posted 02-27-2007 10:55 AM               

With his "stunning" American debut novel, acclaimed British novelist and BBC dramatist Jed Mercurio proves he is "a writer who bears close attention" (Booklist).

Ascent is a psychologically probing, speculative novel set within the secret world of the Soviet space program. Spanning the years between the end of the Second World War and the monumental Apollo 11 moon landing, this spare, terrifying account of a legendary pilot-turned-cosmonaut, captures the palpable thrill of flight, the ideologies that sent men to the Moon, the psychology of the men whose actions defined their nations.

In the dismal ruins of post-war Stalingrad, a young war orphan named Yefgenii Mikhailovich Yeremin endures the rigors of factory work and the abuses of his fellow students. Large for his age, and strong, Yefgenii is also highly intelligent. Singled out for his exceptional math skills, he earns a highly coveted scholarship to Russia's leading flight school. Six years later, Yeremin is posted to North Korea as part of the Soviet's secret involvement in the War.

Yeremin's determination and courage in the air rank him high among the elite pilots in this first-ever jet war. His unseen combat opponents include young American pilots named Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Gus Grissom and Wally Schirra – all men with whom his own destiny will become entwined. But unlike his American counterparts, Yeremin can never attain the public acclaim due him for his dazzling aeronautical achievements. Because the Russians are breaking U.N. agreements by taking part in the war – and flying their missions with their Soviet MiGs disguised as North Korean planes – no official records will be kept. Indeed, when a Russian pilot is killed, his very identity is wiped from the files.

In a sequence of heart-stopping suspense, Ivan the Terrible – as he has been dubbed – dogfights to the death with an American Sabre over the Yellow Sea. Yet when the war ends in stalemate, he is dispatched to an isolated fighter station on Franz Josef Land, high above the Arctic Circle, where Soviet squadrons stand poised to repel America's Cold War threat. There Yeremin endures nine long years of exile, displaying little outward emotion about his frustration, even to his wife and children.

Things change, however, in the 1960s, when the race between the Soviets and the Americans to be the first to put a man on the moon begins. As the Americans get closer and closer to the launch of Apollo 11, Yeremin is chosen to be the solo traveler on a secret mission to the moon that, if all goes as planned, will make him more famous than Gagarin. If it fails, Yeremin again risks being consigned to oblivion.

Written with a gripping verisimilitude drawn from extensive research into the early history of the Soviet and U.S. space programs, ASCENT is at once a spellbinding techno-thriller, and a haunting tale of one man's attempt to claim his own destiny.

About the Author:
Jed Mercurio trained as a doctor and, while at medical school, received extensive flying training with the Royal Air Force. As a resident in internal medicine, he wrote a ground-breaking medical drama for the BBC, Cardiac Arrest. His first novel, Bodies, was chosen by The Guardian as one of the top five debuts of 2002. He adapted the novel into an award-winning drama series for the BBC and is currently developing a version for American television. He lives outside London.

• Simon & Schuster, March 13, 2007
  
• ISBN: 0-7432-9822-5

posted 04-08-2007 12:43 PM            

The Soviets were a secretive lot. What if they sent a man to the moon before the Americans, and we never knew? It sounds like a scenario for a mass-market yarn; a Michael Crichton at best, a Dan Brown at worst. It is, in fact, the basis for one of the most potent and unusual works of literary fiction I've read in years.

posted 10-03-2011 01:13 PM            

The trend for turning regular novels into graphic novels continues apace, and it's a pretty hit and miss business, if you ask me. For every one that works, I'm sent (mentioning no names) at least three that don't. Ascent, though, is in a different class altogether. It doesn't merely work; it flies. A collaboration between the prize-winning illustrator Wesley Robins and Jed Mercurio, on whose 2007 novel of the same name it is based, it's a beautiful thing, combining all the virtues of Mercurio's original work – gripping drama, a certain emotional brevity, a way of turning technical terms into a kind of poetry – with a series of drawings as poignant and as atmospheric as anything you will find in the work of Raymond Briggs. I adored it.

posted 02-20-2012 02:21 PM               

The main character can come off a bit distant at times and maybe it's not always easy to get under his skin as with some books but I suspect this is a deliberate ploy by the author to show the main characters detachment from the other people around him, presumably as a consequence of his very harsh upbringing in a state orphanage after the war.