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Voyage by Stephen Baxter
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Voyage (edition 1997)

by Stephen Baxter

Series: NASA Trilogy (1)

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744930,023 (3.62)15
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

The space mission of a lifetime

An epic saga of America's might-have-been, Voyage is a powerful, sweeping novel of how, if President Kennedy had lived, we could have sent a manned mission to Mars in the 1980s. Imaginatively created from the true lives and real events, Voyage returns to the geniuses of NASA and the excitement of the Saturn rocket, and includes historical figures from Neil Armstrong to Ronald Reagan who are interwoven with unforgettable characters whose dreams mirror the promise of a young space program that held the world in thrall. There is: Dana, the Nazi camp survivor who achieves the dream of his hated masters; Gershon, the Vietnam fighter jock determined to be the first African-American to land on another planet; and Natalie York, the brilliant geologist/astronaut who risks a career and love for the chance to run her fingers through the soil of another world.

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Member:stevebosman
Title:Voyage
Authors:Stephen Baxter
Info:Voyager (1997), Paperback, 608 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****
Tags:fiction, science fiction

Work Information

Voyage by Stephen Baxter

  1. 10
    The Martian by Andy Weir (dClauzel)
    dClauzel: Deux histoires autour du voyage vers Mars : comment y aller, et aussi comment en repartir. Problématiques scientifiques, difficultés d’ingénierie, et troubles politiques.
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» See also 15 mentions

English (8)  French (1)  All languages (9)
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
Reading this on the Kindle, I'm not sure how long it was, but it felt like it took a long time to get through. I read this one second instead of first in this trilogy, but turns out it doesn't matter. Each book appears to be stand-alone. Each is a story of "what if NASA took a different direction than Apollo?" An interesting idea, but unfortunately, this wasn't written well for me.

For fans of NASA politics, extreme detail in engineering, and loads of description, this might be a good book, but I found it far too long. There was much less "story" than description. Perhaps that's as intended in this series of "what if", but it made for tedious reading even though the concept and the journey itself were very interesting. ( )
  Mactastik | Sep 4, 2019 |
When Stephen Baxter had been writing for a few years, there was an opinion amongst many sf readers that "Baxter can do Big Dumb Objects, but he can't do characters for toffee." Then along came "Voyage" and blew that opinion out of the water.

The premise - an alternate universe where Kennedy survived assassination (just), and, invited by Nixon to the Oval Office to share in the reflected glory of the telephone call to the Moon in 1969, steals the show by publicly calling from his wheelchair for the next goal to be Mars, and no-one has the heart to raise any practical objections.

The story then develops as NASA devise a plan and begin to work towards it using 1960s technology. The characters have stepped straight out of "The Right Stuff" but they are beginning to get out of their depth. There are accidents, and there are human stories as the double standards of using Nazi rocket science come home to roost. Finally, the mission is accomplished, but at a price. And with a twist that shows that the alternate history Baxter portrays is truly different to ours.

(Baxter developed the universe of this novel in a short story [not collected, AFAIK] where a British attempt to put a man - Roly Beaumont, top test pilot of the 1950s - into orbit fails...) ( )
1 vote RobertDay | Aug 6, 2008 |
An excellent story of a manned mission to mars. ( )
  sf_addict | Apr 11, 2008 |
Every space geek has fantasised about what would happen if nasa had chased Mars instead of the space shuttle. Most people think the shuttle was a mistake, and so therefore Mars would have been a much better thing.
This book charts an alternate history where NASA did shoot for Mars, but does so with similar style to how we saw the shuttle pan out. Politics are real an interfere with things, budgets are cut, accidents happen and suddenly the wet dream that is Mars suddenly becomes the harsh and unforgiving mistress that she probably is.
All that said I still think this is a positive and hopeful look at what NASA could have done and what it might have got wrong. If you've ever looked hopefully to Mars and considered the shuttle program a mistake then do read this book and see if it gives you second thoughts.

A very good book that avoids the pose coloured glasses many people see avenues untaken with yet still maintains the wonder at what we missed.

Personally after reading it, I was left thinking the boondongle that was the shuttle program was a better choice than the Mars mission as portrayed here - I know others disagree, but that is a discussion for another place... ( )
1 vote rufty | Aug 29, 2007 |
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Stephen Baxterprimary authorall editionscalculated
Moore, ChrisCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:

The space mission of a lifetime

An epic saga of America's might-have-been, Voyage is a powerful, sweeping novel of how, if President Kennedy had lived, we could have sent a manned mission to Mars in the 1980s. Imaginatively created from the true lives and real events, Voyage returns to the geniuses of NASA and the excitement of the Saturn rocket, and includes historical figures from Neil Armstrong to Ronald Reagan who are interwoven with unforgettable characters whose dreams mirror the promise of a young space program that held the world in thrall. There is: Dana, the Nazi camp survivor who achieves the dream of his hated masters; Gershon, the Vietnam fighter jock determined to be the first African-American to land on another planet; and Natalie York, the brilliant geologist/astronaut who risks a career and love for the chance to run her fingers through the soil of another world.

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