An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

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I really wanted to love this. It had everything going for it, but in the end I think the what had me excited about it (an action book in space written by an ACTUAL astronaut!!!) Hadfield is almost uniquely qualified to write this book, former test pilot, astronaut, and commander of the ISS. He obviously has a good grasp of space history, both Russian and American. He speaks Russian, having spent time on both Mir and the ISS and in Star City, Russia. In short, he knows how the Russian space program, NASA, and astronauts look, sound, and act. He can keep it real. Especially that “you can have emotions on your own time" ethos that seems to govern the space program. Hadfield manages to shoehorn in a couple of female characters. One rather minor one is a geologist involved in the lunar program, who becomes a love interest for the more prominent CAPCOM, Kaz. The other is a female cosmonaut who provides much of the opposition needed for the book's purpose. So while not an expert like the author, I’d like to think I know a little more than the average bear about the subject, but I wouldn’t presume to say that the author got any of the technical or historical details wrong about this. In fact, per his notes at the end some of the things I thought were insane were true.

The astronauts repeatedly practice in NASA's simulator, as well as in planes and helicopters, to prepare for their mission. Billboard Canadian Albums: Top Albums Chart". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. October 31, 2015 . Retrieved December 6, 2016. Hadfield, Chris (2016). The Darkest Dark. Illustrated by Terry and Eric Fan. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-39472-7. Chris Austin Hadfield OC OOnt MSC CD (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to his career as an astronaut, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years as an Air Command fighter pilot. Still, this was an interesting read and a solid first effort at fiction by Hadfield. There's enough potential here that I look forward to reading more from him. I just hope he takes mercy on regular folks like me next time and include a little less technical info dump.a b Kantrowitz, Alex (February 18, 2013). "Five Highlights From Commander Chris Hadfield's Reddit AMA From Space". Forbes. Having just recently watched in awe at William Shatner blasting off into space and always having a fascination in our solar system, I couldn’t wait to read this highly anticipated space thriller. The Apollo Murders - an alternative historical thriller about the launch of Apollo 18. (For non-history buffs like myself, the Apollo 18 was never launched in real life, due to budgetary constraints and the cold war.) When writing a story like this, I imagine there is a constant tug-of-war between including enough technical details as to be authentic, but not so much that it bogs down the narrative and the pacing. With Hadfield being an astronaut and having tons of technical knowledge, it's natural that he would focus on what he knows best. But for me, it just went a bit too much in that direction.

University of Waterloo (October 8, 2013). "Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield joins University of Waterloo". Waterloo Stories . Retrieved October 8, 2013. The fact that the author himself admits that many of the characters are real life people and much of what happened in the book is true, this made it all feel so much more genuine and believable than a run of the mill thriller, no matter how well written. At the end, there is a section on who were the actual real characters, events and machinery etc and I felt the people I was learning about, I had come to know personally already. Things appear to move, sounds seem to be heightened and absolutely anything, anything, could appear in the space where it once was not. During his free time on Expedition 35, Hadfield recorded music for an album, using the Larrivée Parlor guitar previously brought to the ISS. [34] The first song recorded in space, "Jewel in the Night", was released via YouTube on Christmas Eve2012. [35] [36] I received a copy from Penguin Random House Canada and Tundra Books in exchange for a honest review.The next part is where it really gets messy, but I’ll keep it vague to avoid spoilers. Let’s just say that things don’t go well when Apollo 18 tries to sabotage the Soviet station, and there is absolute chaos for a few minutes as well a high probability that the space capsule has been damaged. A bunch of other shit has gone wrong as well, but despite it all, the astronauts go ahead and hit the Go-To-The-Moon button to do their burn for lunar orbit. Even when NASA gets involved again, they learn that the capsule has so many issues that it makes the Apollo 13 mission look like a cakewalk by comparison. Hadfield, Chris (2013). An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-25301-7. Chris Hadfield’s experience as an astronaut comes through in this piece, which is full of great information about the space program. From a detailed narrative about the preparations for time in space to the explanations of procedures needed to survive outside of the Earth’s orbit, Hadfield presents a piece that educates as much as it entertains. The story is stunning in its detail and delivery, leaving me eager to keep reading as I discover things I had no idea existed. I can only hope there are more books to come in this vein, as I could not get enough. I feel like I learned quite a bit, but I can't quite say I was entertained. This book was an interesting mix of extremely detailed and specific technical jargon and science beside a whole lot of action that doesn't just need suspension of disbelief, but rather abandonment of it.

All this results in a cat and mouse game between Apollo 18, the United States, and the Soviet Union, with each trying to outmaneuver the other. Only someone with first hand experience could write a novel as rich in detail as this one, from the characters to the technology, The Apollo Murders is, in many ways, a masterpiece. Set during the Cold War, a space race still on, politics and intrigue sit at the heart of this story, a compelling and twisty mystery which has a brilliantly effective prose and excellent historical context. Chris Hadfield gets meritorious service medal". Globalnews.ca. June 27, 2013 . Retrieved July 1, 2013. a final top secret mission to the moon. Three astronauts in a tiny module. 250 million miles from home. 250 million miles from help. But not everyone on board is quite who they appear to be. Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime.

I’ve followed Col. Hadfield on his socials since he covered David Bowie’s Space Oddity aboard the International Space Station, a viral video which has garnered over 50 million views since being uploaded almost a decade ago. Now retired, he has turned his hand to fiction, and the resulting The Apollo Murders is a riveting speculative historical fiction thriller set in the early 70's, imagining a further escalation of the Space Race sparked by the deployment of a Soviet spy satellite and an Apollo 18 mission with a hidden reconnaissance and sabotage agenda... Hadfield, Chris; Hadfield, Dave (July 1, 2014). Canada Song (YouTube). Rare Earth . Retrieved July 1, 2014. And this has all the bones of a great thriller. The premise is fantastic, the setting atmospheric, and who doesn't love a deadly cat-and-mouse game playing out in space? Since this is fiction weaved into real history, I recognized a lot of the people and events of the space program, and it adds to the authenticity of the whole thing. It was also interesting to contemplate how the Cold War mentality of suspicion and secrecy would play out should the U.S. and Russia actually cross paths during the space race.

His writing is incredible, his characters are so believable and well-developed in their strengths, flaws and humanity and his dialogue is true to the characters. You're present with the characters whether it's in the control room, Apollo 18 or the Universal Joint. I found that Chris Hadfield gave overly technical explanations at the beginning, such that, I skimmed past them. Having said that, like magic, the writing got much better, less technical, more action. WOW again! My one slight issue was the overly technical explanations that peppered the plot sometimes to the extent I skimmed past it-however for those who are really into outer space and all that goes with it this would definitely be a plus so a subjective downside.The writing was 100% to blame. The author simply didn't have the storytelling skills yet to make a story like this work. It was full of conveniences, constant head-hopping, useless characters, annoying stereotypes, unnecessary detail, inconsistent pacing, bizarre character motivations, bland dialogue, too many subplots, no character development, and boring prose. It's no surprise an editor couldn't save this amateur attempt at a novel.