Back to the Moon

Rating:
Summary: Even an 8 y/o would find this laughable
Review: An ex-NASA engineer Jack hijacks a space shuttle (yeah right!, NASA security anyone?) and goes to the moon (do all space shuttles come with lunar modules? & what about the lunar atv?) to bring back a rare compound which is needed for fusion energy.

Jack, the guy who cooked up this whole thing brings aboard, of all things, a gun!. Why oh why would he bring a gun? Did he intend to shoot it out with NASA if caught? And guess what happens with the gun. It goes off accidentally killing their pilot. So now there are only two hijackers (jack & virgil), left to accomplish this highly complicated and dangerous "mission" which ideally requires three experienced people. Oh but wait, Penny High Eagle the stupid obnoxious and totally unqualified inexperienced payload specialist (how she even rated that is beyond me. must of been affirmative action) unwittingly slips by Jack/Virgil and boards the shuttle (the rest of crew was waylaid in an elavator. NASA security anyone again? ). And what does she want to do to these "shuttle hijackers", the only people who know anything about the blood thing and can pilot it (without a pilot?)? She wants to pump them full of morphine and fly the thing in herself (autopilot). Yeah right. This story is so corny it's hard to believe Homer Hickam was ever employed by NASA. I stopped at page 144 I couldn't take any more.

Mr. Hickam's book The Coalwood Way was terrific and I am waiting for Rocket Boys and Sky of Stone to arrive. I figured if anyone could write a convincing SF Mr. Hickam could. But boy was I wrong.

I like science fiction. But can't seem to find any good SF. I remember the magazine OMNI when it first came out had some terrific short stories. My favorite author is/was Frank Herbert. I never liked Asimov or Heinlein, Benford, Huxley, Turtledove, Jordan, Alan Dean Foster, Stephenson, Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Greg Bear, L. Ron Hubbard, David Brin, Niven and unfortunately most SF so far. Anyone having any recommendations lets hear it. I obviously need help/direction.

Rating:
Summary: Another note on Homer Hickam's Back to the Moon
Review: I want to say a word for one of the main heroes in this book - Penny High Eagle. I think this character would make a great one for a series of books. Penny is one of the most believable and interesting characters I've ever read about. She is insecure yet willing to risk everything for the right cause. Her background is intriguing. I hope Mr. Hickam will consider bringing her back in some future book(s) so that we can read more about this fascinating woman - the first woman to walk the plains of the Moon!

Rating:
Summary: Homer Hickam Rocket and Rolls!
Review: Homer Hickam has written one of the best science fiction/techno-thriller books I've ever read and I've read everything I can get my hands on. The book out-Clancys Clancy. Not only does it have a great pace, going from one surprise to another, it also fills in with some great inside-stuff about NASA. Homer Hickam spent many years working for the space agency. If you want to know how it REALLY works, this is the book for you. I hear they're thinking about making this book into a movie. Can't wait!

Rating:
Summary: The two faces of Homer Hickman
Review: The technical details were well done and totally believable. However, th ebook has overly trite happy endings for all of the good guys, and the plot depends upon a very hoary conspiracy theory in order to work. I stongly suggest that Mr. Hickman should stick to writing non-fiction in the future, as he does that better.

Borrow once from the library if you are an average sci-fi or techno-thriller reader, buy it only if you love Hickman's other books and want a complete set of his works.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME Book, I highly reccomend it
Review: This was probably one of the best books I've ever read. As soon as I picked it up, I couldn't put it back down, and I will likely read it several more times in the future. If you have any interest in space travel whatsoever (or even if you don't, but you like a good adventure), this book is definitely for you. There were only two things that disappointed me at the end of the book: First, the book was over, and second, unlike Hickam's earlier novel "Rocket Boys," this one was not real, though it truly could have been. A really good book that will stick in your mind for a long time after.

