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In the Shadow of the Moon

A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969

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In the Shadow of the Moon

By: Francis French, Colin Burgess
Narrated by: Gary L. Willprecht
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In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, with two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure. From the Gemini flights to the Soyuz space program to the earliest Apollo missions, including the legendary first moon landing, their book draws a richly detailed picture of the space race as an endeavor equally endowed with personal meaning and political significance.

©2007 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks 20th Century Aeronautics & Astronautics Americas Astronomy Astronomy & Space Science History History & Culture Modern Physics Science United States
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Critic reviews

"French and Burgess present a first-rate, detailed, and very personal account of the space race to the moon…. Strongly recommended." ( CHOICE)
"This book has everything you ever wanted to know about the astronauts that paved the way for the first Moon landing." ( Liftoff)
" In the Shadow of the Moon truly captures the spirit and culture of those who won the race to the Moon." (Dave Scott, commander of the Apollo 15 mission)
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Nothing to dislike. Fantastic book it kept me engaged for hours. I especially liked the information on the lesser known astronauts

Fantastic detail of NASA space flights

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It's recommended you read/listen to Into That Silent Sea before this book, as this is a continuation; it covers all American and Soviet spaceflights between Gemini 3 in March 1965 and Apollo 11's moon landing in July 1969. Each mission is covered in fascinating detail, with lots of information about the backgrounds and personalities of the astronauts and cosmonauts; even space buffs are likely to find plenty that they didn't know before. I've seen other reviews complaining about the narrator: his voice is a bit monotonous at first but you get used to it, and he tries to give distinctive voices to each of the people speaking (though he doesn't bother trying a Russian accent in the case of the cosmonauts).

The journey to the Moon, in fascinating detail

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Struggled to listen to the narrator, on a subject and history so fascinating, Why was someone with such a monotone and unengaging voice asked to narrate 18 hours of text?
Great if you need background noise to fall asleep to.

Going to buy the book instead.

Fascinating book, can't bear to listen to it...

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This should have been exciting and moving but in fact it is one long slog through biographies of almost everyone involved in the space mission without any real connection and certainly without any emotion. The minute detail of who flew what when they were 14 years old and how many old jalopies they fixed up is mildly interesting the first time but after the twentieth time its just padding. Even the tragedy of Apollo 1 is just a series of technical notes, no emotion whatsoever. As a hard copy book this would have been a struggle but the flat emotionless tone of the narrator completely killed the experience stone dead.

Boring

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