BadAsstronauts
2012 • 129 pages
Ratings7
Average rating3.4
15
Ratings7
Average rating3.4
From New York Times bestselling author of My Best Friend's Exorcism, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and The Final Girl Support Group, Grady Hendrix takes a break from horror and goes all-in on sci-fi in this novella about backyard rocket jockeys trying to get into low earth orbit. Melville, South Carolina was out of money, it was out of jobs, it was out of hope, and today it was out of astronauts. There were only two to begin with, and now one is stuck on the abandoned International Space Station after his mission went south. With NASA’s budget cut to the bone, there’s no one to bring him back home, so everyone is only too happy to ignore this embarrassing sign of American Failure and just let him die. But his cousin, Walter Reddie, isn’t going to let that happen. Tanked on vodka, living on a “farm” whose only crop is cars on cinderblocks, Walter's a wash-out from the Shuttle Program and he’ll be damned if he’s going to let his cousin die in the sky like a dog. And so he begins to build a rocket. If America won’t rescue its astronauts, he’ll do it himself. Violating numerous laws, good taste, common sense, logic, and reason, Walter becomes a lightning rod for people who aren’t ready to give up. His farm is transformed into the promised land for misfits, drifters, rocket junkies, pyromaniacs, dreamers, science nerds, and astro-hippies who believe that space shouldn’t just be for billionaires. But it won’t be easy. Chances are good they’ll blow themselves up, get arrested, or kill each other before they ever get into orbit. BadAsstronauts was originally published in 2012 as Occupy Space. This edition features a brand-new introduction by the author, and has been extensively revised from its previous edition.
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In BadAsstronauts, Grady Hendrix wrote a story about cousins, NASA, and a whole lot of rednecks. Ones he affectionately refers to as Redneck NASA, and there has never been a more apt moniker for this rag-tag group of people with the single goal of getting someone's ass to orbit.
The story starts with Walter, a drunk and retired astronaut who gave up on the dream of getting to the stars long ago. After his mission goes south, his cousin is stuck on the abandoned International Space Station, awaiting death. NASA is out of money; they want to sweep this PR debacle under the rug.
Walter is not having it.
Walter's little farm in Melville, South Carolina, might just have to become the beacon of hope blinking in the darkness for “misfits, drifters, rocket junkies, pyromaniacs, dreamers, science nerds, and Astro-hippies who believe that space shouldn't just be for billionaires.” Walter will break all the laws, state, federal, and decency, to get himself to orbit to grab his cousin. The ship is made out of tin cans, chicken wire, duct tape, and drug-induced fever dreams, and “like Braveheart yelling, “Hold..hold....hold,” Walter is going to pull this mess together or die trying.
With this contraption, the dying might just be guaranteed.
Grady Hendrix has a wonderful knack for lightness in his stories. Even when at their most gruesome, they don't stray too far and become heavy. He is excellent at the darkly funny and the absurd, which balances well with the scary or, in this case, absolutely batshit. Hendrix did that here in BadAsstronauts. The subject matter, redneck NASA, is nuts. The idea of a disparate group of characters coming together for what is usually an unobtainable goal has just enough plausibility to make it work. NASA, for most people, is something other people do. Towering figures like Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, it is not for ordinary people like Jethro down at the trailer park who loves to blow up stuff.
So I salute Walter for trying to save his cousin, I salute the folks of redneck NASA for coming together, I salute the “can-do” attitude of ordinary folks, and I salute Grady Hendrix for writing another entertaining story.
