The Hopkins Manuscript by R. C. Sherriff

I finished The Manuscript some time ago. I enjoyed it. It is on of those books that has sat for a bit on 'The Bookshelves of Doom.' With this book however I am not too terribly unhappy at myself for not getting to it sooner. This book was definitely a 'literature' type book. In other words a book for more high brow reading. Still a good book even accounting for all its highfalutin words an' such.

I will try not to spoil anything for those who may want to read it sometime. The basic premise of the book is that the moon is somehow or other getting closer and closer to the Earth and will hit. The reason for the alteration of the moon's orbit is never given so once again I think the crafty 'Alien Space Bats' have been at work. They seem to appear in a lot of sci-fi books.

So the moon hits the earth. I understand that this book is both a satire and also pre-space flight but c'mon! If the moon hits the earth it will do plenty of damage. I'm nearly certain the moon is not mostly hollow and if it was where did all the metal come from?!?

All of that is not the most disturbing part though. I was amazed at how in the face of this global cataclysm the wealthy still treated the poor like garbage. 'Well everyone is dead .. tut tut. By jiggies look a survivor. Oh wait he's a gardener. Let's all not even talk to him.'

All that aside, I did enjoy this book a bunch. I did however enjoy Moonfall by Jack McDevitt better as well as Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. Now don't get me wrong here. I did enjoy the Manuscript, it had that special charm only old books can pull off. I simply think the basic plot has been pulled off a bit better in other works.