I guess that fundamental to the success of any space mission, or space travel in general, precise and detailed planning is crucial. And I think that shines through in this book, the attention to detail and full descriptions even down to the shoes the characters are wearing. And whilst in some stories this might be considered over wordy and tedious here it is one of the book’s strengths. For the reader needs all this information to process thoroughly all that is going on in this space tale of espionage, mystery and jaw dropping action on the lunar surface.
And who better to write such a tale than an astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station., Chris Hadfield. It’s authenticity with a capital ‘A” and it’s a capital yarn, to boot. Advised before the tale begins that ‘Many of these people are real. Much of this actually happened.’ had me googling! Was Apollo 18 an actual mission? There was a film of that name but as a mission Wikipedia advises it was cancelled after the Apollo 13 incident and with some financial budget concerns. Hmmmmm? The latent conspiracy theorist in me wonders……..
It might be easy to feel that this is a science fiction novel. However, I didn’t see it as that. A novel of space exploration, yes, but I feel it owes more to the thriller, psychological thriller even, genre than traditional sci fi. Let’s allow the blurb to explain.
‘As Russian and American crews sprint for a secret bounty hidden away on the lunar surface, old rivalries blossom and the political stakes are stretched to breaking point back on earth. Houston flight controller Kazimieras ‘Kaz’ Zemeckis must do all he can to keep the NASA crew together, while staying one step ahead of his Soviet rivals.
But not everyone on board Apollo 18 is quite who they appear to be.’
Kaz is your regular nice fella, the good guy, and the reader knows they need to stick with Kaz to retain some reassurance and safety as they proceed further into this reading mission. He is something of a lynchpin throughout the entire novel. There was a sense of relief when Kaz figured in the narrative. For it gets a bit hairy in places. Some of the action that takes place would be bad enough if it were happening on earth but in space? Wow! Hang on to your hats…
But Kaz is just one in a strong cast of characters. Hadfield gets under the skin, particularly the astronauts, of his characters rendering them believable and convincing in their various and diverse roles. To a degree there was a sense of us and them, i.e. Americans and Russians but this was balanced out by demanding the reader consider the characters as people, too, rather than political players.
The narrative blasts its way along much like the spacecraft it describes. There are many threads to this novel. And the reader needs to stay on top of it all to get a real sense of the immensity of what’s going on. The breadth of the action is quite breathtaking on both a cerebral level and a good old swashbuckling level.(although I’m not sure if you can actually swash buckles in space!?!)
There is a sense of good old-fashioned storytelling, yet paradoxically there are wider, deeper issues of a political nature to be considered. The detailed technical knowledge is very accessible which was very refreshing because sometimes it can go over your head but I felt that I understood the various processes being described. That makes for a very satisfying and substantial read.
All in all this book is out of this world. Quite literally.
My thanks to Ana McLaughlin at Quercus Books for a gifted proof.
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