Book Review: A Fall of Moondust

I am a HUGE Arthur C. Clarke fan. I remember as a little kid watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and being blown a way by the special effects. (Even by today's standards, they would be pretty impressive.) I've read most of his shorts and longer works.

One of his lesser known works is "A Fall of Moondust". It's very-hard-science fiction, and is one of the best, yet least known disaster tales of our day. The plot is about the rescue effort of a sight-seeing vessel, the Selene, which is buried in a lake of dust as the result of a moon-quake. Clarke strings you along with plot twists and very engaging human drama in the tale. (Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno et al, could take a few lessons from Clarke's writing.)

While we now know there is no lake of dust on the moon, the rest of the science about the moon is spot on. The technological means for finding the vehicle may be a bit dated, in that the sensitivity of infrared telescopes today far exceed the capabilities of the telescopes in the story, but everything else is accurate. Nothing in the book goes against physics. Like I said, this is a very hard-science, science fiction story. I won't spoil the ending if you haven't read it, but you'll enjoy reading it.

As far as content is concerned, (Again using my scale of 1-5, with higher scores meaning better values) this is how I rate the book:

Plot: 4.5 - Clarke gets you hooked with his description of the Sea of Thirst and the visual imagery of the moon. As the passengers and crew come to terms with what's happened and cope with their predicament, you get caught up in their efforts. You laugh with them and also fear for their survival as conditions deteriorate in the ship. You also feel for the people mounting the rescue attempt and pull for them as they battle the harsh lunar environment trying to find then rescue the passengers of the Selene.
Language: 5 - Tame by today's standards. Yet, the dialogue is believable throughout.
Sex: 4.5 - There's one love scene, but everything is left to the imagination. It's well done, but I'm not altogether convinced it was needed. On board the ship, for a time all the passengers strip down to their underwear to deal with the heat. All believable and all appropriate to the story and all very tastefully handled by the author.
Thematic content: 5. There's nothing here to worry about.

All in all, this is one of my more enjoyable science fiction books. You'll find it engaging and a page turner as you get caught up in the rescue team's race against time and the passenger's struggle to deal with the heat and the failing life support system.

Other books by Arthur C. Clarke I recommend: The Sands of Mars, Against the Fall of Night, Rendezvous with Rama and The Fountains of Paradise. I especially liked his short story anthology: Tales from the White Hart.