Rating: 
Summary: This is the kind of book you want to like.
Review: "They made it look easy," said a reviewer for another Apollo book, and it's true. When I was a kid, I loved to watch the space program - I realized it was dangerous - but the sheer amount of hard work needed to pull it off never dawned on me. This is a book by one of the guys who made it look easy.The author seems pretty straight-up, dedicated, hard working, decent. The topic is interesting, and the author well-placed to describe the inner workings of the space program. I love that he wrote the book himself, without the polish of a ghostwriter. Seems like unabashed, unvarnished straight goods. Perversely, the lack of polish is probably the book's biggest drawback. However there are lots of interesting goodies about Mercury and Gemini, in addition to Apollo. Also, I never realized how important a military background seemed to be in the program. It was a civilian program, but a good number of people seemed to have been ex-military. I found myself wondering how I would shape up. I had a good chuckle with some of his comments on engineers - I'm sure I've given the same "non-answers" myself many times. Some slight negatives: I thought he might have described some of the background information better. I was looking for some idea of how NASA was organized - how did they manage to pull off something so complex? The book doesn't spend a lot of time explaining job titles and such - which at first, seemed frustrating - but maybe that is the answer, that organizational charts and bureaucracy don't really matter - dedication and competency do matter. Curiously, post-Apollo events get little coverage, but many other books have the same fault. I would look forward to seeing a post-Apollo book by the same author.
Rating: 
Summary: A great account from the inside. Super stuff!
Review: No one who saw "Apollo 13" can forget the heroic image of Ed Harris, as the man in the white vest, who held the team of Apollo controllers together and made the safe return of the three astronauts happen, against all odds. Now read the true account, written by the real hero, whose story is even more heroic than you dreamed. I myself got in on the ground floor, joining NASA in 1959 to help send men to the Moon. It was my life's work for the next 10-12 years. But I had no idea what Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz were doing, and only the vaguest notion of the flight control center they helped to create. What they did was nothing less than to create a whole new engineering discipline: that of the space flight controller. It was a monumental achievement, one that changed history. It also took a level of dedication to excellence and to purpose that few humans in the history of mankind have ever experienced. Everyone needs to read this book, if for no other reason than to understand the things mankind is capable of, when we set our minds to it.
Rating:
Summary: A good bit of history
Review: Gene's account provides historical background to the development of the backroom operations of the space flight, thing that he made glamorous. His TV appearance on the Apolo 13 was more forceful, the book is subdued and at time repititious. On the whole it's a readable account, particularly for those who are trying to round out the events.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: Gene Kranz not only helped to bring home the Apollo 13 crew, he was part of Mission Control from day one. He explains in detail how he and many others "wrote the manual" for space flight operations. You realize how critical it is to be perfect when you're a flight controller, and a bad day at work could mean death to a crew thousands of miles away. Kranz tells his story in such a way, that you don't have to be a mathematical engineer to understand how we really pushed our luck in achieving our ultimate goal... The Lunar Landing.
Rating:
Summary: Good - motivating
Review: Not a typical "author", but written in a style that keeps in moving. Read this or give this away to get motivated - especially if you are facing issues "you can not solve". Because you can !!
Rating:
Summary: We're go for launch!
Review: Oh, yeah, Gene, this is how a book on the program should be written. A satisfying mixture of people, events, and technical information that kept me reading from start to finish. As a child of the program (my father worked for the space program from 1956 until 1970 and loved every minute at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center), I found myself looking for names of people I knew or asking my dad "did you ever meet...?". I highly recommend it to whoever is interested in early American space flight.
Rating:
Summary: Good addition to any NASA buff's library
Review: I read this book and Chris Krafts books together. They are very similar and I am giving them the same review. If you had to choose one, I would go with Kraft's book since he was at the space program from the very start. But both these books give a view of the space program from Mission Control's perspective. While not quite as interesting as the astronauts, it is still very interesting. As an engineer, it makes me yearn for a time when an engineers work was part of something bigger in the nation's consciousness.
Rating:
Summary: Putting on the Vest
Review: Gene Krantz, that rock-solid, buzz-haired epitome of flight controllers has at last put down his stories of the most exciting decade of spaceflight ever. The decade when the USA went from being an also-ran to defining space travel for the world. And Gene Krantz was there from the time they poured the foundations of NASA's Houston complex to the moment that Neil Armstrong set foot upon the Moon. And beyond. The Apollo 13 crisis is perhaps the flight that sums up Gene Krantz. Failure is not an option, he declared and for a week while the world sat on the edges of their seats and three astronauts soared on the edge of a lonely distant death, Gene Krantz and his team planned and struggled and worked to bring them home safely. What a triumph that was when they finally splashed down, and Gene lit up his cigar, wearing his famous vest. There were tears of triumph in his eyes and mine as I relived those days and shared the emotions. Triumph. That is the word that I associate with Gene. His book is his essence distilled. Four-square, no-nonsense, straight up and down. He did his job, he will tell you. No more, no less. Yet if you read between the lines you will see an extraordinary dedication to his job. Even more extraordinary when you consider that dedication was the norm for a whole generation of aerospace engineers. Gene surpassed them all. OK. Enough of the flag-waving. It's that sort of book, full of pride and emotion. It's also chock full of anecdotes, stories, character observations and behind-the scenes glimpses of the man who was Flight. I'd give it five stars, but for the fact that it's a little dry, a little restrained, a little too straight up and down. But I don't think it's in Gene to be relaxed and laid back. Highly recommended, in its own right as a great book on the space race, and as part of the Apollo story.
Rating:
Summary: Great insider account of the beginnings of Nasa
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was especially fun to read this book and then watch the movie "The Dish" as they complement each other quite well! In addition to the events at Nasa, this also doubles as a semi-biography of Gene Krantz, also interesting, but not what I was expecting! All in all this is a great read representing a unique period in American history.
Rating:
Summary: Missing It Is Not An Option
Review: The critics say that Gene Kranz isn't a writer, he's an engineer. The critics should stick to reading "The Right Stuff" if they want flowing prose and exciting stories about space without regard to accuracy. Kranz is a character, to be sure. His personality looms large, even after the public's fascination with the space program has waned. His accounts of the events surrounding the early days of the space program, the moon landings, and the following steps of man's ventures into space are a must-read for anyone interested in an accurate account of the unparalleled achievements by NASA in its early days. In addition to giving his viewpoint on several well-known and frequently retold events -- as so many books on the space program do -- Kranz gives some as-yet-untold perspective on key parts of the program that are often overlooked. In particular, Kranz shares the details that went into the development of the processes that were required to send men into space and return them safely to the earth. He relates just what a monumental task it was to create the mission rules, the flight plans, and the contingencies that made the program a success. Also newly told was Kranz's recount of the scene in Mission Control as Apollo 11 approached a moon landing and program alarms began to sound in the lunar module -- and the role simulations played in saving the day. "Failure Is Not An Option" is more of an historical account than a novel ... and it's much better that way.
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