Overall, this is an imaginative story about two men who travel to the moon, written as a first-person eye-witness account.

HG Wells makes use of two characters to illustrate different ways that we can approach other cultures: with dreams of exploitation, personal gain, and colonization; or seeking communication, understanding, and knowledge sharing. He also makes a powerful critique of humanity's love and glorification of war, which affects the way we try to understand each other -- "They want to communicate, and yet not to communicate."