The Moon Is Hell!

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title: "The Moon Is Hell!" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1951-short-story-collections", "science-fiction-short-story-collections", "works-originally-published-in-unknown-(magazine)", "short-stories-set-on-the-moon", "fantasy-press-books"] description: "1951 collection of two stories by John W. Campbell Jr." topic_path: "general/1951-short-story-collections" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_Hell!" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 1951 collection of two stories by John W. Campbell Jr. ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox book| "]

Field	Value
name	The Moon Is Hell!
image	Moon is hell.jpg
caption	Dust-jacket from the first edition
author	John W. Campbell Jr.
cover_artist	Hannes Bok
country	United States
language	English
genre	Science fiction
publisher	Fantasy Press
release_date	1951
media_type	Print (hardback)
pages	256 pp
oclc	1453762
::

| name = The Moon Is Hell! | title_orig = | translator = | image = Moon is hell.jpg | caption = Dust-jacket from the first edition | author = John W. Campbell Jr. | illustrator = | cover_artist = Hannes Bok | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = Science fiction | publisher = Fantasy Press | release_date = 1951 | english_release_date = | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 256 pp | oclc = 1453762 | preceded_by = | followed_by =

The Moon Is Hell! is a collection of two stories, one science fiction, the other sword and sorcery, by American writer John W. Campbell Jr. It was published in 1951 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 4,206 copies. The title story, published for the first time in this collection, deals with a team of scientists stranded on the Moon when their spacecraft crashes, and how they use their combined skills and knowledge to survive until rescue, including building shelter from meteor showers, and creating their own oxygen from Lunar rock. The second story, "The Elder Gods", Campbell rewrote, on a short deadline, from a story by Arthur J. Burks purchased for Unknown but later deemed unsatisfactory. It originally appeared in the October 1939 issue of Unknown under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. The title of the eponymous story is occasionally found without the exclamation point, but the punctuation is used for the title of most editions of the collection itself.

Reception

Reviewer Groff Conklin noted that while "The Elder Gods" was "actually not among the best of Campbell's work", the title story, original to the collection, was "a brilliantly circumstantial narrative [and] "first-rate stuff".{{Cite magazine |last=Conklin |first=Groff |author= |last2= |first2= |date=April 1951 |title=Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf |department= |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v02n01_1951-04#page/n59/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |pages=59–61 |type=

Contents

• "The Moon Is Hell"
• "The Elder Gods"

References

Sources

• {{Cite web | last = Contento | first = William G. | authorlink = | title = Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections | publisher = | url = http://www.philsp.com/homeville/ISFAC/t164.htm#A3415 | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-03-17}}

References

1. Sam Moskowitz, ''Seekers of Tomorrow'', World Publishing, 1965, p.45
2. [http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?400191 ISFDB bibliography]
3. "Recommended Reading," ''[[F&SF]]'', August 1951, p.83
4. "Book Reviews", ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'', June 1951, p.131
5. E. F. Bleiler, ''The Guide to Supernatural Fiction'', Kent State University Press, 1983, p.102
6. "The Reading Room", [[If (magazine). ''If'']], February 1972, p.155
7. "Realm of the Spacemen", ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 7, 1951

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