This is the first of a number of sequels to The Mouse that Roared, forming a series of humorous novels about the tiny, fictional Alpine duchy of Grand Fenwick, and the ways in which it manages to outwit the rest of the world. In this novel, it manages through a series of chances discoveries, mishaps and misunderstandings to invent a new source of rocket fuel to enable it to get to the Moon before the USA and Soviet Union. The novel satirises the space race as effectively as its predecessor did the arms race, but the humour didn't quite work for me as well in this one; perhaps it was a little too similar and it's only been three months between my reading the two books. Still a good lighter read though on the eve of going on holiday. ( )

Read it for probably the 5-6th time. Not as good as The Mouse That Roared but so few things are... ( )

A worthy sequel to that marvelous bit of whimsy, "The Mouse That Roared", in which the tiny Duchy of Grand Fenwick races against Russia and the United States to the moon. Not quite the equal of the first book in the series, but charming and funny all the same. ( )