Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13

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Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13

4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 · rating details · 1,852 ratings · 170 reviews

In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only fifty-five hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Commander Lovell and his crew watched in alarm as...more

Hardcover, 378 pages

Published September 6th 1994 by Houghton Mifflin (T) (first published 1994)

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Mar 05, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: accidents, organizations, popular-science, nonfiction, space

I am surprised that I did not own or read this book until very recently. Having seen the movie APOLLO 13, I suppose that I was worried that there was little this book could add. I was very wrong. This is an excellent account of the Apollo 13 mission and I learned quite a lot - even though I have been interested in NASA missions and history for a long time.

The writing gets to be a little much at times, and the beginning was particularly purple. But the Mr Kluger settles down after a while and wh...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

No one wants to hear ominous noises coming from their car in the middle of a road trip, especially if they're in the middle of nowhere. But it could be worse -- you could break down two hundred thousand miles from Earth, surrounded by the void of space and trapped in a small spacecraft whose every life support system is failing rapidly. Such was the case for the Apollo 13 crew: when a loud, ominous bang followed some routine tests, their mission to land in the hills of the Moon became a four-day...more No one wants to hear ominous noises coming from their car in the middle of a road trip, especially if they're in the middle of nowhere. But it could be worse -- you could break down two hundred thousand miles from Earth, surrounded by the void of space and trapped in a small spacecraft whose every life support system is failing rapidly. Such was the case for the Apollo 13 crew: when a loud, ominous bang followed some routine tests, their mission to land in the hills of the Moon became a four-day struggle against the void of space and a dying machine just to stay alive.

Death and disaster had happened before to the astronaut corps: several had died in aircraft crashes, and the Apollo program began in tragedy when flames consumed the interior of the command module of Apollo I during training, claiming the lives of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee -- but those accidents took place too quickly for anyone at Mission Control to intervene. Now, for the first time, the lives of NASA astronauts were imperiled in the course of a mission, and far from home. If NASA couldn't find a way to keep those men alive and bring them home safely, they would face the prospect of having to talk these men through their final hours. On the ground in Mission Control, and in the void of space, men called upon all their resources -- their training, their intelligence, their creativity -- to overcome problem after problem, overcoming the odds and achieving a triumphant return four days later. It is the story of those four days that Jim Lovell (commander of Apollo 13) and Jeffrey Kluger tell here.

Although Lovell participated in these events which he's helping to retell, the book isn't written from his perspective, nor is it limited to the four days of the mission itself. The authors begin retelling the story of Apollo 13 fairly quickly -- and it's one that keeps the reader tense, even knowing the outcome -- but they also weave in reminiscences on NASA's and the astronauts' history. These diversions don't just give the reader a break from the tense situation unfolding around the moon and the technical chatter between the craft and mission control: they add context, demonstrating how the catastrophe of Apollo 1 shaped NASA's approach to disasters, or how various events in Lovell's life prepared him for the duties of the space program and the extraordinary challenge of Apollo 13. Lost Moon almost doubles as a history of NASA from the perspective of an astronaut, and between Lovell and Kluger even explanations of mechanistic failures have an energetic drama about them.

Definitely a book of interest to those interested in humanity's space endeavors.(less)

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May 24, 2012 04juliusr rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book had me fooled. I was expecting a boring twenty chapter leaving me lost around the fifth, because of the painful development into the story, but boy...was I wrong.

Sure, it took a while to really get into it, but nearly falling asleep through it, the narrative was really grabbing me. I felt for the characters, part of it was because it actually did happen, which would scare the living piss out of me, but they were made into such detail that you genuinely cared fir them, cared for their f...more

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May 24, 2012 03micahh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Alright, personally, I thought the story itself was interesting... But the details drove me crazy.

"And the coordinates are NOUN 33, 061, 29, 4284 minus 00213. HA and HP are NA. Pitch..." -Page 162
Now, what the heck does that mean? Coordinates have that many numbers and what's up with the HA, HP, and NA? Do they expect us to understand that. Obviously not, because they explain almost everything in great detail and it drove me crazy.

There's also "O.K." on almost every other page once you get into...more Alright, personally, I thought the story itself was interesting... But the details drove me crazy.

"And the coordinates are NOUN 33, 061, 29, 4284 minus 00213. HA and HP are NA. Pitch..." -Page 162
Now, what the heck does that mean? Coordinates have that many numbers and what's up with the HA, HP, and NA? Do they expect us to understand that. Obviously not, because they explain almost everything in great detail and it drove me crazy.

There's also "O.K." on almost every other page once you get into any of the flights. I've never seen so many O.K.s in my life. At least make it interesting when they talk.

Yet, I found the whole space thing makes it almost... kinda... worth the read. Not really, but it's better than just a boring read. I mean, there is a little bit of sympathy for the characters. There's also a little suspense when they freak out over burns, but other than that, you basically just learn about big fancy words you won't remember.

This book, published after the Apollo 13 incident (obviously), can't be from any other time but then. It was the space race, and they were going to the moon. When else did we have the technology and the desire to go there besides that time period? If we wanted to now, I guess we could, but they probably would have figured out the whole oxygen tank exploding thing by now and it would have never happened. So, it's at the perfect time period for this particular story to take place.

