Space: 1889: 4. The Lunar Inheritance
01/03/2006 . Source: Paul Hanley 
CD. pub: Noise Monster. Price: £10.99 (UK), $12.20 (non-UK). Serial number: NMPCDSP04. Time: 70 minutes. check out website: www.noisemonster.com
I have reviewed earlier CDs in this series based on the work '1889' by Frank Chadwick. This one, like the others, is performed by a cast of actors rather like an old-fashioned radio play and not merely read like a talking book. I enjoy book tapes/CDs but having an actual play performed for you by a number of characters certainly adds to the enjoyment of the story.
The CD is in a jewel case and comes complete with a map of the far side of the Moon and a booklet with a little background information, including pictures of some of the characters. The CD lasts some 70 minutes.
This is the fourth CD in the Space 1889 series. The background is that Edison, the nineteenth-century inventor, manages to devise a form of spaceship and flies it to Mars which proves inhabited. Very quickly, the rival powers are building 'Edison flyers' and expanding their empires on Mars and the dinosaur-inhabited swamps of Venus.
In this case, we follow the adventures of Captain Nathaniel Blake who is commander of Her Majesty's (space)ship Indomitable going to the far side of the Moon in search of a lost expedition led by Doctor Cyrus Grant, a American. The sterile Moon has been somewhat neglected by the mainly European Great Powers who have scrambled to colonise the habitable planets of Venus and Mars so there are no permanent bases established there or so our heroes think.
Doctor Grant's last communication, a heligraph message intercepted by an outbound space freighter, warns of the lightning. Accompanying the expedition is the Doctor's former assistant who is just explaining to Captain Grant that there is no such thing as lightning on the Moon when the Inndomitable is shot down by a bolt of lightning from the Moon's surface and crash lands. Whilst the crew start to make repairs, the gallant captain and the former assistant set out to discover what is happening on the hidden side of the moon's surface. There, they encounter different sorts of aboriginal creatures, friendly and unfriendly, advanced weapons and equipment, hidden cities, an underground sea, submarines and a dastardly plot by the Czar of all the Russias Forces. Finally they triumph over the dastardly foreigners and one of them even gets the girl.
This was great fun and I think the best of the four CDs so far as it was complete in itself. If you like steampunk or just a play to while away a car journey, I would recommend this to you and I look forward to their next production.
Paul Hanley |
|
Add SFcrowsnest.com daily news updates to your
own web site or blog - just cut and paste the code
below...
POST YOUR COMMENTS  CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
|
