This biography of the moon is incredibly well researched and infinitely fascinating. There was so much I learned that I never expected to, but it was also written in such a dense and dry way. While not for the faint of heart, I still recommend it highly.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher Perseus Books, PublicAffairs
. for allowing me to receive this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

THE MOON: A HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE
By Oliver Morton

There were so many facts and the research that Morton has done for this novel is clearly very thorough. I did enjoy quite a bit of the book and learned some new facts about astronomy and the political and economic aspects of our research and space race to the moon.

I did like that Morton used historical context to shape the history of facts and included not only scientist thoughts and observations but also look at how artists throughout history have portrayed the moon and gave reasonings for why they choose to portray it as they have.

My only negatives for the book is that it is very dry and textbook-like. I could have used a bit more than fact after fact thrown my way. For me, the parts about the artist were the best because it had some “story” elements and seemed more than just factual information.

3 to 3.5 Stars!!

The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!

A well researched and written book about earth moon and it's history, while a little hard to read at times I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to any science reader

With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing approaching, we’re seeing a slew of books, films, TV shows, web articles, etc. highlighting what remains one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. But it would be a mistake to lump Oliver Morton’s The Moon: A History for the Future in with the retrospectives, for as that subtitle hints, Morton looks forward more than he looks backward in a wide-ranging look at our nearest celestial object.

On a basic level, if you want simple (or not so simple) facts about the moon itself — what it is made of, how it formed, how cold it gets, etc. — then Morton has you covered and then some, either weaving such facts right into the narrative or adding them as thoughtful notes at the end (I’m a huge fan of books that have notes as fascinating as the text itself and that’s the case here. In other words, don’t skip them — you know who you are). No matter the form, Morton does what all excellent science journalists do; he presents the facts not in a vacuum (no pun intended) but in a context or via a metaphor/analogy that makes them easier to understand for the layperson. For instance, when discussing something as basic as the surface area of the moon, he first gives us the statistic (37.9 million square miles). But then, recognizing such a number will be meaningless to most of his readers, he follows that up with something more understandable, noting how that’s roughly a “quarter of the area of Earth’s continents.” But that’s still a bit abstract, so he makes it even more concrete by noting it is “smaller than Asia, a bit larger than Africa.” And now, just about anyone who has seen a world map, which is just about everyone (even better, most have now seen maps beyond the size-distorting Mercator projection), has a strong sense of just what 37.9 million square miles means. Morton even goes a step farther, pointing out that driving a tunnel bored between the two poles of the Moon would be like driving from Cairo to Nairobi (at which point his readers may just call up an African or world map on their phone and check it out on their favorite mapping app). Good science writers do this sort of thing — use analogies and metaphors, keep circling around facts so as to drive them home, put numbers into an everyday context — all the time. Better ones do it so as you don’t even notice them doing it (unless you’re writing a review). Morton is one of the better ones.

As one might expect from the title, Morton places these facts in an historical context, concisely and efficiently showing us how current knowledge of the moon was gained or how current theories were developed, rather than just presenting them in their existent form. This too — showing how science moves in fits and starts, early theories winnowed, corrected, expanded (sometimes “dead” ones being resurrected) — is one of the hallmarks of good science writing. And so we learn how the collision theory of the moon’s formation came to be the most accepted (but not wholly so) idea, or how those huge Saturn V’s that landed Apollo 11 on the Moon were the descendants of rockets used in ancient China or, more recently, of Nazi V2’s.

More surprisingly, Morton also sets his exploration of the moon in an artistic context, discussing art, fiction, and film throughout. For instance, he points out that the Renaissance artist Jan van Eyck appears to be the first to show the moon in a realistic manner, complete with features such as the maria. He discusses other artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, but also brings in films and a healthy dose of fiction, especially toward the end where he spends a good amount of space (admittedly, I’d argue a little too much) on Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon. Just as with the basic facts, Morton ranges widely visual and literary allusion, referencing Verne, Méliès, Varley, and more, and I’ll happily take a little bit of tedious over-exegesis as a trade-off.

Finally, in terms of placing the Moon in a variety of contexts beyond the hard scientific facts, Morton brings in his own subjective viewpoints on various matters or his own emotional responses to particular events. And not just his own. He notes the existence of an entire generation of Apollo 11 “orphans” — “people in and around their fifties for whom space remains an inspiration and a disappointment . . . [who] felt, as they came of age, like something between a bereavement and a betrayal . . . The orphans of Apollo mixed [Arthur C.] Clarke’s particular enthusiasm and [Heinlein’s] Harriman’s compulsion to believe with the frustration of being not tantalized by a fancy of the future but robbed of a fact of the present.”

