James Harford

Very good historical account of the Soviet chief designer of rocket-propelled vehicle programmes, which had stronger origins than the pre-WWII German and American counterparts, but was retarded by Korolev's time in a gulag. The Soviet lead of the late 1950s-early 1960s owed much to Korolev's prior experience and management style in a complex sociotechnical system, but his death in 1966 delayed Soviet manned moon efforts. His powerful rocket systems and design ingenuity nevertheless bested US show more early ICBMs, communications and spy satellites. show less

You absolutely have to be a Merton fanatic to rate it this highly. The last couple chapters, in particular, are super strange and unpolished conversations between the author and Lax and Rice, with whom the author was friends. But getting to see Merton through the lens of folks who knew him before the monastery is invaluable, as they continue to travel with him as he became a celebrity in life and then especially in death.