John Bloom (1) (1953–)

I tried so hard to finish this book for book club. I made it halfway and I can’t make it no more. It’s well written and the author really does a good job of adding drama to a very dry subject (so that’s why 2 stars instead of 1), but it turns out that I don’t give a damn about white dudes spending BILLIONS on their private curiosity/science experiment, going bankrupt so that the taxpayers pick up the bill, and still trying to find a market for their overkill product so that they can show more make bank. Holy shit. I can’t take the arrogance and audacity of this group of “leaders” anymore. show less

Fascinating study of one of the most important and complex technological achievements since the Manhattan Project. This book is far more interesting than I expected, covering (in layman's terms) the engineering hurdles, the financing, the world-wide international politics and the corporate in-fighting that was overcome to get the satellites launched. Then, after the initial phone failed, how it was rescued from bankruptcy by an unlikely band of disparate visionaries and evolved into a system show more that is the future of air traffic and other services in 2019.

The author makes each of these issues understandable and brings the various personalities involved to life. I was reluctant to put the book down at times as I HAD to see how they overcame each seemingly insurmountable opposition.

The closest thing I could compare this to would be Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine where the development of a revolutionary computer occurred against corporate in-fighting, which seems a simple task in comparison.

A very enjoyable read.

Gaming the Book
A game to play the difficulties in achieving basic space missions is Leaving Earth. The financing of a large engineering task could be played in Age of Steam (although not as interestingly as it is in the book). I don't know of a game that captures the seemingly-random bureaucratic nightmare of international politics except perhaps Diplomacy. show less

Betty and Candy, Candy and Betty-- two versions of womanhood, caught in a tragic collision of insecurities, doubts about themselves, and the awareness, perhaps, that neither one of them had really learned how to love. " (Chapter 27)

Candy was a housewife and mother who was unhappy and wanted more. Put simply, she was bored and wanted some excitement. She thought having an affair was exactly what she needed. When she met Allan Gore, they immediately hit it off. Neither went into the affair show more blindly, but little did they know the affair would be their undoing.

What happened with Bettty Gore following the affair is so bizarre and violent that you would think it was made up, but it is all too real.

This was my first true crime book, other than If You Tell by Gregg Olsen, and I was intrigued the whole time. I could not believe what I was reading at times, and my mind was blown by the verdict. show less

I don't know how complexly accurate this book was, but as an Iridium fan during the 90s, and and Iridium customer in the 2000s, it was a pretty amazing behind the scenes view. I knew Motorola was a cancer and an anachronism, but had no idea how deep the dysfunction was within the company -- thankfully they are no longer around. I have a lot more experience with the startup stage than with the turnaround of billion dollar assets, but there were a lot of similarities, and it is hard to come show more away with hunting but respect for the team that rescued Iridium and kept it operating. show less