This book was mentioned numerous times in Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing. I think I’d heard of it before, but throughout school I had always been required to use other sources. And when I was browsing the Writing section of a Maui Friends of the Library location and happened across this little gem, I had to pick it up.
I debated about whether or not to write a review since I didn’t finish this book (I did read half the book). But I thought it be prudent for the casual reader to know my impressions of it before they pick it up. In short, it was quite interesting, but a little too academic for my casual interest.
There’s no denying that 1986 was a year of tragedy, with two major disasters: the explosions of Space Shuttle Challenger in January and of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in April. Both were horrific in their own right and arguably could have been avoided. And while Challenger claimed seven lives in an instant, Chernobyl killed 30 over the course of three months with countless lives affected in the months and years thereafter.
As someone who fancies himself a bit of a writer, I decided to read this book to close out the year that I became a Stephen King fan (2024).
This book effectively picks up where Liftoff left off. Plus, it covers Elon Musk’s, how to put this, mental decline over the last several years. But ultimately what this book does is tells the story of the hard work that a lot of people put in to make a private company successful and the future of human spaceflight a little brighter.
Say what you will about Elon Musk… go ahead, I’ll wait… you get it out of your system? Okay, so putting all that aside, if you ever thought your job was hard, imagine working for a huge nerd with a lofty vision and seemingly endless amounts of money who just wants to get. things. done. That was the early days of SpaceX.
“You know, I can understand nine words in that book now.” – Billy Madison
I’m sure for a lot people, they don’t have that “I remember where I was when we saw the first images of Pluto.” But I do. I was at work, watching a live NASA feed as they released the first high resolution images of that most distant planet, er, dwarf planet, Pluto.
Another pick for the Planetary Society book club. And what an amazing pick this was! Who knew that a journey to a lifeless rock somewhere between Mars and Jupiter would be interesting?! This author understood the assignment!
I should preface this by mentioning that I realize this is a bit of a controversial book. And the show that it inspired, Ancient Aliens, may be even more controversial in its claims. But who doesn’t like a good ol’ conspiracy theory or “out there” claims? I, for one, love hearing flat-earthers try to back their claims. But let me be clear – this book only asks questions and puts forward hypotheses as to possible answers. And the author even acknowledges how crazy these may sound.
