Space - James A. Michner

Fawcett Crest, Copyright 1982, 805 pages

ISBN 0-449-20373-4

Read: January 2011 (at age 32)

First time read

What to expect:

Space is a blend of historical fiction and non-fiction.  It’s a description of the early days of space exploration told through the eyes of several fictional characters.

From the back cover:

SPACE - It is an arena stretching for billions of miles beyond the surface of the Earth.  It is the object of the dreams and daring of countless men and women who have made it the last great frontier of human endeavor.

It is the setting for people like Stanley Mott, the engineer whose irrepressible drive for knowledge places him at the center of the American exploration effort. 

Norman Grant, war hero and U.S. Senator who takes his personal battle not only to a nation, but to the heavens as well. 

Dieter Kolff, Hitler’s rocket scientist who bring his precious specialty to an America on the brink of a new era.

Randy Claggett, the lusty astronaut who meets his destiny on a mission to the far side of the moon. 

Debbie Dee Claggett, the astronaut’s sensual wife whose marriage can never be as important as the space program and the ambitious people surrounding it.

Cynthia Rhee, the glamorous reporter whose determined crusade brings the real truth of men among the stars to a breathless world. 

It is Space.  It is Michener.  And it is the most dramatic story of our time.

They left out a couple of characters – the primary viewpoint character (an astronomer, navy test pilot, and astronaut), and his wife (a lawyer and a senatorial aide), for starters. 

My reactions (a few spoilers):

Overall

I wasn't really sure what to make of this book.  In a lot of ways, the non-fiction elements of the book were the strong points, so much so that I didn't really care what was happening to the characters other than their influence on the overall space program.  Also, since it was generally a retelling of the American space program, it was pretty clear what was going to happen.  It isn't a spoiler to note that that the USSR would get Sputnik up before the Americans got anything into space. 

I was irritated by the lack of reference to the date when the various events occurred.  The book was written when things were a bit fresher, so readers might be expected to know the dates offhand, but to me, the book jumped 10 years ahead with little or no warning, and often it would be many pages into the new date series before I'd realize that we'd jumped.  There were changes in situations for the characters, but the characters in general didn't seem to change very much.

I'm not convinced that the whole artificial framework for the characters:  a fictional state, senate seat, etc. were necessary for telling the non-fiction elements of the space program, and the fiction parts weren't particularly strong.  Interesting times, though, and I thought that the book did a decent job of capturing the excitement of the times.   In addition, the book seemed to have been intricately researched, and that was appreciated.

I thought the earlier parts of the book (pre-NASA) were stronger, and I really didn't care for the anti-science diversion shown in the end of the book.  In addition, I think that the whole shuttle section of the book should have been eliminated – it was enough to know that it was starting up without having to jam the old characters into this new setting.  It felt like an afterthought.

Rating: 3

Characters:  

The characters were mostly one-dimensional.  They worked in the context of this book, but character development certainly wasn’t a strong point.  Simply described, the characters fulfilled their needs as placeholders in the description of events in the space program.  One specific complaint - I had trouble telling the difference between Pope and Grant, two major characters in the story - both football stars, both navy types, both from the same town, and both all-American hero-types.  That doesn’t say much for the characters.

The characters felt a bit like cheating on the part of the author in that all the stories told in the book were fictional; yet there were presumably stories like those told in the book actually going on at the time.  So after 800 pages of reading, I still don’t really know who the main characters in the space race actually were.  I maybe have a better idea of the problems being solved, but that’s about it

Plot:

The plot was predictable, as expected for a retelling of well-known events.  The personal bits for the characters, and things like having a woman senator (a major reveal at the end – sorry) just weren't too exciting for me, since that's the way I've always known things to be.  There were a few too many stretches in order to have the same few people involved in every major step of the space program from WW2 to the time of writing of the book (1982). 

Setting:

The setting was American-o-centric throughout the 40's to late 70's (In the US, and where they were away fighting wars).  I can't vouch for the accuracy, but it seemed reasonable.

Readability:

It wasn’t a particularly slow read – the pacing was pretty good except at the Space Shuttle section at the end.  800 pages could really stretch on, and this didn’t. 

Other Opinions:

Christian Science Monitor

A review from 1982.  Pretty much the same read as mine.