At first they are fast and polite friends, as expected, but as things progress and their situation is compromised you begin to see how Bedford is both an unreliable narrator and someone whose views contrast heavily with Cavor’s.Ĭavor is deeply curious and pursues scientific discovery for its own sake, while Bedford is ultimately looking for an angle to exploit. There was a surprising amount of depth to the characters and their relationship as the story developed. The two build a spherical craft out of the material that doesn’t so much fly as negate gravity as needed. The former is a businessman fallen on hard times who serves as the narrator and “writer” of the story, and the latter is an eccentric scientist who comes up with the anti-gravity material “Cavorite” and is the one who initiates the bold adventure to the Moon. The story follows a pair of Englishmen, Mr. He does a good job of making it sound plausible, especially for the time that it was written. You can tell all the real-world facts are not quite there, but he’s not entirely playing by his own rules either. While much of his information is outdated, the story does follow serviceable rules and he makes an effort to explain the fictional material Cavorite, as well as the changes in environment on the Moon, as scientifically as possible. It was a lot quainter than I was expecting, making it more pleasing to read compared to the drier writing style of his other books. I was surprised to find that this novel is considered a “scientific romance”, being a more fantastical tale of adventure and discovery and a precursor to science fiction. The First Men in the Moon is one that I’ve always remembered but never got around to picking up until very recently. These are all significant to me personally because it was Wells that first got me into reading outside of what I was familiar with, my late grandparents nurturing this interest by purchasing three of these books for me. The other four are, to a greater extent, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Dr. While his bibliography is much vaster than I realized, finally reading this book is significant to me because it belongs to a quintet of his books that, as far as I can see, continue to be fairly well-known to this day. Wells is the author’s 9 th novel in a career of many. Then they hear curious hammering sounds from beneath the surface, and come face to face with the Selenites, a race of insect-like aliens living in a rigidly organized hive society.įirst published as a complete book in 1901, The First Men in the Moon by H.G. On landing, they encounter what seems like an utterly barren landscape but they soon find signs that the planet was once very much alive. They construct a sphere that will ultimately take them to the moon.

Thanks to the discovery of an anti-gravity metal, Cavorite, two Victorian Englishman decide to tackle the most prestigious goal – space travel.

The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells