Rating: 
Summary: Average thriller involving the Space Question
Review: "The Return', the second colaboration between John Barnes and Buzz Aldrin doesn't quite work as well as the first. This one is more of a thriller than a sci-fi book. In this book, a former astronaut named Scott Blackstone heads up a company trying to make space more accessable to everyone. He sends up a celebrity named Michael James, who is really a Jordan with a name change and a height change. James is killed by a freak accident, or so everyone thinks. Back on earth, Scott is sued by the family of the basketball star, and he ends up being defended by his ex-wife, who is the only one willing to take up his case. Meanwhile, his brother tries to finish a new type of rocket that doesn't need those detachable boosters. Soon, they all find themselves in the midst of an international plot, as a powerful nuclear bomb is set off in the atmosphere, and it is up to the Blackstones to rescue some astronauts stranded in the I.S.S(International Space Station). O.K read.
Rating: 
Summary: Techno- Mystery from an Alternate History.
Review: Although somewhat light in detail of characters and plot, "The Return" is a fine read of what the U.S. Space Program COULD be leading to. The ideas and dreams of one of America's Finest show, in a well thought out, suspenseful tale of International intrigue that leads from Low Earth Orbit through the morass of the Media and the National legal system, to the intricate spiderweb of Worldwide interagency espionage and skullduggery!
An excellent means of entertaining oneself on a weekend away from it all, at home or on vacation, or sending self off to one's own Dreamland!
Rating:
Summary: Techno- Mystery from an Alternate History.
Review: Although somewhat light in detail of characters and plot, "The Return" is a fine read of what the U.S. Space Program COULD be leading to. The ideas and dreams of one of America's Finest show, in a well thought out, suspenseful tale of International intrigue that leads from Low Earth Orbit through the morass of the Media and the National legal system, to the intricate spiderweb of Worldwide interagency espionage and skullduggery!
An excellent means of entertaining oneself on a weekend away from it all, at home or on vacation, or sending self off to one's own Dreamland!
Rating:
Summary: Lost in space
Review: Anyone who is interested in what it will take to get the United States back into space will find an interesting and well thought out answer in The Return. The story (which is fiction) tends to wander between courtroom intrigue, nostalgic family drama and techno thriller. Unfortunately none of these really conclude in a satisfying way. In the end the book becomes a great advertisment for Dr. Aldrin's company Share Space without ever becoming a great book. It is a fast and easy read at times exciting with the technical side explained in simple terms. A pleasant way to spend some summer reading time.
Rating: 
Summary: Started Well, Downhill From There...
Review: I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It started with a bang, and then just sort of fizzled out for me.The background, the launch and the "accident" I found interesting. It was the tedium of the aftermath that I found dull. The lawsuits, the guilt, the lawyers, that followed...yawn. I had high hopes for this book and was let down.
Rating:
Summary: Started Well, Downhill From There...
Review: I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It started with a bang, and then just sort of fizzled out for me. The background, the launch and the "accident" I found interesting. It was the tedium of the aftermath that I found dull. The lawsuits, the guilt, the lawyers, that followed...yawn. I had high hopes for this book and was let down.
Rating:
Summary: Started Well, Downhill From There...
Review: I enjoyed the beginning of this book. It started with a bang, and then just sort of fizzled out for me. The background, the launch and the "accident" I found interesting. It was the tedium of the aftermath that I found dull. The lawsuits, the guilt, the lawyers, that followed...yawn. I had high hopes for this book and was let down.
Rating:
Summary: Too Little On Too Much
Review: Mr. Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon long before he started writing books. He was one of the handfuls of men ever to go so far from this planet, and among an even smaller group to walk on another world. He was part of the last great space project Apollo, a project that had a goal other than simply circling the Earth in low Earth orbit. He is clearly a man very frustrated with the deterioration of exploration of space, and he makes that clear in this work of fiction. "The Return", is full of irony as it involves damage to a shuttle named Columbia. This is not cheap opportunism as this book was released a few years ago. This book attempts to include several large events in far too few pages. An event takes place and then is often resolved with little if any detail shared between the event and its resolution. The work often has an annoying style that has a character involved in a dialogue and then commenting on what they are about to say, are saying, or have said. It leaves the reader feeling as those the same material is covered more than once. Meaningless issues like what type of fast food can cover more than a page or two, and in a book of 264 pages, that is an interminably long time. I would be much more interested in reading non-fiction from Mr. Aldrin about how he feels America can effectively once again begin the exploration of space. I would like to know what he thinks about the Space Shuttle, The International Space Station, and whether these are worthwhile programs, and if not, what programs should be pursued. Not many have the experience of Mr. Aldrin and I wish he was using the time that produced this book, to further the exploration, or at least the intelligent discussion of the exploration of space.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts terribly, but rapidly reaches orbit
Review: The first chapter of this book is AWFUL: a press conference with a smug first-person narrator just cramming back story down our throats. But it really does pick up after that, although I wasn't the least sorry to see one insufferably perfect character die in chapter two. After that, though, it really does get moving nicely, and by the end you do share Aldrin's enthusiasm for getting us back into space. As I said, a slow start but ultimately a worthwhile book --- and perhaps the most beautiful book I've seen in a while, with a transluscent dustjacket overtop of a glossy hard cover.
