Rating: 
Summary: Could have been an excellent book.
Review: A book about the future that takes the premise that Kennedy wasn't killed and therefore the space program went ahead in a more comprehensive and better funded form is a good concept if you can believe that he also controlled the Senate as well as Congress so he could get the funding proposals he wanted through. As well as this criticism the main characters are good examples of stock science fiction spacefillers. If you want to read a more realistic and believable story about space exploration read his other book on this topic 'Titan'.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good - Mars was possible.
Review: A very good novel about how the past may have changed if one event was altered just a little bit. The story of the buildup to a Mars trip is very believable and probably close to what may have happened. I liked the way he kept taking us back and forth to the mission itself and then to the preparations for the mission. Overall, a very good read and hard to put down once I got into it. A personal comment here. On the back cover is a statement "the adventure as it should have happened." We may not have been to Mars with a manned mission yet, but with the way things have happened, when the human race gets there, we will be much more ready to stay and explore and colonize than in Voyage. This is because NASA didn't develop into the one-trick pony portrayed in the novel. I think Baxter realized that to when he listed all the projects that were cancelled because of the obsession to put people on Mars. It's a lesson any government, business or person can learn - concentrating all your energies on one goal will get you that goal, but what do you do then.
Rating:
Summary: A great tale marred by political correctness
Review: After enjoying baxters earlier works I greatly looked forward to "Voyage" and I was not dissapointed. The Baxter science is as "hard" as ever and the guy simply has a flair for capturing the epic. On the downside Baxter has fallen into the political correctness trap. The mars crew consists of a black man, a white woman and a white man simply absurd given the actual makeup of the astronauts at the time. Also Baxter cant help taking away from the Germans any credit for the mars mission by giving an ex "slave labourer" to idea for how to get to mars effeciently. These cringeworthy moments aside Baxter tells an excellent tale. I look forward to "Titan".
Rating:
Summary: What might have been? Definately!
Review: Alternate history. It's a fun concept to fiddle with. . . what if Hitler had won? What if VonBraun had went to the Soviet Union after WWII? What if Kennedy had not died.Stephen Baxter answers the last question in grand form in the novel Voyage. Voyage is the story of a manned mission to Mars in the 1980's, or perhaps, more specifically, the build up to and execution of the mission. Baxter brings his aeronautical expertise to this book, as well as a good command of history (aborted and realized). The story of Voyage, the tech, the flow. . . all are believable and the story is told quite well. It reminded me of watching "From the Earth to the Moon" to be quite honest. Give Baxter a few evenings of your time, and you'll get a good read from it. Just ignore the rather frequent use of the Lord's name in vain. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: What might have been? Definately!
Review: Alternate history. It's a fun concept to fiddle with. . . what if Hitler had won? What if VonBraun had went to the Soviet Union after WWII? What if Kennedy had not died. Stephen Baxter answers the last question in grand form in the novel Voyage. Voyage is the story of a manned mission to Mars in the 1980's, or perhaps, more specifically, the build up to and execution of the mission. Baxter brings his aeronautical expertise to this book, as well as a good command of history (aborted and realized). The story of Voyage, the tech, the flow. . . all are believable and the story is told quite well. It reminded me of watching "From the Earth to the Moon" to be quite honest. Give Baxter a few evenings of your time, and you'll get a good read from it. Just ignore the rather frequent use of the Lord's name in vain. ;-)
Rating: 
Summary: Good Idea, Well researched...but boring
Review: An excellent idea. History takes a different turn and NASA heads for Mars. Forget that space shuttle rubbish. Baxter seems to have spent a lot of time researching the politics and the decision-making process behind NASA and the US government. As for the Mars mission. Not credible. Unfortunately for my opinion of the book - I had just read The Case for Mars by Zubrin & Wagner - so I don't think the route they took makes any sense. As for the means...Nuclear rockets, etc. might be possible (likely ?) if history went this way, but the route to Mars just doesn't hold water. Finally I just never got to care about any of the characters, and the end result was obvious from a mile off. Basically a great universe, great idea, poor story. The ending's obvious, from page 1, you're left feeling why bother. Sorry I like some of Stephen Baxter's other work, but this one is a dog.
Rating: 
Summary: Another good concept ruined
Review: As a big proponent of a manned mission to Mars, I looked forward to reading this book. While Baxter's characters showed a lot of promise, the slow pace of the story and lack of any possible conflict failed to keep my interest.
Rating:
Summary: "Failed To Keep My Interest"
Review: As a big proponent of a manned mission to Mars, I looked forward to reading this book. While Baxter's characters showed a lot of promise, the slow pace of the story and lack of any possible conflict failed to keep my interest.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping, Intriguing alternate history of the Space Race
Review: As a space history 'buff', I truly enjoyed this book. It takes the dream of landing a man on Mars and turns it into a plausible reality, sprinkled with "official" government documents such as memorandum to the president and all that. The characters are diverse and intelligent, making the human element of this fictional space flight as interesting as the technical elements. My only gripe (a small one) is the manner in which this alternate timeline followed events in the real one. There's another space disaster (much like Apollo 1) that forces the United States to consider abandoning the program, and several key developers of the program are fired or reassigned as a result. Despite that, I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a human walk on another planet.
Rating:
Summary: Still the best book--SF or otherwise--that I've read in 1997
Review: Baxter's VOYAGE is a history of the space program from the first US landing on the moon until the US mission to Mars in 1984.
Wait a minute--you say--we **never** went to Mars!
Yes, that's correct. As with Alan Steele's THE TRANQUILITY ALTERNATIVE and many other fine SF novels, Baxter postulates a slightly different--but very realistic alternate history. John F. Kennedy survives the bullet meant for him and is present in the White House when Richard M. Nixon speaks to the astronauts on the Moon. Kennedy chimes in and expresses a desire that the US go to Mars..and Nixon goes along with him.
The novel is a very realistic (gritty) depiction of that journey to Mars. Like Wolfe's THE RIGHT STUFF, Baxter paints a sometimes less-than-glamourless view of the aerospace industry and NASA. The journey to Mars breaks down into factions--those that want to do it for the glory, those who want science, those who want to protect their turf and projects.
The characters are realistic. The science is realistic. The alternate history is very plausible. Some parts of the story will thrill you. Some parts will break your heart.
As I said in my one-liner, the best book--science fiction or otherwise--that I've read in 1997 (and to date, July 1997, I've read about 75 or so this year!).
Fred Kiesche
(FKiesche@aol.com)
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