Smith is quite possibly the most insightful person ever to write about the Apollo program. This is a beautiful book about the nine surviving Moonwalking astronauts, plus a few of the Command Module pilots. I might have given it five stars were it not for the many minor historical errors, which a decent proofreading could have eliminated. ( )

The first chapter on landing what was not much more than a tin can on the moon is spellbinding ( )

For people who grew up during the Apollo program and manned missions to the Moon, Andrew Smith's Moondust has an intriguing premise. He sets out to find and interview the men who walked on the Moon and see how it affected their lives. Unfortunately, it ultimately yields the conclusion that many people now seem to have of the Apollo program -- a lengthy journey that is ultimately more symbolic than productive.

Smith's idea stemmed from happening to meet with Charlie Duke, who walked on the Moon as part of the next to last Apollo mission, the day after the death of Pete Conrad, the commander of Apollo 12 and the third man to walk on the Moon. Smith began to wonder about the nine Moonwalkers still alive and the fact it is likely that in our lifetime there will be no one alive who accomplished that feat. Smith, born and initially raised in the U.S. during the Apollo program but now a resident of Great Britain, sets out to interview the surviving Moonwalkers to assess how the experience impacted their lives and what, if anything, it means for our own.

Although subtitled In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth, the book could more accurately be described as "my personal search to recapture my youth during the Apollo program by talking to Moonwalkers." The book is as much about Smith's own thoughts and feelings as it is Apollo or any of the individual astronauts, their family members or others he interviews. While that is not a bad thing in and of itself, he aggravates the situation by approaching his topic much like a Moon landing itself.

Just as a lunar mission required orbiting the Moon before a landing, Smith seems to write in a similar fashion. He circles around and looks at all sorts of different aspects of the subject of a particular chapter before getting to the heart of what he promises at the beginning of a chapter. Like lunar orbit, this journey has some bearing on the ultimate goal and provides some interesting scenery. Unlike lunar orbit, though, it often is not essential to the mission. Moreover, like lunar landings, when Smith finally reaches the ultimate target, he tends to follow a set agenda. His interviews often read like edited, summarized transcripts of his recordings of the interviews, interspersed with occasional comments about or descriptions of what Smith was thinking at the time.

Balance of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=553

http://home.earthlink.net/~karen20000... ( )

I have mixed feelings towards this book. While I enjoyed actually reading it and found some bits of it beautifully written, for the most part I was frustrated by all the things I thought it was going to be but wasn't. The author puts a huge amount of himself into the work - it's an acknowledged personal journey as much as it is a journalistic endeavour and I often just didn't care. Because of the narrative following this journey the historical flow was completely surrendered and I frequently became confused between missions and people. I think the book just turned into something a little too personal for the author and in the process it lost it's way. ( )