The Moon and Beyond

The Lunar Free State, Book 1

By: John E. Siers

Narrated by: Jimmy Moreland

Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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

A wonderful story

I love this book 🤣🥰🫣😭 all I can say about this book is Wow, and the narrator was awesome 👏 thank you

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 and fast paced

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

When was this written?

Not my cup of tea. The author seems unfamiliar with military policies after 2008.

It was overly detailed on things that added no value to the story and the narrator's pacing was off putting.

I suspect it will be heavy handed with current US politics if I keep listening. It is very ham fisted. I'm returning it.

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....

Don’t bother

Made it to chapter 4. The characters are flat. The portrayal of near future American culture reads like an overweight militia man’s juvenile fanfic. Islam is taking over the world, American education is evil, blah blah. All of the male characters constantly make low effort sexist jokes to the female characters. The plot is basically, let’s go make a “new nation” moon base.

Seriously attempted giving this a try but can’t finish it.

Lacks depth

The story is a modern take on "The moon is a harsh mistress" but lacks depth and personality. Everything bad is the fault of either Democrats or Communists. The plot points are simplistic at best and the most interesting character is an AI without any compelling personality except it believes in god.

Ok but not great

The story wasn’t too bad. The narrator’s cadence and inflection is just wrong. He puts emphasis on the wrong word or syllable. Somewhat annoying.