The whole concept from the ground up was to have an actual western set on the moon: traditionally called a moon western. The idea is that during the Cold War, the U.N. ends up building a city on the moon, and everyone just ends up putting their differences aside to participate in it to some degree. Trust me, I know anything involving the U.N. doing anything cool is unrealistic, but it only serves as a raw setup in the story, and, to be honest, it gets more criticism in the story than praise, since they tend to be aggressively bureaucratic throughout the book. All said, it's not really all that important.
The fun of the story revolves around Kemp who was the first man to land on Mars during man's space exploration days. But like many ventures, it falls apart because of money or lack of interest. Now all he does is do scavenging and ferry work around the moon... and he hates it. This part is sadly realistic. Every time humans do anything amazing, it always ends up going nowhere once people realize they are spending too much money. It's pathetic, and the writers of this story probably understood that.
Kemp just wants to go back to exploring. And when a corrupt business tycoon shows up and makes him an offer that might get him a new ship and possibly a chance to explore again, it was too tempting to pass up. Here we end up having plot-points indicative of a standard western. The tycoon wants to try and land a 600 ton asteroid made of pure sapphire on the far side of the moon in order to strike it rich. I don't really want to spoil any more than that though since the story is a constant stream of very interesting twists and turns.
As a western, everything you'd want is there: gun fights (using realistic Gyrojet rocket pistols), bar room brawls, and even a scary trek through a dessert. There is also love and loss as characters clash into one another. The only western trope that seems to be missing is the whole stand-off, but I didn't really miss it.
The thing that makes this book so incredible is that the author was allowed to put his own creative spin on it. It was surprisingly written in first person. Trust me on this, that... never... happens... not in literary adaptations anyhow. This book is also a great example of a book written off the original script. The movie sadly had a few places that broke my emersion. The story itself is mostly hard scifi, despite trying to be a western, but there are moments where they break the perception of this: such as having some scenes in a vacuum with sound effects... or having a clearly marked anti-gravity switch placed in the barroom in order to have a fight set in 1/6th gravity!!! (Seriously, why wasn't that switch placed in a secure area rather than around a bunch of drunk people?!)
The book doesn't make any of the mistakes that the movie makes. Not even one. Not even half of one. It's hard scifi from beginning to end. Everything in a vacuum is eerily silent, and there isn't even artificial gravity at all in the moon city. This book is extremely solid and surpasses an already good movie by a wide margin. Not to mention that giving the author the ability to relate in first person with his own character is such a great way to present him to the reader. His thoughts and feeling throughout the book were so witty and enjoyable.
Much more than the movie, I whole-heartedly recommend the book for "Moon Zero Two." It is a near perfect execution of a "moon western." It is also a hard scifi with a lot of startling realism for a plot that most everyone else would not have had the heart to take seriously. I may never find another literary unicorn like this again.
This blog was written on February 28, 2023.
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Interesting that such an ambitious project was undertaken. Special effects were entirely practical in those days. Sure it was inspired by the actual Apollo 11 project at the time, but movies are to make money. Science fiction in space was expensive back then, despite the success of 2001 A Space Odyssey. Especially interesting that the book surpassed the movie it was written to promote.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked that the book fixed everything. They didn't need to do that, but they did. This almost never happens.
DeleteI saw the movie as a MST3K episode, I liked it so much I went and watched it without the crew. Of course the movie had its faults so I'm glad the book didn't have those. I will always be a fan of space westerns, we need more of them.
ReplyDeleteI caught it on MST3K as well and it ended up being my favorite of the season!
DeleteThe problem with science fiction is that one must incorporate the science. Otherwise, it devolves into a flight of fancy. Such notions reveal the zipper on the monster's back.
ReplyDeleteTOTALLY true. It is something I struggle with as a writer of science fiction, especially since I include mysticism.
DeleteAt least the book did. I'm guessing doing it in the movie would have been too expensive, but I'm not so sure.
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