Rick Klau reviewed Space by James A. Michener
Review of 'Space' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
As a work of fiction, it was so-so. Felt like several of the secondary characters were pretty underdeveloped. Also found it distracting when he took real-life events and then fictionalized them, leaving me wondering how much of what I read actually happened vs. was a total fabrication. The technique just felt unnecessary at times. (The invented Apollo 18 mission just felt bizarre and overly maudlin.)
As a historical document of what it took for America to enter the space race, catch up to the Russians, then eclipse them, land on the moon, explore other planets -- it worked much better. Learned a lot, and have a much better appreciation of the technical and political hurdles that emerged as they tackled each successive step.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. Just didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Hawaii last year, probably due to the recency of events and the …
As a work of fiction, it was so-so. Felt like several of the secondary characters were pretty underdeveloped. Also found it distracting when he took real-life events and then fictionalized them, leaving me wondering how much of what I read actually happened vs. was a total fabrication. The technique just felt unnecessary at times. (The invented Apollo 18 mission just felt bizarre and overly maudlin.)
As a historical document of what it took for America to enter the space race, catch up to the Russians, then eclipse them, land on the moon, explore other planets -- it worked much better. Learned a lot, and have a much better appreciation of the technical and political hurdles that emerged as they tackled each successive step.
Overall, I'm glad I read it. Just didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Hawaii last year, probably due to the recency of events and the difficulty of wanting separating fact from fiction.
