One of those book you just can't stop reading until you reach the last page!

Not his best work. The book tends to get lost is a universe of description that doesn't lend anything to the story or plot. It was difficult to maintain interest which was unlike the other Verne books I've read. I'd skip this one for one more interesting.

A good account of how men back in 1800s thought about science and technology. Well read.

In 1968, NASA's Apollo 8 mission took three American astronauts around the moon in a lunar module weighing 19,900 pounds. In 1865, Jules Verne sent three American (one naturalized) around the moon in a projectile weighing 19,900 pounds. The lunar module and the projectile were of similar shapes and both landed in the ocean so that the astronauts returned safely. While Jules Verne's mission was imaginary, much of what he talks about in his novel--certainly not all of the details--aligns amazingly well with the actual Apollo 8 mission. While some of the "conversations" are "scientific" for the time. Many of the concepts from the story really bore fruit for the 1968 mission. Both the imaginary mission and the Apollo 8 mission were launched from Florida (actual locations almost the same). Both were projectiles shot into space--in 1865,blown from an embedded cannon in the ground of central Florida near Tampa. In 1968 on a Saturn booster rocket from Cape Canaveral. Both vehicles, after landing safely in the ocean, were recovered by vessels of the US Navy. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. That is the time frame for the publication of this story. The Apollo 8 mission took place about 103 years after this story was published. Thanks, Jules Verne, for being a NASA Research Associate 93 years before NASA was even founded. Your ideas, perhaps, were more far reaching than even you knew at the time you shared them with the world.

Outstanding read that paved the way to rocketry and the human quest for knowledge of the unknown, but now reachable, wold of space.

This was one the best books I have ever read!

Didn't realize that Jules foretold that the launch would be from Florida (near the cape) and splash down on the Pacific.