Pretty Good Novel

• Date: 14.03.2009
• Book: Journey into Space
• Author: plappen

Review

Journey into Space, Charles Chilton, Pan Books, 1958


The novelization of a British radio serial, this is the story of four men, who, in 1965, undertake mankind's first trip to the Moon.

Jet Morgan is the ace pilot, Mitch is an Australian who single-handedly designed the rocketship, Lemmy is the Cockney radio operator, and Doc, an American, is keeper of the diary (and narrator of this novel). The ship is jointly built by all nations of the British Commonwealth, and is launched from the Australian Outback. A couple of days into the mission, the radio suddenly goes dead. Lemmy (who designed the radio and supervised the installation) spends the next two days going through the radio, circuit by circuit, and can find nothing wrong, while the others try not to panic. At one point, weird musical tones, almost music, come out of the speakers, then the radio comes on, like nothing was wrong. Mission Control reports that they heard everything that went on in the spaceship.

They land on the Moon, and spend one lunar day, or 14 Earth days, collecting Moon rocks and taking pictures. As they are ready to leave, all systems on the ship suddenly go down. There is no ignition, no lights, no airlock, nothing. Many diligent checks of all ship's systems show no possible cause. After another 14 days on the Moon, trapped in their spaceship, the power suddenly returns. Just before they lift off, an alien spaceship shows up just outside, and they are contacted by an alien voice (speaking perfect English). The humans are encouraged to leave, and, on the dark side of the Moon, twenty alien ships lift off, and follow them. The human crew is rendered unconscious, and their ship is kicked off course. When they awaken, Earth and the Moon are nowhere to be found. Could the aliens have dragged them somewhere else in space or time? Their fuel is running low, so they have to find an Earthlike planet to land on, or forevere wander the galaxy.

This is a pretty good novel about the early days of space travel. I can just hear a radio announcer saying, "Tune in next week for another thrilling chapter of..."