Ratings60
Average rating3.8
An exceptional debut thriller and "exciting journey" into the dark heart of the Cold War and the space race from New York Times bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield (Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Project Hail Mary). 1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny spaceship, a quarter million miles from home. A quarter million miles from help. NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras "Kaz" Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it. But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue. Full of the fascinating technical detail that fans of The Martian loved, and reminiscent of the thrilling claustrophobia, twists, and tension of The Hunt for Red October, The Apollo Murders is a high-stakes thriller unlike any other. Chris Hadfield captures the fierce G-forces of launch, the frozen loneliness of space, and the fear of holding on to the outside of a spacecraft orbiting the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour as only someone who has experienced all of these things in real life can. Strap in and count down for the ride of a lifetime. "Packed with cosmic action... Featuring undercover spies, scheming Russians and psychopathic murderers, sometimes all at once, it teems with authoritative details." --The New York Times "Nail-biting . . . I couldn't put it down." --James Cameron, writer and director of Avatar and Titanic "Not to be missed." --Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal "An explosive thriller by a writer who has actually been to space . . . Strap in for the ride!" --Gregg Hurwitz, author of Orphan X
Featured Series
2 primary booksApollo Murders is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Chris Hadfield.
Reviews with the most likes.
Having started the kindle book and struggling to find momentum, I discovered that the narration of the audio book was by Ray Porter. At which point I started the audio book and really enjoyed it.
I know a little apollo history and therefore caught some of the names of real people/things, but as much as more prior knowledge would probably be more enjoyable, it is by know means required to enjoy the story.
Way too much jargon and 33% and still not to the main point of the book.
This felt like a mix of fiction and non-fiction given the amount of technical information Chris Hadfield puts into it. The first quarter you could argue that it felt more like a history lesson than a novel but soon after that all that world building really paid off and the thriller element came to the fore. From that point on I loved the plot and characters and never felt you knew how it was going to go or who the good/bad guys were. Highly recommend it for any alternate history fans out there.
The space stuff was cool, but the things you are asked to believe are just too unbelievable
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