Rating: 
Summary: An excellent read for anyone who wants to be in Space
Review: Not for the novice Michener reader, but a good read for the adventurer who has always wondered about NASA politics: who gets to go in Space and what are the sacrifices. Michener also covers the politics of the Space program, the fights between Congress and the technocrats.
Rating: 
Summary: Reads like Nonfiction
Review: Once again Michener presents us with a captivating tale so knowledgable and well written that it becomes his next page-turner. Each new book in his line of BEST SELLERS automatically becomes my favorite. "SPACE" showcases the supurb talent of this writer with his insight into detail.
Beverly J Scott author of Righteous Revenge
Rating:
Summary: Out of this World
Review: Space is a tale that takes one from the battlefields of World War II to the Moon. Not many other books can make that claim, probably fewer still can do it with the finess that Michener can. As a sugar coated lesson in the history of rocketry I doubt that there is a better substitute. The final trip to the Moon as told by Michener is one of the most exciting sequences that I have ever read and well worth the wait. It is a little hard to get used to the imaginary state of Freemont- perhaps the story and characters involved were (to a point) renamed in order to protect the privacy of the real people they represented. Or maybe that is just what Michener wants us to think. The con artist Professor who becomes a born again Christian is just hillarious. I really enjoyed the humor that he brings to the story. The reflection on America is a little embarrassing, but it is still funny. The Space is a book that I was sorry to see end, with all of Michener's other loong novels I would have easily tolerated an extra hundered pages or so in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Space: the Dissapointing Frontier
Review: Space is a thick book, but it looked from the outside like a novel that would contain a good painting from the inside of the U.S. space program. For some reason the author created a new U.S. state called Fremont, (which constantly threw me off, being a CA bay area native), and once I got used to that, He went and CRASHED APOLLO 18! After that I lost 80% of my interest in the story. He rambled on for a long time, apparently he thinks that right-wing christians who disbelieve Darwin are therefore anti-science, and therefore it's their fault we cancelled the space program. I quit reading about 85% of the way through...
Rating:
Summary: A loosely accurate and dramatic view of the space age...
Review: Space is an excellent work of historical/science fiction. It is precisely this odd blend of genres which make it a wonderful book. James Michener, as always, had studied this topic extensively before writing the novel, and its accurate representation of facts and situations is notable. The novel deals with the space age, its history, purpose, and future, and climaxes with a fictional account of Apollo 18. The actual Apollo moon missions ended with Apollo 17, but Michener delivers a dramatic plot, interesting characters, and wonderful description to make the story addictive. This is definitely a book which should be read by anyone who wishes to learn the details of America's space program, and also by anyone who is looking for hardcore science fiction
Rating:
Summary: A very well described look at the evolution of space
Review: Space is very well written, and uses many descriptions, but this is what made the book exciting. All the descriptions built up tension, so I could harly put the book down. I found it hard to stop reading during the flight of the fictional Apollo 18.
Rating:
Summary: A great book
Review: Space starts off strong in the Pacific theatre of World War II. It chronicles the lives of several men who eventually come together due to the space programs. The characters are well developed. However, the book would have been better without the last two chapters. They just seem to drag the story out too much, and lack the strong characters and action of the rest of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book! Incredible work.
Review: The Book Space is a great book. If you like science-fiction with historical fiction mixed in, this is the perfect book. It tells of how the space program of the U.S. became what it is today and uses a few fictional characters to make things interesting. There is only one flaw in the whole book. Where is the state of Fremont?
Rating:
Summary: Man Is the Measure of All Things
Review: There is a constant conflict that runs through James Michener's novel "Space"; the conflict between man and machine. The scientists/engineers believe manned exploration of space to be unneccessary and dangerous. The politicians and public relations representatives feel that manned flight is essential to American efforts to gain public support for the space program. Regardless of which side you agree with, it is clear that Michener sides with the latter. "Space" is not really a history of the space program but of the people who made it happen. Of course, this being historical fiction, the majority of the characters involved never existed. With the multi-dimensional character that all people possess out of the way, Michener populates his fictional space program with as many one-sided characters as he possibly can. This does a great disservice to the people who really did make events like the Moon Shot possible. Michener's book also largely ignores the technological advances we made to get into space. Perhaps this was fated to happen since the book was written by someone who was not an expert; but, Michener could have left out a lot of needless material and replaced it with more relevant information. The needless material that I speak of takes up about 45 percent of "Space". It mostly consists of following the exploits of the children of the main characters. Unlike in most Michener works, the children in "Space" have nothing at all to do with the premise of the book. In previous Michener books, the next generation takes up the struggles of the preceding one and pushes the story through to the next historical phase. In "Space" there is no next historical phase to speak as the time span of the book lasts no more than 40 years. The bottom line is that, if you are interested in the stories of the men and women who created the American space program, then there are much better books out there to read; books about the real people who accomplished this amazing feat. If you are interested in the technological achievements of the space program, then "Space" has almost nothing to offer.
Rating:
Summary: Man Is the Measure of All Things
Review: There is a constant conflict that runs through James Michener's novel "Space"; the conflict between man and machine. The scientists/engineers believe manned exploration of space to be unneccessary and dangerous. The politicians and public relations representatives feel that manned flight is essential to American efforts to gain public support for the space program. Regardless of which side you agree with, it is clear that Michener sides with the latter. "Space" is not really a history of the space program but of the people who made it happen. Of course, this being historical fiction, the majority of the characters involved never existed. With the multi-dimensional character that all people possess out of the way, Michener populates his fictional space program with as many one-sided characters as he possibly can. This does a great disservice to the people who really did make events like the Moon Shot possible. Michener's book also largely ignores the technological advances we made to get into space. Perhaps this was fated to happen since the book was written by someone who was not an expert; but, Michener could have left out a lot of needless material and replaced it with more relevant information. The needless material that I speak of takes up about 45 percent of "Space". It mostly consists of following the exploits of the children of the main characters. Unlike in most Michener works, the children in "Space" have nothing at all to do with the premise of the book. In previous Michener books, the next generation takes up the struggles of the preceding one and pushes the story through to the next historical phase. In "Space" there is no next historical phase to speak as the time span of the book lasts no more than 40 years. The bottom line is that, if you are interested in the stories of the men and women who created the American space program, then there are much better books out there to read; books about the real people who accomplished this amazing feat. If you are interested in the technological achievements of the space program, then "Space" has almost nothing to offer.
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