Baltimore Gun Club

From the Earth to the Moon and its sequel, Around the Moon, present Jules Verne's 19th century vision of space travel. Because rockets at the time were seriously limited in range and payload, he launches his three travellers from a gigantic cannon instead. In a voyage with striking parallels to the Apollo space program, they leave in a conical projectile from South Florida, experience weightlessness, orbit the Moon, conduct experiments, and end up splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. There are certainly fanciful aspects to the novel, but Verne worked out the math and science in meticulous detail, and his work inspired many people involved in the American and European space programs in the 20th century. And he managed to do all this while combining the story with an often hilarious satire on the American obsession with guns, firepower, and commercialization. This audio version is the first one in English to make use of a new, complete, and accurate translation. Many of the mistakes Verne has been accused of making over the years were in fact made by his translators, and every effort has been made here to scrupulously follow his original text. Verne's passion, his astonishing research, and his surprising humor are all on display. The translation is by Verne expert and space illustrator Ron Miller; the narration is by Tad Davis, who has previously narrated the Verne novels Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Mysterious Island. The audiobook includes two essays by Ron Miller. One analyzes the science Verne used in the novel; the other describes Miller's series of books The Conquest of Space - new editions, both reprints and new translations, of many long out-of-print books and stories on the subject of space exploration. This translation originally appeared as part of that series.

Now that the rebellion is over, the members of the American Gun Club have a new project: “We will build the greatest projectile the world has ever seen—and make the moon our thirty-eighth state!”

The men who fired a projectile From the Earth to the Moon are back, this time with an even more outrageous idea. Convinced that there are massive coal deposits at the North Pole, they want to tilt the axis of the earth enough to melt the ice cap. They see fortunes to be made; the rest of the world sees devastation and destruction. It's one of Verne's strongest satires about corporate greed and the evils of unregulated industrialization. There are few complete and accurate translations of the novel available in English. Ron Miller, illustrator, space artist, and Verne expert, has taken an anonymous 19th century translation and updated and expanded it to restore the omitted passages. Verne's sardonic sense of humor has never been more in evidence. The novel is narrated by Tad Davis, who has previously narrated three other Verne novels, including the Moon novel that precedes this one.