Rating:
Summary: Imagine Clancy on the Space Shuttle.
Review: Mr. Hickham has combined political intrigue with technical space expertise--imagine if Tom Clancy had worked for NASA, and you get the idea. As the title and the cover art indicates, this is a story about using the space shuttle to go to the moon. But it is much more-there is a credible reason why someone wants to go back to the moon, with powerful political and financial players who want to stop this voyage. So this isn't like seeing that old Don Knotts film "The Reluctant Astronaut," but is more like seeing clips of "Nixon" interspliced with "Apollo 13." But have said too much as it is.

The genius of this book is Mr. Hickham's insider understanding of NASA, so the willful suspension of disbelief come that much easier. He paints the milieu of the space culture with a fine brush and striking detail, and highlights the clash between NASA and the nation government with bold realism. I almost think that he has told us a bit too much about why we haven't gone back to the moon. You are pulled into the middle of the turmoil of the not to distant future, and are actually at the helm of the Columbia in its voyage. The gems are the pervasive acronyms that confuse at first, but like good curry, come back to warm you.

The chapters are short, but pass with machine-gun rapidity, and Mr. Hickham's prose is smooth. This book is unboring, undull, unpassive. It is one of the most exciting books I have ever read so far. There is no drag or lag. Every word counts!

I have met Mr. Hickham, and, yes, he is very much like the way he is portrayed in "October Sky." He is a very nice gentleman who has written a very nice book.

Rating:
Summary: Really is quite realistic but surely a fun read
Review: First off, Back to the Moon is surely as fun a read as you're ever likely to find in the realm of the techno-thriller. Like most of his fans, I can rarely put one of his books down after I start. Hickam's Back to the Moon has been occasionally criticized (unfairly in my opinion) for being inaccurate so I ran it past some of my fellow professors here at the U of Virginia. They point out that in the foreword, Hickam explains that a space shuttle mission to the moon was designed by its designer, Rockwell, back in the early 1980's. Hickam uses this design as the basis for his fictional flight. As for the security on Pad 39, Hickam uses his insider knowledge to put up a perfectly respectable way to do it. In a speech I heard (actually during the Q&A session) Hickam said in fact he could have been more accurate here but he didn't want to create a true blueprint for doing it so he left lots out while still creating a plausible scenario. In his opinion, though, he said the security at the pad could use a lot of tightening up. As to whether a pistol will fire in space, bullets are self-contained and do not depend on the oxygen in the atomosphere to work so there's no reason why they would work although the recoil would be interesting in weightlessness. Hickam said that everything in Back to the Moon could happen. The suspension of belief comes from believing that it could all happen at the same time. Still, his book is a page-turner, the characters are great. If you need a little relief from the reality of the day, and want to go back to the moon, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting book that sort of misses the mark
Review: Back to the Moon is Homer Hickam's second book, written in 1999, just a year after his great memoir Rocket Boys. While the first book was a very good read, I was a little disappointed with this, his first novel. Yes, it is an interesting, evocative description of a voyage to the moon, but it could have been better.

The book is, for the most part, low on realism. Firstly, I don't find it likely that Jack Medaris and his crew could have escaped past the web of security at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39. Secondly, as another reviewer mentioned, firing a gun could not have worked in the airless vacuum of space. Thirdly, I don't like the idea of using the space shuttle to undertake a human voyage to the moon. The shuttle was built very heavy and sturdy specifically to fly in earth orbit, and also is equipped with wings, landing gear, and thermal protection systems that would be of no use in lunar orbit. It would take a tremendously high-thrust rocket engine to be able to send the heavy space shuttle on an escape velocity, and then there is the problem of fitting a fully equipped lunar landing vehicle in the shuttle's cramped, narrow cargo bay. I think the book should have explained how these engineering problems were solved in the journey he describes.

My personal feeling is that the book should have focused on the voyage itself--the serene feeling of being in space and setting foot upon the moon. Instead, we are mostly treated to long, irrelevant dialogues involving Jack Medaris and the shuttle payload specialist, Penny High Eagle. They make the book much too long, and seem rather insignificant in the context of a lunar expedition.

But I did enjoy the part of the book in which Medaris's lunar lander crashes on the moon; he is thrust into a gripping life-and-death situation. Then, upon his rescue in a second spacecraft, he and his crew is able to return to earth.