Rating:
Summary: THE RETURN returns to Aldrin's strong space suit
Review: THE RETURN covers techno thriller territory familiar for readers of ENCOUNTER WITH TIBER. Many of the same elements are in both hard science-fiction novels: a family involved for generations in spaceflight, a divorced couple driven apart by the demands of aeronautics, a disaster aboard an American space shuttle, an emergency on an orbiting outpost, bad guy communists. Some ideas are identical: realistic rocketry, an evaluation and projection of the next decade of manned exploration, ShareSpace as a advocate for civilian space travel, the struggle for the soul of the space program. Some plot devices are new: a courtroom drama, an international nuclear incident, and covert operations. The result is something of a storytelling salad - a little of everything is thrown into the bowl, and it's all good for you. After a slow start, RETURN becomes a quick, exciting read, with technical details explained in simple terms and characters given human dimensions. But unlike TIBER, which literally spanned time and space in first person narratives, Return follows a more constrained literary approach. Only three narrators are used, childhood friends who have drifted apart and reunite as adults. As a result the overall scope of RETURN is less grand than TIBER, but certainly more readable. Aldrin is at his best with the details of the space exploration business, with the lift capabilities, PR coups, long hours, and exhilaration and exhaustion. Barnes does an outstanding job in taking Aldrin's space strategies and spinning them into the story, around the high cost of machines and the higher costs to men and women as marriages fail and friendships are sacrificed. The authors are unique in their qualifications to comment on the current state of the space program and to speculate with fictional events on what politics or profit-margins will be prophetic. There have been crises large and small to test the confidence and commitment to an American space program: the Apollo 1 fire, the Apollo 13 "successful failure," the Challenger explosion, the troubles of the Hubble Space Telescope, the problematic space stations Skylab, Mir and ISS, the disappearance of Mars probes. These historical hardships lend credence to the reaction surrounding the untimely tragedy in chapter two of THE RETURN -- the death of basketball superstar MJ on orbit. Our protagonist, former astronaut Scott Blackstone and CEO of ShareSpace, is set up to take the blame. In short order, Scott is fired and sued by MJ's mother for $1 billion, while a nation grieves a slain celebrity and debates the risks of the conquest of space. The "Citizen Observer" program was to bring Americans from all walks of life along on selected shuttle missions, so that schoolteachers, shop mechanics and newscasters who dreamed of flying could go where senators, Saudi princes, and Scott Blackstone have been. There are those who do not want it to succeed for a variety of reasons: some sinister, some short-sighted. When no legal eagles will mount a defense for Scott, his older brother Nick pulls strings at aerospace company Republic Wright to dig deeper lest the well get poisoned for any rocket builder. This brings Nick back into contact his childhood clique of Eddie Killeret, now at competitor Curtiss Aerospace, and Scott's ex-wife, attorney Thalia "Thally" Pendergast. Scott, Nick, Thally and Eddie are preteen pals who dubbed themselves the Mars Four, vowing to get to the red planet by the year 2019. Nick hires Thalia to represent Scott and works surreptitiously to re-unite the couple as a family with their 10-year-old son, Amos. But the family's safety is threatened by anonymous threats, mourners, sabotage and security breaches. When a preliminary NASA report would acquit Scott, a cover-up begins that culminates with a communist Chinese conspiracy detonating a proton bomb. The bomb unleashes enough hard radiation to fry every satellite in low-earth orbit, including the International Space Station. A daring rescue mission by the Mars Four would not only save the ISS astronauts, but also an aggressive space program, and American idealism itself. THE RETURN concludes on a note of hope for a return to Apollo-era fervor space exploration.
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