Books reading recommendations Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon Reaching the Moon is one thing; trying to settle and survive there is another matter… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on April 15, 2026 Credit: NASA Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: NASA Reaching the Moon might only be the beginning, at least as far as science fiction authors are concerned. No doubt initial lunar exploration will be followed by cities as vast as any Antarctic metropolis. The Moon is an alien world sure to shape its inhabitants in interesting, plot-friendly ways. Authors have not hesitated to explore the possibilities, as these five works show. A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C. Clarke (1961) Thomas Gold’s lunar dust hypothesis proved not merely correct, but the source of valuable income for the Moon. Tourists flock to the Sea of Thirst’s Port Roris to enjoy the bizarre spectacle of an airless, perfectly dry sea whose working “fluid” is extremely fine dust. Most solid objects dropped into the dust would simply vanish. The dust-cruiser Selene is buoyant enough to safely convey tourists across the dust in perfect safety… until now. Captain Pat Harris, stewardess Sue Wilkins, and an assortment of broadly drawn characters set out on the Selene, unaware that there is a vast bubble under the sea, or that bubble will burst just as the Selene passes over it. The Selene vanishes under the dust. The Selene survives for the moment, but what hope of rescue could there be, given that the dust-cruiser is fifteen meters under a featureless dust sea? A Fall of Moondust is an interesting mix of elements that aged reasonably well and elements that aged… less well. One could handwave frictionless dust in one location on the Moon, and the race to save the trapped people before the escalating disasters kill them is still effective, but the reader will still have to accept the gender stereotypes of a bygone age, not to mention the odd detail that amongst Selene’s supplies is a store of a thousand cigarettes. Still, this could be a solid seed for an exciting movie. Millennium by Ben Bova (1976) The Soviet Lunagrad and the American Moonbase share integrated life support systems. This is a relic of that brief era when Russia and the USA were more scared of China than each other. It is also a tremendous inconvenience now that the two powers have set aside Sinophobia in favour of mutual loathing and a relentless march towards WWIII. The leaders of both great powers believe whoever completes their orbiting ABM system will be able to dictate terms to the other. Moonbase commander Chet Kinsman believes this confidence is a recipe for planetary suicide. As both ABM networks are supplied from the Moon, the lunar colonies could intervene to prevent this particular path to WWIII… but only if protagonist Kinsman can somehow convince his Soviet counterpart to cooperate. Interesting detail about this alternate 1999: moonbases, space lasers, and affordable crewed space flight exist to far greater degree than in our 19991. The concept of workplace sexual harassment as something you might want to discourage does not2. Plymouth, film by Lee David Zlotoff (1991) A mishap at a UNIDAC facility leaves Plymouth, Oregon uninhabitable. Unusually, UNIDAC eschews decades of litigation. Instead, they agree to compensation, in the form of a brand-new town. More specifically, a brand-new town on the Moon, as the newest element in UNIDAC’s ailing lunar helium-three mining venture3. Like the bold souls who founded Roanoke and bravely traversed the Donner Pass, Plymouth’s surviving inhabitants embark for the Moon, eager to build new lives. Can they survive lunar hazards? Will they be the key to a profitable lunar colony? We will never know, because this was a pilot movie for a series that was not picked up. The odd mix of quasi-plausible elements and absolutely daft ones makes me wonder if there were backstage disagreements about writing choices. One cannot help but marvel at the tremendous convenience for UNIDAC that their obliteration of Plymouth provided them with a workforce for their troubled Moon colony… The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (2002) Law enforcement on the Moon was always going to be challenging. Law enforcement on the Moon after first contact with the Milky Way’s vast assortment of alien civilizations presents an almost impossible challenge, given the potential need to reconcile a myriad of legal systems. Nevertheless, doing so is the job of Miles Flint and Noelle DeRicci of Armstrong Dome. Fortunately for Flint and DeRicci, treaty complications are rare—or rather, have been rare in the past. Now the duo are faced with three seemingly unconnected cases, each of which could be a career-defining quagmire. Or if handled badly, career-ending. Yes, yes, I know narrative logic suggests that three unlikely events happening simultaneously have to be connected, even if they don’t seem to be. However, this sort of clustering is quite possible. Or is it? Pioneer by Dr. Sandy Antunes, Christopher Griffen et al. (2026) Why settle for reading about fictional characters’ adventures IN SPACE (including the Moon) when you could role-play adventures IN SPACE (including the Moon)? Mongoose Games’ Traveller-derived tabletop role-playing game Pioneer offers gamers the opportunity to explore the possibilities of near-future space development, including building humanity’s first moonbases4. In fact, gamemasters who so chose could focus their entire campaign to the lunar setting! Or rather, Pioneer *will* do so, once it is released in August 2026 (for regular people) or soonish, at least in Beta (for the Kickstarter backers). Patience, patience… The Moon having long been a prominent feature in the sky, it provides the setting for a great many works of imagination, of which five are a very small sample. No doubt I missed some of your faves. Comments are below.[end-mark] Bova’s 1974 “Build Me a Mountain,” which detailed the funding of the Moonbase featured in this novel, was set in 2020, comfortably far enough in the future of 1974 that the author could assume enormous progress in space travel. Bova altered the timeline for this 1976 sequel, presumably because Millennium (Plus a Generation, More or Less) isn’t nearly as cool a title as Millennium. To be fair, almost everyone thought we would get a lot farther in space than we have. ︎This is not a fictional setting where the moral universe arcs towards justice, at least where women are concerned. In Millennium’s sequel, Colony, women are not allowed to serve as part of the planetary government’s Executive Council “because that would be too cruel,” and the beautiful revolutionary Bahjat is handed over to protagonist David as a reward for all his hard work. I won’t get into the subplot in which reporter Evelyn Hall submits to sexual coercion in order to further her investigations. ︎AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH. ︎There was a surprisingly acrimonious USENET flamewar centred on the question of whether a certain lunar colony would allow the colonists automobiles or limit them to walking, bicycles, and public transit. It turned out this is a question about which people held passionate, inflexible views. As non-driving moderate who would like to see bicycles outlawed, I favour walking or public transit. (I’ve only been struck by a car once, and that was totally my fault. However, I’ve been clipped or knocked down by bicycles dozens of times. Eliminating bicycles seems like a no-brainer to me, although of course not everyone agrees.) ︎The post Five Stories About What Happens After We Get to the Moon appeared first on Reactor.