In summary, the book contains some good anecdotes and is an interesting read, but it could have been done better.

Rating:
Summary: An explanation from the man himself
Review: I loved Back to the Moon. It's a great adventure tale with just the right mix of speculative fiction and real engineering (and not a few laughs) for me. I saw the review that questioned how Paco the cat went to the bathroom and decided to write the man (Homer) himself and find the answer. I asked him one more question, too - how did Paco eat? Here's what he said:

Dear (name omitted): You obviously are telling the truth about owning a cat since your questions have to do with feeding and taking care of that other thing, the two fundamental reasons cat-owners exist (at least in the opinion of their cats, I suspect). How did Paco get fed on the shuttle? Surely the same way every cat gets fed, by nagging his owner(s). He learned fairly early in the mission that Jack and Virgil were usually too preoccupied with keeping the shuttle life systems on line to care whether he got fed or not. Penny, however, was easy. He'd grab her shoulder, purring in her ear until she couldn't stand it any more and then she'd go see what was up in his food locker. Although the feeding station (called FOOD for Feline On-demand Operational Diet) in the locker had been designed for automatic feeding, it usually didn't work. Paco was supposed to nudge a lever with his paw (he was trained to do this by Skinnerian rote) and then a worm screw device was supposed to be activated which would in turn deliver moist food lumps into his bowl, a device that required Paco to push his head through a soft membrane that kept the lumps from escaping in zero-G. Unfortunately, the worm screw device was a miserable failure, often getting clogged with the food lumps. Penny was good about cleaning it but sometimes she just said to hell with it, and reached inside the container and gave Paco a wad of lumps in his special bowl. Fortunately, water for Paco was not a problem. A permeable membrane that he licked delivered water from a tank through osmosis and worked quite well. It was called FLUID for Feline Lappable Unit In-watering Device. It may have had a lousy acronym but nobody could deny that it was good engineering. Now, as to the litter box. Here, Jack and Virgil were also slothful, willing to tolerate the occasional ugly smells emanating from the device until Penny couldn't stand it any more and took over. The device was really not cat-friendly but neither is the waste control system for humans aboard the shuttle. The device, called FECAL (Feline Evironmental Control Automatic Lavatory), was a stainless steel bowl with a small opening in it. Paco was required to enter through a plasic curtain so that nothing nasty could escape. His presence tripped a sensor which started a vacuum pump that sucked air down the bowl. Paco was supposed to position himself over the bowl and do what came naturally. From there, the "material" was to disappear down the bowl into a holding tank. Just as with the WCS, this complex system often failed, the material instead bouncing off the bowl and left hanging around the box until somebody (Penny) used her hand (gloved) to push the material into the vacuum air stream. Paco was as disgusted with the arrangement as anybody and once left a major calling card floating around the cockpit as a warning that he wanted it fixed. After considerable nagging from Penny, Jack increased the suction of the pump in FECAL. This made it work better although it was a bit noisy. Jack considered bringing back some moon dirt and devising Paco a proper box but because some other things happened down there, it slipped his mind. Hope this answers your questions. Pet your cat for me. He/she probably needs fed about now. And I'll bet his/her litter box needs cleaning, too. Best wishes and aim high, Homer Hickam

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Novel by Good Non-Fiction Author
Review: Having read Hickam's autobiography and book on WWII submarine warfare, I was looking forward to this novel. I found it a compelling thriller, which does not stand up to morning-after thought. The novel feels like a Walter Mitty/Mary Sue wish fulfillment book. The heros are good, right-thinking folks who are trying to help the world. The villians are, for the most part, a stock conspiracy of greedy industrialists. As various adversaries hired by the the adversaries talk to our heros and learn of their selfless plan, they convert to helping our heros. And in the end, the world becomes a more utopian place. I thought Hickam could write a more compelling, deeper novel about a subject obviously dear to his heart. October Sky showed gave a nuanced picture of his childhood adversaries. The villians seem very cardboard. Like a Grisham novel, I found it hard to put down with a disappointing aftertaste.