The Hundred-acre Spaceship

It starts off innocently enough. Uncle Nired's n'er-do-well but genius nephew invents a handgun that shoots all the way through the earth. Uncle Nired -- a nice old guy who's a cross between Conan the Barbarian and Cohen the Engineer, especially when someone makes the fatal mistake of getting him cross -- no sooner has that problem under control than they hear of an American space shuttle stranded in space. And the Russians plan to make the stranding permanent with a few well-placed laser cannon shots.

The entire world, to say the least, stands agog when Uncle Nired and Henry fly Henry's parents' house, lot, and elm tree back to Earth with the rescued American astronauts and captured Soviet cosmonauts. The Russians and other groups are scared spitless of the idea of flying houses with guns that can shoot through planets a bristling. Deciding that Mars is the place to start, they rush forces there to fortify it against the Yanks. This scares the Pentagon group into action. They land a company of Marines on Uncle Nired's estate at Newport to seize the secret of this new technology. Unfortunately, their timing is a bit slow and they do so just as the estate is detaching itself and taking off into space. The Marine assault force is outsmarted and captured by Uncle Nired's 85-year-old gate guard, a veteran of the famed Black Watch regiment.

"Hoo boy!" says Uncle Nired. "We fly the estate to Mars and some tails kick!"

Follows the rest of the story in hilarious conflicts between the American military, Russians, and numerous other groups with the good guys on the flying estate. Including the greatest and hardest fought battle in all of human history -- past, present, and future -- inwhich absolutely no one gets killed. An engaging and wonderful romp from Earth to Mars and back.