The Moon Is Hell! is a collection of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 stories by author John W. Campbell, Jr.. It was published in 1950

1950 in literature

The year 1950 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Kazuo Shimada wins the "Mystery Writer Of Japan" award for his book Shakai-bu Kisha .*Jack Kerouac has his first novel published....

 by Fantasy Press

Fantasy Press

Fantasy Press was an American publishing house specialising in fantasy and science fiction titles. Established in 1946 by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach in Reading, Pennsylvania, it was most notable for publishing the works of authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and E. E. Smith...

 in an edition of 4,206 copies. Campbell rewrote, on a short deadline, "The Elder Gods" from a story by Arthur J. Burks

Arthur J. Burks

Arthur J. Burks was an American writer and a Marine colonel.- Biography :Burks was born to a farming family in Waterville, Washington. He married Blanche Fidelia Lane on March 23, 1918 in Sacramento, California and was the father of four children: Phillip Charles, Wasle Carmen, Arline Mary and...

 purchased for Unknown

Unknown (magazine)

Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and...

but later deemed unsatisfactory. It originally appeared in that magazine under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart.

Reviewer Groff Conklin

Groff Conklin

Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...

 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." Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 and McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

 praised the title piece as "an extraordinary short novel . . . with Defoe's

Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe , born Daniel Foe, was an English trader, writer, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain and along with others such as Richardson,...

 own dry convincing factuality.". P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

 received the volume favorably, describing the title piece as "a realistic story of the first men on another world, worked out with an absolute minimum of hokum." Everett F. Bleiler

Everett F. Bleiler

Everett Franklin Bleiler was an editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" series of science fiction anthologies, and his Checklist of Fantastic Literature has been called...

 found "The Elder Gods" to be "contrived, derivative, and dull." Lester del Rey

Lester del Rey

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...

, however, found "The Elder Gods" to be "a fine sword-and-sorcery novel, having some of the magic of A. Merritt

A. Merritt

Abraham Grace Merritt — known by his byline, A. Merritt — was an American editor and author of works of fantastic fiction.-Life:...

 but a lot more logic in its development." New York Times reviewer Basil Davenport praised both stories, the title piece for its "close attention to scientific accuracy," the second as "pure swashbuckling romance."

The title of the eponymous story is generally reported without the exclamation point, although the punctuation is used for the title of most editions of the collection itself.