Children of Apollo

Rating:
Summary: A great alternate history story of space exploration.
Review: Children of Apollo is a story of high adventure and low intrigue. Its premise is very simple. What if, instead of truncating the Apollo Program in the early 1970s, President Nixon had continued it? What if the promise of Apollo, which included space stations, lunar bases, and expeditions to the planets, had been fullfilled? That's the background to the story of Children of Apollo. The story is inhabited by full blooded people, some of whom dream of exploring the stars, some of whom would stop those dreams by any means necessary. From political intrigue and heart stopping espionoge, to the excitement of space missions which never were, the story holds one's attention like a vise. Step by step, Children of Apollo hurtles to an awesome climax at the Lunar South Pole, where the fate of the crew of Apollo 23, the furture of space exploration, and the world hang in the balance.

Rating:
Summary: A woman lands on the Moon in 1975!
Review: Children of Apollo is an adventure story, a spy story, a story about politics, and most important a story about people. I don't ordinarily read "what-if" books, but this one held my attention for some reason. I've always been a fan of the space program, so I found this story about space missions which never flew in "our history" compelling.

Besides, I rather identified with Wendy Pendleton, the first woman to walk on the Moon in the story. I found most of the other charecters, even the not so nice ones, well drawn.

I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: A Space Program that Never Was
Review: Such a great plot concept. The execution was very junior varsity. Countless spelling and grammar mistakes. For example, one character drives a Camaro, but in the book its constantly written as "Camero." Also, aerospace company McDonnell Douglas is constantly referred to as "MacDonell Douglas." For a book that is trying to authoritatively discuss "what if" Nixon kept Apollo going etc. etc. , to constantly make spelling errors, forget words where needed etc. etc.- works to undermine the entire story.
The characters are cartoonish. From the Soviets, to Nixon, to liberal peaceniks, to the astronauts - all coming off like a parody.
There are glimpses of excitement and interesting plotlines, but the junior varsity nature of the writing quickly diminishes it...

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing. So much potential.
Review: Such a great plot concept. The execution was very junior varsity. Countless spelling and grammar mistakes. For example, one character drives a Camaro, but in the book its constantly written as "Camero." Also, aerospace company McDonnell Douglas is constantly referred to as "MacDonell Douglas." For a book that is trying to authoritatively discuss "what if" Nixon kept Apollo going etc. etc. , to constantly make spelling errors, forget words where needed etc. etc.- works to undermine the entire story.
The characters are cartoonish. From the Soviets, to Nixon, to liberal peaceniks, to the astronauts - all coming off like a parody.
There are glimpses of excitement and interesting plotlines, but the junior varsity nature of the writing quickly diminishes it...

Rating:
Summary: An imaginative alternate history
Review: The author of Children of Apollo crams in just about everything but the kitchen sink in his story set in an alternate history of the Apollo Program. I would have prefered a little less political intrigue and a lot more space exploration (hence only four stars), but aside from that I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I kind of wish it were a true story and not entirely fiction in a world in which Apollo dominated the 1970s instead of being dominated by that decade.

Rating:
Summary: An adventure story with some sly satire wrapped inside.
Review: The author of Children of Apollo has a very shrewd eye for the time period he is writing about, even though in the style of alternative history he has changed certain events of the early 1970s to suit him and his story. His slightly enhanced Apollo program seems to have altered just about everything, to the course of the Vietnam War, to the Middle East, to the fortunes of one Richard Nixon, and even popular culture (at one point he has one of Stephen King's early novels taking place on board a haunted space station.)

While Children of Apollo is primarily an adventure story about space exploration, it also has a certain element of satire. Included in the list of the author's targets for gentle (and sometimes not so gentle ribbing) are the forementioned President Nixon, a young and randy Bill Clinton, Steven Spielberg, Madeline Murray O'Hara, William Proxmire, liberal Democrats in general, the Soviet Union, and various spooks, federal agents, astronauts, and politicians.

The book is a delight to read. It has a feel of being about events that actually happened, even though they did not. I found myself sincerly wishing that a woman really had walked on the Moon around Christmas of 1975 and being sad that she did not.

Rating:
Summary: A Space Program that Never Was
Review: The author of this novel must have been very disappointed when the year 2001 did not resemble the movie 2001. Children of Apollo is set in an alternate history when, instead of cancelling the last three Apollo missions, the United States flies them and then adds three more. The book obviously has a message or two to impart, the content of which is only obvious with careful reading. The story itself is well worth reading, weaving in a variety of plots populated with interesting and fully realized charecters. Even if one disagrees with the author's premise, the novel is compelling enough to be enjoyed regardless.

Rating:
Summary: Reads like a history novel.
Review: The remarkable thing about Children of Apollo is how it read like a history novel, even though most of the events depicted as having "happened" in the early 1970s never in fact occured. These "events" include a Korea style resolution to the Vietnam conflict, no Watergate scandal, and most fascinating to me a series of Apollo missions to the Moon which in real life were either cancelled or never even considered. The story of Apollo 23, which occupies the latter third of the book, is especially gripping.

Rating:
Summary: The Way It Should Have Been
Review: This is much closer to the way history should have turned out.
I grew up watching the space age unfold and thought it was just the beginning of a quickly unfolding road to the stars. I fully intended to join the " space race" but when I went to college all that was available in astronautics were layoff slips. Instead I went into health care { boring ] , married two empty headed women, and often wondered where the exciting future I belived in went. Now as I waste my life working with a bunch of college graduates that are anything but educated, I think of what might have been and how I might be helping to build a new world somewhere else, instead of wondering what to buy next . I loved this book it is written well and is very believable. It left a big lump in my heart for what might have been for me , yet still could be for our children.