Children of Apollo - mini-review
Mikey said:
Sounds like an interesting
book about a continued Apollo Space program. Has anybody read it?
I read it recently - I was about to write a review about it for a
Bulgarian SF magazine. Alas, I was disappointed, perhaps because
I had false expectations.
The blurbs led me to believe that this is "just" an AH novel,
however, this is more of a political pamphlet for the extreme
right. Perhaps it was just me - growing up in the East had thought
me to filter out the propaganda, especially the most obvious one.
The book is missing subtlety - that would have made the anti-soviet
message much stronger. For example, "Red Moon" by Cassut is
more convincing as a political statement because the
disappointment in the communism comes from within.
Aside from that - I find the story highly implausible. Everything goes
right for the good guys (and I didn't find them very appealing). There
are some plot holes enforced on the story in order to make political
statements - i.e. (MINOR SPOILER!) the extra stopover at the private
station to get food that couldn't be loaded on the ground because of
weight constraints. The problem is that the stop over requires fuel for
the docking (at least!) that is probably orders of magnitude heavier
than the food.
There is one idea I liked and I find original - in comparison with the
other books on alternative space exploration - the early privatization
of the space program, the opening of space for business, the
entering of "small" companies in the space market, etc.
A special note on the ability of the author to create suspense - it is
not quite "The Da Vinci Code" or Deception Point", but it is certainly
there and the books is hard to put aside.
How does the book compares with the other space-AH books?
- Baxter's "Voyager" was more accurate technically, i.e. compare
the description of Apollo launches
- Allen's "Tranquility Alternative" had by far better characterization,
I found myself genuinely caring for the characters
- Cassut's "Red Moon" is a better political statement (do not be
confused by the title - this is not some kind of pro-Soviet nostalgic
book!)
- Caidin's "Marooned" is the most dramatic of them all.
I also found some typos toward the end of the book, which was
surprising considering my own spelling abilities.
Most people
would probably ignore this but it bother me a bit.
I hope I have been of some help.
P.S. Mark R. Whittington occasionally appears on this forum.
P.P.S. I am very interested in space-AH, I will be thankful for any
recommendations.