When the members of the elite Baltimore Gun Club find themselves lacking any urgent assignments at the close of the Civil War, their president, Impey Barbicane, proposes that they build a gun big enough to launch a rocket to the moon. But when Barbicane's adversary places a huge wager that the project will fail and a daring volunteer elevates the mission to a "manned" flight, one man's dream turns into an international space race.
An intrepid interplanetary explorer named Kaiser suddenly comes to his senses after a scouting mission has gone horribly awry -- only to discover that his messages back to the mother ship have become garbled and incoherent, as if someone else was sending them. Who is this mysterious interloper?
A man may be a scoundrel, a crook, a high-phased confidence man, and still work toward a great dream which will be worth far more than the momentary damage his swindles cost.
This novel presents timeless themes of faith, redemption, civil conflict, and betrayal. Set in the lost world of central Africa in the 1890's, the Children of Fire and their fatefull visit from " Messenger", a missionary named Thomas Owen. Tribal mysticism and culture clash with Victorian era values of Christianity , with some intrigue, adventure and epic battles.