The Moon and Beyond

The Lunar Free State, Book 1

By: John E. Siers

Narrated by: Jimmy Moreland

Ian Stevens, director of the Deep Space Research Institute, isn’t interested in conducting research just for the sake of research. While the rest of the world - including the US Government - thinks that’s the DSRI’s sole mission, Stevens is actually interested in more - he wants manned space travel and the colonization of the moon. With NASA defunct, few scientific probes are being launched, and no one even talks about human spaceflight anymore. Stevens is out to change that. A billionaire in his own right, Stevens has assembled a crew of the best scientists and engineers he can find, and the DSRI is secretly building and testing gravity-powered spacecraft.

There’s just one problem - the project would be widely condemned worldwide, especially since there’s no government supervision. Everything they do has to be kept out of sight and away from the prying eyes of the NSA, Homeland Security, the IRS, OSHA, and a half-dozen other government agencies. They’ve got the world's smartest computer on their side, but will it be enough?

As the government gets ever closer to figuring out what the DSRI is doing, Stevens’ plan to establish a permanent settlement on the Moon nears fruition. The race is on - will the government find out and shut down the project, or will Stevens be able to implement...the Lunar Free State?

©2021 John E. Siers (P)2021 John E. Siers

Good story, Narration needs work

I like the story, I am big Heinlein fan, so I caught a few of the similarities. I am persevering through the book to the conclusion, but I find it hard to take in more that a few chapters at a time. The narration sounds like it is a poor AI reading with stilted reading and very very few variations in characters. A different, less mechanical delivery would make this a non-stop listen.

Interesting

I liked this book. I’m a fan of intrepid explorers inventing great works and reaching for the stars. And that is what this is all about. This book was interesting and tugged on my heart strings a couple of times. There are a couple examples of the authors beliefs in the story but it’s his story so there. My only two real critiques is he tends to skip som of the interesting nitty gritty of like how they set up farms etc and I think he goes a little too far with everyone on earth is evil. The only good and decent people are on the moon! But overall I enjoyed this book.

Great Story

Awesome Book really liked the political angels in it. I think it is likely the only way humans will ever make it off the planet.

Great story and fast paced

Very good and riveting story with twists and characters that jump out of the book stay tuned for more excitement.

IS. THIS. A. COMPUTER. VOICE.

The story line is Heinlein, but the writing style is definitely not. I do like the prequel idea for Mike and that it was updated to 21st century tech. Some of Heinlein's tech has definitely become dated.

What I really don't like is the narrator! HE. SOUNDS. LIKE. IT. IS. A. COMPUTER. GENERATED. VOICE. Every pause between words seems to be timed to the millisecond. A very stilted way of speaking. I haven't heard this narrator before to tell if this just his style or something the producer thought was a good idea. Overall I can only give it a three....