Waste of Space: Book Review by Abdurrahman

     To finish off the trilogy of the Moon Base Alpha (MBA) series, which began with Space Case and Spaced Out, I decided to review the third and last book: Waste of Space. Instead of continuing this series, Stuart Gibbs (the author) marked Waste of Space as the end of the MBA series to focus on other works by him. This saddened me, as the MBA series was truly distinct from other books Gibbs wrote.

 

     To give background context, the MBA series focuses on the life of twelve-year-old Dash and his family being part of the first settlement on the moon. A major issue is discovered shortly after their arrival. Moon Base Alpha, the name of the moon base, is absolutely bereft of anything that makes it an “absolutely amazing blast on the moon,” which was a summary of what NASA used to convince the Moonies to go to MBA. If I were to ask you this question, “If you ever visited the moon, what would be the first thing you do,” how would you answer? Would you say, “I dunno, I just wanna jump around in low-gravity and look at the Blue Marble”? Well, that’s what many Moonies wanted, especially the younger ones. But, going outside MBA was heavily restricted because it was “extremely dangerous.” These restrictions were set by NASA despite the great technological advances in space technology given the year 2041, which is when this series takes place in time. There are not many things to occupy one’s time inside MBA, too, so everyone regrets coming to the moon. This is in addition to horrible food, tedious toilets and cramped residences.

     Waste of Space starts off with Dash getting the best imaginable birthday present–playing catch outside with his father. This might seem like a lame gift, but there are a few things to consider first. As I said before, going outside MBA is forbidden without the permission of the moon-base commander, Nina. The only times a Moonie is planned to be on the lunar surface is during the arrival to and departure from MBA, which are busy times when no one is supposed to be goofing around. Therefore, the Moonies actually are not supposed to spend any other time on the lunar surface during their time in MBA. When Dash and his father returned from their game of catch, Lars, a brutal and immoral maniac, was found poisoned. Throughout the rest of the day, which started from almost midnight for him, Dash is forced into undergoing a mind-boggling investigation in a moon base of rapidly-increasing tensions while being constantly frightened by a major oxygen leakage that forces everyone to evacuate MBA and return to Earth the next day.

     The amount of suspense and mystery truly makes Waste of Space unique. I may have said something similar in previous blogs, but I believe the amount of suspense in this book leaves the previous books in the MBA series in the dust. Like I said before, Lars Sjoberg is violent, disaffectionate, and downright nasty, even to his own family, who share his personality, too. In the narration, it is mentioned that, since Lars is a trillionaire, he owns numerous mansions, so the family doesn’t need to spend that much time together. This is unlike the cramped moon base, where they are brutal to each other. It was also said that they were always surrounded by a bunch of servants on Earth, and since they could not bring any servants, they had to adjust to being independent people when they came to the moon, which they failed miserably at. They frequently shouted at other Moonies to get them to do something for them. For all of these reasons, all the moonies despise the Sjobergs. Before you know it, Lars is unsurprisingly poisoned. The reader must expect anything because everyone (probably not the young kids, but even the older kids) had a motive to attempt murder on Lars. This becomes more obvious when some of the Moonies suggested that Lars should not be cured because the poisoning affected his brain, which caused him to suddenly be a kind and funny person.

     Another way I think the plot hooked me to the story was utilizing the growing oxygen leakage. Before the revelation of the oxygen leakage, I realized that there have been rare, weak symptoms of hypoxia, which occurs from the lack of oxygen. This includes increased irritability. If people were actually experiencing hypoxia, then a person who normally wouldn’t attempt murder might suddenly decide to against Lars. Towards the end of the book, symptoms grew and became very obvious, which called for the immediate evacuation of MBA to the lunar surface until the oxygen recycling system was repaired. This was the day before the requisitioned rocket came to MBA from Earth to send the first batch of Moonies home. Bluish skin color was a notable symptom. There were also some symptoms that had hilarious effects. Inez, a 7-year-old girl, was once slumped down in her chair, babbling incoherently. One of the adults was laughing gleefully and talking to an imaginary kangaroo. Dash’s hearing was affected too, so when Nina was barking orders at adults during the emergency evacuation, he heard, “Chang, placate the orbital dingus flange! Stephen and Rose, diffuse the bicaudal ventricles! Daphne, oscillate the flammable terrapins!” Violet once told Dash in the midst of the evacuation:

“‘Know what else I’d like besides a unicorn?’ she asked. ‘Some dinosaurs. The ones that are all gray and fuzzy and adorable with huge ears.’

‘Uh, Violet,’ I (Dash) said, ‘I think those are koalas.’

‘Right! Koalas! That’s what I want!’”

     Waste of Space is a must-read. The amount of mystery truly makes this book one-of-a-kind. The effects of the dropping oxygen levels does an excellent job contributing to the heart-racking plot. If you haven’t already, you should check out previous MBA books, as they have similarly extraordinary stories. Please go read them all!!