I had no preconceptions when I picked this book up, but Arthur C. Clarke's credentials speak for themselves so I read it. I am impressed. Long before there was a "Poseiden Adventure," "Airport," "The Towering Inferno" or "Earthquake," there was Clarke's disaster-on-the-moon adventure, "A Fall of Moondust!" Sure we have seen JOhn Ford's "Stagecoach," but so what?
An assorted group of tourists is thrown into a tour bus on the moon for your typical "three hour tour" (shades of "Gilligan's Island!"). We have the captain, the sexy stewardess, the cranky matron, the rusty, old space hero, and the usual, tight-lipped mysterious characters. On the surface, we have the under-appreciated scientist, the workaday professional, the TV anchorman yearning for that one great scoop. Then disaster strikes. The tour bus sinks into a sea of fine moondust, and the adventure begins. Will anyone know where they are? If found, how will they get them out in the airless moon with limited gravity? What earth-bound engineering techniques will work on the moon? How will the buried tourists survive with limited oxygen, limited water and no ventilation? How deep is this sea of moondust? Will the buried group revert to savagery to survive? Will the scientist and professional respect each other long enough to help the trapped tourists? Will the TV man get his scoop? This is not Clarke's _Childhood's End_, his definitive classic, but _Moondust_ is a fun read from page one and it is a page turner. Who knows? You may actually gain some appreciation for the hazards in moon colonization and will never again take breathing, or our atmosphere, for granted.