Moon Base One

(US - Outpost On The Moon)

Publishing details:

UK: Faber, 1960, in print until about 1975, h/b.
US: Criterion Books, 1962

Synopsis:

The legacy of the radiation from the alien domes on the moon is now become manifest. Thousands of young people are terminally ill with a rare form of leukemia, and it is decided to take one of these as a passenger on the next trip to the moon to see if exposure to the fall-out there may have a curative effect.

Rivalry between East and West having now been put aside, a combined space agency has been formed, the United Nations EXploration Agency, UNEXA for short. Naturally an Englishman is to be place in command of this vital mission - step forward Chris Godfrey. His old friends Morrey and Serge accompany him, whilst the 'patient' will be Tony Hale, a cheeky young schoolkid from Aston, near Birmingham (UK).

The trip to the moon and setting up of a temporary base goes well, although the effects of his illness combined with radiation make Tony dangerously rebellious. And when a supply rocket crashes, destroying some of the team's vital navigational equipment, and as the mysterious grey lunar mist reappears, it seems as though the quartet may never make it back to Earth!

Commentary:

By introducing Tony Hale, the fourth member of the team who would feature in all the subsequent novels, Walters was clearly looking for a character to appeal to his younger readers. While Chris could appear a little stuck-up and middle-class at times, cheeky Tony, with his incomprehensible Brummie accent and working-class attitudes made a welcome contrast.

Once again there are a few changes between US and UK editions. For example, in the UK edition Sir Leo Frayling suggests that Tony be clubbed unconscious should his illness make him dangerous during the mission - this line is omitted from the US version.

Reviews:

EXCITING BOOK FOR BOYS * "MOON BASE ONE," by Hugh Walters (Lon- don: Faber and Faber) REALLY there ought, on a basis of probability estab lished by children's fiction, to be a 14-year-old at the centre of every real-life drama: At the top of Everest (" 'We'd never have made it without you, Jimmy,' said Edmund Hillary, smiling in a way that made the young- ster gulp"); under the table at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference (" 'You've saved the day, Terry,' said Mr Nehru, and the boy turned red"). There's room for a thesis on the devices by which writers insinuate their young heroes into situations normally hogged by grown- ups. This is the latest book in a series in which the orig- inal device was a simple one: Chris Godfrey was shot into space for the ade- quate reason that he was small enough to go into a rocket. * Now, a grown-up himself, he has again to make that chancy ascent - this time to prepare the way for a permanent base on the moon. There is still, however, a 14-year-old in the crew of the Pegasus: Terry, who gets in because he's suffering from a radiation sickness that might be cured by a trip to the moon. Mr. Walters' books are quite inimitable; solemn, wooden in style, with char- acters who are hardly more than names - and yet really exciting, because they com- bine an artful mounting ten- sion with a mass of fascin- ating technical detail. It's pleasant, into the bar- gain, to have a book of this sort, in which East and West are seen working to- gether, instead of having to be foiled when they nastily interfere with one another's fuel tanks. - E.B. The Auckland Star, 8th April, 1961

MOON BASE ONE By Hugh Walters. (Faber & Faber Ltd., 24, Russell Square, London, W.C.1, 13s. 6d. net.) C HRIS GODFREY, hero of Operation Columbus and other stories, has another science fiction adventure in this story of space flight to the moon, with all the excitement which Mr. Walter knows how to put into his stories. Whether this is the Shape of Things to Come or not does not matter; young science fiction addicts will thoroughly enjoy this latest Chris Godfrey adventure. Teachers' World, 14th March 1961

'Exciting science-fiction yarn . . . Good suspense . . . can't blame Walters for putting the spotlight most often on Chris . . .' - Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin

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