Reviews
The Brick Moon, by Richard Dunn, Edward Everett Hale, Marek Kukula, Adam Roberts, Gary Northfield
ederwin's review
3.0
Entertaining, particularly as an example of how Science and Science Fiction have changed over the years. Written around 1870, this story imagines trying to put an artificial moon into orbit so that it can be used to determine longitude while at sea, thus winning a big prize. (See [b:Longitude|4806|Longitude The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time|Dava Sobel|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388462711s/4806.jpg|1755348] for the history of that prize.)
Told in 4 parts. Part 1 seems like "Hard SF" in that it tries to seriously examine how one could construct an artificial moon and put it into orbit using technology available around the time of the American Civil War. Pretty wild to think about that! It involves cutting down lots of trees and damming lots of rivers, etc., but there is no hint of worry about harming the environment. Always plenty of environment to go around! Parts 2 to 4 become more silly, but I won't spoil it by saying why. I'm pretty sure that the author knew that he was going far afield from realism.
There is a reference to "The Moon Hoax". If you've never heard of that, take a look at [b:The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York|2314505|The Sun and the Moon The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York|Matthew Goodman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328843549s/2314505.jpg|2320931]. There are no "Man-Bats" in this particular story, but it wouldn't be much less believable if there were.
Told in 4 parts. Part 1 seems like "Hard SF" in that it tries to seriously examine how one could construct an artificial moon and put it into orbit using technology available around the time of the American Civil War. Pretty wild to think about that! It involves cutting down lots of trees and damming lots of rivers, etc., but there is no hint of worry about harming the environment. Always plenty of environment to go around! Parts 2 to 4 become more silly, but I won't spoil it by saying why. I'm pretty sure that the author knew that he was going far afield from realism.
There is a reference to "The Moon Hoax". If you've never heard of that, take a look at [b:The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York|2314505|The Sun and the Moon The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York|Matthew Goodman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328843549s/2314505.jpg|2320931]. There are no "Man-Bats" in this particular story, but it wouldn't be much less believable if there were.
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