Uh oh, I have fallen behind pace…
My latest
completed read is The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield. I was intrigued by this book because it had
good reviews and it was written by a real-life (Canadian) astronaut.
It’s long, but
it’s a page-turner. This is squarely in
the “historical fiction” genre. NASA is
preparing to launch Apollo 18, the final mission to the moon, this time with
purely military astronauts. They have
realized that a new Soviet space station in orbit has the ability to spy on the
United States, uncovering major military secrets, so they divert the mission to
go deal with the station. (Major spoilers) Once there, they find out the hard
way that the station is already manned, and armed, and the Soviets are prepared
to protect it. One astronaut dies, as
well as one cosmonaut, and as the space station is destroyed, the final
cosmonaut finds her (yes, her) way on board the Apollo capsule and ends up getting
a surprise ride to the moon.
There’s a good bit of action, and even more intrigue. My main issue with the story is that I don’t completely buy the (in my opinion not fully fleshed out) motivation of the commander of the mission, who is a last-minute replacement due to the death (murder?) of the original commander. That being said, the basis in real history (there really was a military mission planned, there really was a Soviet space station and Soviet rover on the moon, many of the people were real) makes it that much more interesting and believable. Recommended for space history nerds as well as science fiction fans. Just don’t expect, despite what might be read into the title, a mystery story.
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