few spelling errors.

Against his better judgement, Bill Huff answers a call by Congress and NASA to come on board to supervise construction of a Moonbase. The space shuttle Atlantis had just cartwheeled off the launch pad, and NASA desperately needs a success to show that they're still relevant. Bill tells his team to go dust off the old SEI trade-off studies, pick the cheapest option, and get started on updating it.

Bill also knows better, but nonetheless kowtows to the robotic and telerobotic crowd under NASA and Presidential pressure, and the base is constructed robotically to justify NASA research.

The first crew of 8 arrives, including Bill, and sets up shop. Karl the selenophysicist and selenologist is concerned that not enough is known of the site to ensure there won't be risk from Moon quakes. Maria is busy studying rocks. Tom is comm. John is the ultra-alpha base commander bored silly by having nothing to do (and so decides to make the rounds and see if any of the ladies might be interested in some Lunar gymnastics). Pam and Isabel tend to the medical-type stuff, and I can't remember what Gene does because he gets snuffed early.

Of course, there's a Moon quake. Of course, it's a big one. Of course the robotically built base is seriously compromised and people die. Of course, the situation is dire for the injured survivors. But collective ingenuity helps people to get through the initial shock and losses, and keeps them going, surviving without margin on the edge of life and death. Can NASA get a rescue flight launched in time? Can the batteries last just a little bit longer?

Described as 'Science Faction', Moonquake is a taught techno-thriller with its roots in the obsessive science fact as part of the work popularized by Jules Verne. The schematics of the modules are cooler than the recent slides from NASA, and the author includes three short appendices on Moon facts. As I read it I kept thinking of all those schlock disaster movies that Hollywood throws at us, like Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport, Volcano, Twister, etc. I think the only real weakness is the degree of the author's self-referentialism, and the more sensitive of NASA-supporting readers might be dismayed a bit by the degree of bad-mouthing of NASA. Not that it's necessarily uncalled for...

This one gets a waxing three-quarter Moon.

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[murphydyne]

"Isaac Asimov's Moons", edited by Gardner Dozois and Sheila Williams

Published in 1997 by ACE Science Fiction, it weighs in at 239 pages. This is a collection of seven Lunar short stories that appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s.

'Waging Good' by Robert Reed tells the story of a prodigal daughter returned from Earth bearing more than the effects of her good works on Earth. A bit disturbing.

'The Shadow Knows' by Terry Bisson is a first contact story involving strange communications protocols. It solves the mystery about all them UFOs and their 'probes', if you know what I mean.

'A Walk in the Sun' by Geoffrey Landis is another tour de Lune after a crash landing leaves a young woman alone and stranded. Remember to have your Lunar Atlas ready for this one. (audio version available)

'The Lunatics' by Kim Stanley Robinson tells of criminals turned Lunar miners who start disappearing one by one in the dark.

'John Harper Wilson' by Allen Steele is an alternate future history past, telling of a slightly different first Lunar landing, under Pentagon control.

'Life on the Moon' by Tony Daniel is a hauntingly beautiful tale of how the Moon takes away a man's true love, he an Earthbound poet, she a brilliant architect. She does finally get him to the Moon, and shows him that love can have a beauty that transcends the lifeless Moon and transforms it into something different.

'Werewolves of Luna ' by R. Garcia y Robertson is a cross between a casino jackpot tale and a virtual reality Dungeons & Dragons game. A bit long in my estimation, and not the best of the 'RPG in the future' genre.

It's a mixed bag overall. I especially liked 'Life on the Moon', but none of the others really got my passions up in comparison.

I'll give this one a waning half Moon.

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[murphydyne]

"Launch Out" by Philip R. Harris

Published in June 2003, it weighs in at 483 pages. This is the single worst example of editing I have ever seen.

The basic story is that of some bright connected entrepreneurs who launch their successful companies on a 20+ year project to establish a permament base on the Moon for colonists and their families to begin the 'launch out' of humanity into the Solar system.

I really wanted to like this story. Mr. Harris does know what he's talking about. He makes innumerable references to people I know or have met (Brad Blair, Dr. Criswell, Mary Lynn Dittmar, International Space University, and tons more). He tells the kind of story I like, that of citizens not waiting for their government to hand them a Moon base on a silver platter, but going out there and actually doing it themselves, irrespective of NASA.

But, the editing. Oh, the editing. (shakes head slowly) Abysmal. Atrocious. Worst editing ever. There's got to be an error of some sort on every single page, from names done one way on one page and a different way on the next. Incomplete sentences. Homonym errors. Spelling errors. Grammar errors. This is something that would be used as a bad example in an editing class at the local community college.

Which is a pity, because the story has merit. It needs to be cleaned up, and the text is a bit stilted and could use more flow. It is the right kind of story for right now, very much science 'fact'ion like Moonquake above, but I just can't finish it a second time (the first was back in 2003). It's too painful. Do not use this book in an educational setting. Kids have a hard enough time with spelling and grammar as it is.

A waning crescent Moon.

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