posted 04-09-2006 01:45 PM               

I'll read it.

posted 04-09-2006 04:54 PM               

quote:

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With a few welcome exceptions, Walt and Lucy's suborbital soap opera generates all the warmth of fluorescent tubing. If you are looking for the inside skinny on how shuttle simulator training sessions really look, sound and proceed, then you will be fascinated by much of this book. If not, you may find yourself wanting to skip ahead.

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posted 04-09-2006 06:26 PM               

quote:

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She thought she had a chance to make the light at the intersection of NASA Road One and Space Center Boulevard, but the driver in front of her maddeningly decelerated as he answered his cell phone, and now he had come to a full stop while the turn arrow was still yellow.

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posted 04-09-2006 07:44 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Interestingly enough, this review by The Baltimore Sun, which generally pans the book, has made me much more eager to read it.

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posted 11-17-2007 10:48 AM            

Harrigan has a very understated, unhurried writing style that I enjoyed. The premise - an affair set against the backdrop of the space program - could (and probably has) been horribly done in the wrong hands. But this isn't a romance-novel-genre book (thankfully). Harrigan slowly builds his story carefully and deliberately, and there is quite a subtle and elegant interweaving of the space program and personal relationships. Both plot elements drive each other without doing so too obviously. I suspect it may be too slow and nuanced for some people's tastes, but it kept me engaged and interested in reading new chapters every night.

Not being a JSC insider, it's hard for me to truly know how accurate this book is, but there's seems to be an effort by Harrigan to truly reflect the lives lived by families working at JSC (both of astronauts and their co-workers), and it comes across as realistic. It depicts well how, while us non-astronauts probably imagine a spaceflight to be the defining moment of a life with the rest of life flowing up to and after it, life isn't lived that way: instead, a spaceflight finds a peculiar place in the middle of all-too-human demands of work, family and personal details. This book shows not only what a surreal job it must be to be an occasional spacefarer, but also the realities of spaceflight - the physical toll, the adaptation to space - it felt like a very real depiction of events that can often be overglamorized by others.

My only real negative - and this was a personal perception - was that, having built up the story over 350 pages to a place where I was eager to see what happens, Harrigan wraps up the major plot points in 2-3 pages. That was in fact all he truly needed, and to stretch it out more may have been belaboring - yet it seemed like a rather sudden end. However, that may even be a hidden positive - he had me invested enough in the story that I wanted more, a longer resolution.

posted 11-19-2007 10:38 PM               

I work at JSC and live right across the street.

Disclaimer: I read this book quite a while ago, so many of the finer details escape me.

From what I recall, the author very obviously visited the area and toured JSC. He is an astute observer and got some details spot-on, such as his descriptions of the locale (traffic, street names, strip malls, etc.). The author must have a friend in MOD because he had a lot of accurate details about crew training and flight controllers.

posted 11-20-2007 07:58 PM               

I don't recall reading anything that struck me as grossly inaccurate about life at JSC. In fact, I was surprised by some of the "insider" details that he included.

There are about 10,000 people working at JSC, but it's a very small community. In "Challenger Park", the author accurately described the cohesion of the crew training group and the relationship with Walt, their lead. One detail that the author only glossed over was the existence of other social cliques.

posted 11-25-2007 07:28 PM               

It also made for some interesting first impressions of real locations. For example, I first "visited" Challenger Park within the pages of the book before driving to the real park that inspired Harrigan's setting (and his book's title).

I do wonder if someone reading the book for the first time today would have the same impression as I and others who read it when it was first released. Primarily, the plot involves interpersonal relationships within the astronaut office and JSC, a theme that was played out in the headlines earlier this year. I saw then that a few reporters had interviewed Harrigan regarding the similarities between his story and the real life events that transpired.

posted 11-26-2007 07:43 AM               

I especially enjoyed how the author was able to explain how the lead character could be in the situation on orbit. As well as how it would "feel" for her and her crewmates to be in that situation. ( I am being vague on purpose so not to gave away too much for those who haven't read the book yet.) Also the ending felt realistic as opposed to what the reader may want to happen.

All in all I enjoyed it very much and it will join the shelf along with Red Sky by Mike Mullane and the novel by Jake Garn whose title escapes me now.
That would be "Night Launch"

Tim

Edited by KSCartist on November 28, 2007 at 09:00 PM.