It is here that Morton leaps into the future, exploring the possibilities (some of which he finds more plausible than others) of moon bases, mining the moon (he doesn’t buy the feasibility of helium-3 mining), employing moon-based telescopes, using the moon as a stepping stone, moon tourism, and the like. Morton doesn’t limit details to only already-planned missions. For moon bases, for instance, he looks past current plans (and capabilities) and explains how setting up bases inside the Moon’s lava tubes (larger than Earth’s) is probably a better idea than constructing shelters. As for more near-term musings, his information is quite up-to-date, as he specifies a number of upcoming missions from various countries, explaining that “a flotilla of robotic payloads is slated to beach up on the lunar surface in the next five or so years.” Many, he points out, are from the usual suspects (the US, Europe, China), but others come from India, Israel, and Canada. Nor does he ignore the private companies. Elon Musk, he readily acknowledges, “has led the most successful spacecraft development since Apollo.” But he also notes that Musk is also seen as a “flake” by some. Worse, Morton says, and here we see another example of his subjectivity, “he is also a prick.” As for Jeff Bezos, Morton praises him as being, like Musk, “well-motivated” but adds that, “One should not discount the possibility of prickishness.”

In terms of prose style, Morton is always lucid, but that doesn’t translate to always plain or simple. He isn’t shy of waxing more lyrical at times, as when for instance he delves into the issues with moon dust: “The Apollo astronauts ingest it without choosing to. In their dust-dirtied LM tiny particles move through the alveoli of their lungs and across the microvilli of the guts into their blood, tissues, and cells. They bring the Moon home incorporated. The bring themselves home changed.” That sort of poetic writing is rare, but when Morton reaches for it he almost always attains it.

One thinks he’s going there again at the very end when he describes a walk on the beach, “the Sun’s warmth lifting the sea to the sky, the cooler air at height condensing its vapours back into droplet, ice and energy, stirring the atmosphere into huge clouds of rich but subtle pastel colours out over the ocean . . . “ And truth be told I would have happily followed him down that more lyrical path. But when, instead, he pulls back into the more mundane language of him, “grinning and turning,” listening via his headphones to “Moanin’ by Art Blakely, barefoot, dancing “in the surf to the rising moon,” I couldn’t help but grin along with him at the image, making it, probably, the better choice. Which is pretty much how the book entire goes, with Morton nearly always making the better choice. Making the reader’s choice of whether or not to pick this one up pretty easy.

This book is an interesting and well documentation to The Moon. The book includes an extensive collection of historical, social, cultural and scientific reference about our ourcelestial neighbor. Excellent souvenir for the 50th year anniversary of the first man in the moon

#TheMoon #NetGalley

Not entirely sure what this book would hold for me when I got it, but it is definitely written by someone taken by the moon. After talking about the history of how we have learned about different aspects of the moon (like the dark outline of the full moon that you sometimes see at a crescent), he touches upon moon explorations (past, present, and future), the moon in religion and art, and a whole bunch of science. Some of the book is a little dense, not sure this was the best commuter reading, but if you are interested in the moon this is a good place to start.

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for my review, but all opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book, We all see the moon, and take it for granted. But it is fascinating and has fascinated humans through history.

The detail in this book is extensive. and it is a thorough and comprehensive review of the knowledge we have about the moon. Sometimes the science is a bit dense, otherwise is really interesting.

Many questions I have had about the moon are answered in this book, it doesn't need to read in a linear fashion, picking and choosing sections made it easier to deal with the detail.

The Moon is a comprehensive guide that goes beyond the scientific, detailing the history of our race to the surface and the many behind-the-scenes advances required to get there. The book takes a scientific and cultural approach to the subject matter, showing the human curiosity that fueled our lunar obsession. By detailing past, present, and future, we see how far we’ve come on this journey and how far we have left to travel.

Morton alternates between scientific fact and a narrative retelling of the history of the various parts of the Moon and mankind’s discoveries. We see the early days of astronomy and the many revelatory discoveries made by looking at the stars. We get a history of the many years work required to actually get somebody to the Moon. These chapters are filled with accounts of the painstaking research and experiments necessary to prepare for such a journey, in addition to the many dreams by those who could turn this mission from fiction to reality. The short history of mid-century presidents and their respective positions on a journey to the Moon provides an interesting insight. We see Truman influenced by science fiction and Kennedy influenced by the ongoing conflict with the Soviet Union. We see a reluctant Eisenhower who went ahead and created NASA anyway.

Beyond these high-level policymakers, we get a sense of the thousands of people who were responsible for discovering the many components needed for a trip to the Moon. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were created, there was a boom in science and mathematics, and everyone worked together through long hours and excruciating experiments to succeed where others had not. The author goes through the development of many pieces of equipment, detailing just how difficult it was to get where we needed to be.

We also see the capitalist imaginings for the future of the Moon. Mines, weapons, moon bases—it’s all been imagined and proposed. The author also spends some time examining the surface of the Moon in terms of the best colonization locations, examining their strengths and weaknesses in relation to human needs.

Most unique to this version of the Moon’s history is the interspersal of actual dialogue from the Moon missions. You can experience the shock and awe of these astronauts as they discover a foreign surface few have traversed. This addition makes the journey markedly human, showing that in the end, curiosity was a primary driver.

Overall, The Moon will get you excited about the future of lunar travel. By understanding our past advances, we can regain that respect for one of mankind’s greatest achievements and prepare to one day return.

Final review to be published on May 28: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2019/05/28/the-moon-book-review