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Summary: This book will leave you yearning for more!
Review: Gene Cernan has filled a gap that is long overdue. Everyone knows the name of the first man on the moon. Now everyone can know the name of the last and his inspiring story. This book will take you through Capt. Cernan's Naval career to the end of his days with NASA. You will learn that there was truly something unique about each of Capt. Cernan's three space flights. One which he almost did not return! Read the book for yourself and learn what being a true hero and pioneer are all about.
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Summary: Best book on Space Flight Ever!
Review: I love the book it is great and I believe that Captin Cernan does a great job of expressing his adventures on the moon.
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Summary: A "Must-Have" for any Space library!
Review: For those of us who watched the space program unfold in the 60's & 70's, this book will bring back some wonderful memories. For those who weren't around at that time, it's a wonderful first person tale of the trials and tribulations of our quest for the moon. Andy Chaiken whetted our appetites with "A Man on the Moon" and Tom Hanks gave us a wonderful 12 hours on HBO. Captain Cernan takes us back to the early days of Gemini and his spin on Gemini 9 [which really fascinated this reader] right through Apollo 17. Some of these stories have been told before in other books [some 25 years old], but it's refreshing to read them from Cernan's point of view. The ego-trips, the family problems, the wonder and the excitement are all there. I read this book with a smile on my face and, at times, a tear in my eye...as this book brought me back to a time when we knew all the astronauts by name and they were our heros during a very turbulent time in our history. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I think I'll read it again.
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Summary: Things I wanted you to know about THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON.
Review: Several years ago, I was reminded by a very good friend that others look at me differently than I look at myself. That like it or not, much of my life has been written into history; and I now have a responsibility to share that life, that history, with those many others who were not even born a quarter century ago.With the above in mind, I have spent the past two years trying to find a way of expressing those intimate feelings and thoughts emanating from a lifetime of unique personal experiences. The result is THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON. It's writing was a challenge that has taken me 25 years to accept. My days in the space program passed all too quickly. I never had the time to look over my shoulder and accept where I had just been or what I might have just done. That is until now. Today as I re-read the pages of THE LAST MAN ON THE MOON, I do so in wonderment. Who am I reading about? Is that really me and if so why? Did I actually do all those things? Or was it all a lifetime of dreams? Writing my story was a real reality check! My hope is that, at least vicariously, my experiences will be your experiences; my triumphs, sorrows, apprehensions, and exhilarations will be felt by you, the reader; that through my book, you will understand yourself what it's like to be dangling by a tether behind a spacecraft traveling around the earth at almost 18,000 mph or strapped in the cockpit of a burning helicopter at the bottom of a river; and that you too will find yourself standing on the moon in awe as you absorb the beauty and try to unravel the mystery of our earth as it speeds endlessly through the heavens. It is only because of the commitment, dedication and talent of Don Davis that I was able to tell my story. He not only delved into my mind, but dove into my heart and soul as well. Enjoy the book! Gene Cernan
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Summary: The development of this book, The Last Man on the Moon
Review: Greetings, Reader: On a bright Florida morning in 1969, I watched in wonder as a huge, magnificent Saturn rocket took off - Destination: Moon. That was Apollo 10, doing a dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 landing, and the lunar module pilot aboard that spacecraft was a crew-cut astronaut named Gene Cernan. Although I was one of the reporters covering the launch, I had never met the guy. But almost 30 years later, we have formed a firm friendship, because Gene let me write this book about his incredible life. Neither of us wanted it to be just another astronaut memoir, so we decided from the start to minimize technology and emphasize people. As we worked, I realized it had taken 30 years before one of those pioneer astronauts would break the code of silence and really talk about the sacrifice, the pain, the obsession and the problems of earning a walk on the Moon. Gene's single rule was that he wanted to put the reader on top of the rocket and on the Moon, right along with him. So if you are looking for a tech manual about how such machines fly, this is not the book for you. We have some that, of course, because we couldn't tell the story without it, but we kept it to a minimum. I guarantee that you will come to the last page very tired and weary and delighted to have survived so many close calls and to have lived on the Moon for three days. He wrote this with his poet's heart, not with his engineer's brain, and result is different than any space book I've ever read ... and I've read them all. You'll meet the original astros, the wives and children who carried such a lonesome load while their men were gone, thrill at the race with the Soviet Union in the troubled Cold War days, laugh in triumph and grieve in defeat with the people in the early, dangerous days of space exploration as somehow this nation accomplished the impossible, and sent a dozen men to walk on the Moon. And you'll get a great trivia question answered. Everyone knows what Neil Armstrong's FIRST words on the Moon were, but what were the LAST words said there by an astronaut, Capt. Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17? So, strap on a Saturn V, enjoy the ride and let us hear from you. Don Davis
Rating:
Summary: A "Must-Have" for any Space library!
Review: For those of us who watched the space program unfold in the 60's & 70's, this book will bring back some wonderful memories. For those who weren't around at that time, it's a wonderful first person tale of the trials and tribulations of our quest for the moon. Andy Chaiken whetted our appetites with "A Man on the Moon" and Tom Hanks gave us a wonderful 12 hours on HBO. Captain Cernan takes us back to the early days of Gemini and his spin on Gemini 9 [which really fascinated this reader] right through Apollo 17. Some of these stories have been told before in other books [some 25 years old], but it's refreshing to read them from Cernan's point of view. The ego-trips, the family problems, the wonder and the excitement are all there. I read this book with a smile on my face and, at times, a tear in my eye...as this book brought me back to a time when we knew all the astronauts by name and they were our heros during a very turbulent time in our history. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I think I'll read it again.
Rating: 
Summary: OK
Review: Cernan had a great life, from flying as a naval aviator to being the last American to walk on the moon. The book is basically a biography of his life, NOT a detailed history of NASA as some may have hoped for. In it however, Cernan does do a good job of explaining the workings of the Gemini and Apollo space programs. The negative side I was disappointed to find he devoted very little of the book to the actual moonwalk he took part on, and he's obviously got a big ego. But hey, he signed the book for me so what am I complaining about? Enjoy the book.
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Summary: The facts don't check out!
Review: This book is dumb. Page after page of dumbness, each word dumber than the last.
If you want to read a bunch of lies, go read the Weekly World News. Don't bore yourself with these ridiculous untruths about spaceships.
What's next? Men on the moon? Why don't you invite a bunch of these "Moonmen" over to Uranus?
Get real, Donald Davis. Your book is for suckers.
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Summary: Cernan has issues
Review: As a diehard Apollo fan, I will read anything on the subject and enjoy it; however, I realise that some books' technical information would maybe make it a boring read for someone only faintly curious. NOT THIS BOOK! I would recommend this to anyone who wished to know more about Apollo. Cernan tells the story in a rivetting and enlightening way, yet thoroughly entertaining too.
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