Rogue Moon

infobox Book |
name = Rogue Moon
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Algis Budrys
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Gold Medal Books
release_date = 1960
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 176 pp
isbn = NA
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Rogue Moon" is a short science fiction novel by Algis Budrys, published in 1960. It was a 1961 Hugo Award nominee, losing to Walter M. Miller's "A Canticle for Leibowitz". A novella-length version of the story was included in the anthology "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two", edited by Ben Bova.

Plot introduction

"Rogue Moon" is largely about the discovery and investigation of a large alien artifact found on the surface of the Moon. The object eventually kills its explorers in various ways, but their deaths slowly reveal the funhouse-like course humans must take in moving through it.

Plot summary

Dr. Edward Hawks runs a top-secret project for the U.S. Navy, using the facilities of Continental Electronics to investigate a deadly alien artifact on the Moon. Volunteers enter and explore it, but they are inevitably killed for violating the unknown alien rules in force within the enigmatic structure.

Vincent "Connie" Connington, Continental's head of personnel, tells Hawks that he has found the perfect candidate for the next mission. Connington is amoral and manipulative, openly testing Hawks and anyone else he meets for weaknesses. He takes Hawks to see Al Barker, an adventurer and thrill-seeker. Hawks also meets Claire Pack, a sociopath of a different kind. Where Connington covets power, and Barker seems to love death, Claire enjoys using sex, or the prospect of sex, to manipulate men. She stays with Barker because he has no weaknesses in her eyes. Connington would like to control her, but seems unable to do so, a fact which unhinges his sense of self. Hawks has to appeal to Barker's dark side to persuade him to join the project. Claire tries to get under Hawks' skin while simultaneously playing Connington off against Barker.

Hawks has created a matter transmitter, one which makes a copy of a person or object at the receiver. Immediately, the philosophical question of whether the copy is the same person surfaces. Hawks transmits duplicates of men to the Moon. Keeping the Earthbound original in a state of sensory deprivation allows him to share the experiences of his "doppelgänger". However, none of the participants had been able to stay sane after experiencing death.

Barker is the first to be able to retain his sanity, but even he is deeply affected the first time, exclaiming "...it [the artifact] didn't care! I was "nothing" to it!" He returns again and again to the challenge, though his actions on the Moon are left to the imagination. Meanwhile, his relationship to Claire deteriorates even as Connington continues his disastrous attempts to win her, at one point receiving a severe beating from Barker. Eventually, Connington announces he is quitting, and Claire leaves with him.

Meanwhile, Hawks enters a relationship with a young artist, Elizabeth Cummings, but he seems to want only to pour out his torment over the project to her. Finally, Barker announces that he is almost finished finding a way through the artifact. Hawks takes Elizabeth to a romantic location and declares his love for her, then returns to the project and goes with Barker on the final run.

Together, the two weave their way through a series of bizarre landscapes containing death traps. The forms these take, and the strange actions necessary to avoid them, are similar to those found in a modern video game. Emerging from the other side, they face the final hurdle. Hawks tells Barker that they cannot return. The equipment on the Moon is too crude to transmit a man back safely, and even if it were possible, there are already identical people living their lives. All the men working on the Moon are duplicates, mostly Navy men, all volunteers [ Budrys, "Rogue Moon." See talk page for quote ] . Hawks elects to remain outside the base until his air runs out. Barker returns to try to be transmitted back anyway.

Back on Earth, Hawks removes his isolation suit, and finds a note in his hand, which he knew would be there. It reads simply, "Remember me to her."

Themes

The novel is clearly at the beginning of the trend towards inner space plots which swept the genre in the 1960's. Comparisons to J.G. Ballard are inevitable and appropriate. The characters are not fully realized in the sense of great literature, but are drawn in a way that suggests much more depth than was typical for science fiction at the time. The cynical assumption that everyone is pursuing his or her own ends is not new to writing, being a staple of noir fiction, but the contrast here is with forces and ideas that transcend mere personal gain. The greatest contrast is in Hawks, who plays the role of stereotypical detached scientist while committing high-tech murder and kidnapping in the name of knowledge, though he also wants to "beat the Soviets".

Footnotes

References

*cite book | last=Tuck | first=Donald H. | authorlink=Donald H. Tuck | title=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy | location=Chicago | publisher=Advent | pages=72 | date=1974|id=ISBN 0-911682-20-1

External links

* [http://www.ansible.co.uk/writing/shortrev.html#budrys1 Review by Dave Langford]