The quintessence of science fiction. As a reader who has never placed a high value on space ships, aliens, futurology, and made-up words, I have a muddled relationship with science fiction. I choose to qualify my taste as “social” science fiction (think Atlas Shrugged, Fahrenheit 451, Flowers for Algernon), implying that a) all those elements are forgivable only if they advance a social commentary, and b) that at the opposite polar extreme are works of “cheap” or “formulaic” science fiction. David Hull accomplishes the feat of contributing to the body of work of the former. The Man Who Remembered The Moon is an exquisite piece of short social science fiction, answering the beautifully simple prompt of: imagine the moon disappeared tomorrow, but you were the only one who ever remembered it was there to begin with. He opens with a bang on page one, and takes the reader through many stages of frustration and insanity with a doctor-patient mental hospital plot. While I am sure there are no political intentions here, he does an excellent job placing the reader in the shoes of a mentally afflicted person. This superreal advancement of empathy immediately cries attention upon different forms of therapy. Can the patient be led out of the fog of delusion by logical argument? By appeal to family love? By letting the delusion “play out”? Etc. Hull is also a learned man, enriching his prose with references to astronomy, physics, medicine, and literature. I am very glad to have discovered this writer, and look forward to following his work.