The Moon Monsters

by Douglas Arthur Hill, Jeremy Ford (Illustrator)

Traveling in space to a strange planet, Paul and his father are attacked by frightening monsters which turn out to be not at all what they seem

42 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Douglas Arthur Hill (6 April 1935 – 21 June 2007) was a Canadian science fiction author, editor and reviewer. He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, the son of a railroad engineer, and was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. An avid science fiction reader from an early age, he studied English at the University of Saskatchewan (where he earned an Honours B.A. in 1957) and at the University of Toronto. He married fellow writer and U. of S. alumna Gail Robinson in 1958; they moved to Britain in 1959, where he worked as a freelance writer and editor for Aldus Books. In 1967–1968 he served as Assistant Editor of the controversial New Worlds science fiction magazine under Michael Moorcock.

A lifetime leftist, he served from 1971 to 1984 as the Literary Editor of the socialist weekly Tribune (a position once held by George Orwell), where he regularly reviewed science fiction despite the continued refusal of the literary world to take it seriously. Before starting to write fiction in 1978, he wrote many books on history, science and folklore. Using the pseudonym Martin Hillman, he also worked as an editor of several anthologies, among them Window on the Future (1966), The Shape of Sex to Come (1978), Out of Time (1984), and Hidden Turnings (1988). He is probably best known for The Last Legionary quartet of novels, supposedly produced as the result of a challenge by a publisher to Hill's complaints about the lack of good science fiction for younger readers.

Hill and his wife had one child, a son. They were divorced in 1978. He lived in Wood Green, London, and died in London after being struck by a bus at a zebra crossing. His death occurred one day after he completed his last trilogy, Demon Stalkers.

Reviews

[Anne Patkau · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Moon Monsters" by Douglas Hill is a short small book supposedly for short people with small ages. Try Dr Suess, A.A. Milne, How to Train a Dragon, or Pratchett's Carpet People instead for more life, passion, vocabulary and syllables. Space-ship travel, strange animals, alien guards ... should be fun, but this is more like a factual text exercise, indeed published by Educational division. Flat one-dimensional words, round simple 3-color drawings.
Paul is on his 2-week vacation. His father Mr Carder surveys planets, armed only with a camera. Flying too low among odd birds, they land, see animals and aliens, who speak English because others have visited. But others did not tell the secret and neither can they.
My grade four teacher let us read Tolkein's Hobbit in class. Younger, my brother and I walked alone to the museum to study and spell Egyptian hieroglyphics and dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex. Just because a lead character is a boy does not determine the ideal audience. My library had no adult books by Douglas Arthur Hill; I'm not sure whether to try. I dislike "educational" books written like a computer program assembled list of "age-appropriate" words selected by committee regulators without imagination, not the fault of the author, but those who command them.

Spoiler (surprise twist ending helps):
The alien moon is a hunting ground with robotic animals who freeze when shot with special rays, protected from illegal visitors.

[Edward Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember reading this as a kid, but I don't remember just home childish the writing is, almost as if it was written BY a child and not FOR one.