Space

Space. It is the object of dreams and daring of countless men and women who have made it the last, great frontier of human endeavor. James Michener has brought the human touch to that exciting exploration by bringing to life six men and women. Their dedication to the space experience defines its complexities and fascination as no other writer can.

Customer Reviews:

"Space" Teaches and Entertains

By kone "kone" - August 4, 2005

James Michener's "Space" is a novel (historical fiction) on the scientific development of rocketry and space travel. He begins at the very beginning, with American and Russian interests trying to lure fleeing German V-2 scientists into their war/weaponry programs before the fall of Hitler's Germany. Michener then goes on to chart the developments in the budding space program, from the launch of the Russian satellite "Sputnik", to the space race, to the moon landing, the development of the space shuttle, and finally interplanetary travel to Mars.

Give Michener credit for being a prophet: He predicts the problems we are now facing with the heat tiles on the space shuttle, and he predicts the interplanetary interest in Mars.

Michener uses fictional characters based after the original 7 NASA astronauts. One character has a strong resemblance to John Glenn. These characters are the focus that the developing story revolves around. It is a good story, probably... read more

Fascinating Tapestry of Science and Society

By Theodore G. Mihran - January 26, 2004

It was a timely coincidence I decided to read this book in 2004, twenty-two years after it was originally published. Ordinarily I am put off by 800 page books, especially historical fiction. However, this one was different. It grabbed and held me. Challenging, absorbing, dramatic, stimulating, and meaningful are a few of the adjectives that come to mind.Michener has dramatized the first advent of man into space in a marvelously cohesive and illuminating fashion. The characters he creates are not meant to be historical, but instead they represent the richness and variety of human nature that almost miraculously have to come together in order to achieve an important and demanding task.Alongside these brave men--and occasionally in front of them-- we find their unique wives and their families, sometimes with values agonizingly different from their parents. But the main task is to harness all of their energy to the pressing and onerous task of doing something nearly, but not... read more

Out of this World

By Prauge Traveler - March 23, 2000

Space is a tale that takes one from the battlefields of World War II to the Moon. Not many other books can make that claim, probably fewer still can do it with the finess that Michener can. As a sugar coated lesson in the history of rocketry I doubt that there is a better substitute. The final trip to the Moon as told by Michener is one of the most exciting sequences that I have ever read and well worth the wait. It is a little hard to get used to the imaginary state of Freemont- perhaps the story and characters involved were (to a point) renamed in order to protect the privacy of the real people they represented. Or maybe that is just what Michener wants us to think. The con artist Professor who becomes a born again Christian is just hillarious. I really enjoyed the humor that he brings to the story. The reflection on America is a little embarrassing, but it is still funny. The Space is a book that I was sorry to see end, with all of Michener's other loong... read more