Commenting backwards:
Ok, I'm currently on Chapter 5.
Chapter Four contained a notorious info dump from the Observatory of Cambridge to the Gun Club explaining the time and way to fire a cannon toward the moon. Although I found it boring, I continued to read that chapter all the way through.
What I liked so far is the outlandish physical condition of the members of the Gun Club and the fact there were no more wars so they might utilize their weapons and kill people:
"One day, however - sad and melancholy day! - peace was signed between the survivors of the war..." He laments the fact that plants began to grow "luxuriantly in the well-mannered fields...the Gun Club relegated to profound inactivity" due to the end of conflict. Yes, I can see how that would be a sad day, indeed!
(One moment, while I wipe away a commiserating tear.
)
And the physical aspects associated with the members of the Gun Club:
"[Members had] marks of indisputable valour. Crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, steel hooks, caoutchouc jaws, silver craniums, platinum noses, were all to be found in the collection..."
Impey Baricane, however, who is the President of the Gun Control is "punctual as a chronometer...with all his limbs intact." He's a wonderfully described character.
Well, onward toward reading the book, but I'll be taking my son go-carting today so I won't be able to read much until later tonight.
Please don't hesitate to continue your reading of this novel on my account. (I also have that obligation - an enjoyable obligation, to be sure! - on the NetGalley ebook given to me.)