I do not suggest anyone that doesn't understand science and rockets to read this book, unless you really want to know about PC+2 burns and all the little names they have for people in NASA. I guess, if you understand what they were saying, this would be a decent book, just skip all the explaining, because it will put you to sleep.

In other words, this book is in depth, and I didn't enjoy it so much. I learned a thing or two about space and rockets that I will probably never need to use in life. So, you get the idea. Apollo 13 is a book, that I hope I never have to even think about again. Even though, it probably would've been okay if I wasn't rushed to read it... Whatever. There's what I think.(less)

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May 14, 2012 06NixinJ rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book i have chosen is "Apollo 13" I didnt understand it that much it was very slow to get in to but it had a good story line and like that it was a true story that was way cool.

the main issue in this book is: The Excision, there trapped in a space ship and a bunch of things are going bad.

the story could not take place in a different setting, Because it was in space in a space ship.

the main characters in the book are: The 3 Astronauts Jim Lovell Fred Haise , and Jack swigert.

Story Summary: It...more

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May 13, 2012 04EvanG rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Apollo 13
by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger

I’ll admit that I didn’t want to read this book on my own. I was lead to believe it was an amazing book. But I guess that my attitude wasn’t the greatest while I was reading it. So I am sure that it probably was amazing I just really did not want to read it. But in my opinion it wasn’t the best. During the book I soon realized that this book wasn’t going to the fantasy book where a spy gets caught in the middle of all of china’s humungous army and has to...more Apollo 13
by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger

I’ll admit that I didn’t want to read this book on my own. I was lead to believe it was an amazing book. But I guess that my attitude wasn’t the greatest while I was reading it. So I am sure that it probably was amazing I just really did not want to read it. But in my opinion it wasn’t the best. During the book I soon realized that this book wasn’t going to the fantasy book where a spy gets caught in the middle of all of china’s humungous army and has to battle his way out with a tin can and some string. I am pretty sure that is the reason why I didn’t like it. But I also have some reasons. There are a few parts that I really liked about that I really liked about this book. Two of which was the fact that it wasn’t all about the mission it gave you all the hard work in the training exercises. And this book did have some truth to it because in the copy that I got it had some pictures. But then there are more parts that I didn’t like about this book. Which happened to be the fact that it had all the politics about who they talked to and how other people were more amazing than them. Also it had a really long introduction that lost my attention and took forever to read.
Now you’d think that this book is all about the flight in the spacecraft. Well your partially right. It has a little more than half about the day of the launch and how it goes into space. And that’s cool and all, but you always hear about that stuff from people who were there and are always say stuff like, “ Back in the good old days there were no televisions so we had to listen to the radio and worrie about all of those guys in space suits flying around the moon.” Then they’d give you the whole story. But what I liked about this book is that the author (who was there during the mission) tells you about the training exercises that they had to go through on the mission. One of my favorite ones is one where they literally sit there for hours. And the people decide to shut off the engines. And they frantically have to sit there and try to get the engines back on. They finally do get it back on but they guy that did it says he lost too much fuel in the process. The captain at that time happened to be Jim Lovell. And my favorite quote from him is, “Three hours of boredom followed by 7 seconds of sheer terror.” The problem with some books is that they only have the action and none of the other stuff to make sense of what is really going on. And I think that this might have had a little too much of that stuff it made the rest of the book make complete sense.
The flip side of the part that I just barely talked about is the fact that it went on for a good 100 pages. If you ask me that is about 90 pages too many, so if I could talk to the author I would ask him to some how condense that stuff and make it a lot more interesting book. I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep multiple times reading this book. And trust me it was not because of the old out of date pictures.
With a scientistic ( Yes I don’t know if that’s a real word but just go with it) you would expect it to have all sorts of huge words that have no meaning and you think that this person just wrote the book to make himself sound super smart. But the copy of the book that I got had some pictures in it. And I don’t know how real they are. But if they put in the time to put some pictures in it why would they be fake? I know my reasoning isn’t solid but hey it made the book better in my opinion.
When I read a book I think of reading this great story that will pull my mind out of this world and into a greater more amazing one. This book just didn’t cut it for me. I am sure it was probably because I wasn’t interested in learning about how the spacecraft just barely made it back to earth. But still it had a lot about who you know and who is higher up than you. Like in the book he is going to fly on an Apollo 14 mission. But then the press starts bugging them about why he isn’t going and he gets pulled off of Apollo 14 and stuck onto Apollo 13 because some guy had a recent infection (which I don’t entirely believe). And I hate listening to politics. I have it everywhere. It is in school, my team, and even at my house. That is one of the bigger reasons I didn’t like this book very much.
All in all I thought that this book was okay. It could have some improvements like making the background a little shorter, and cutting out all the politic crap. But it also did do some good job with pictures for that A.D.D kind like me. And it also had some useful background info.
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May 09, 2012 Robert Nagle rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book (upon which the film Apollo 13 is based) provides a lot more details and background information about the accident. I’m guessing that science journalist Jeffrey Kluger had a major role in shaping the narrative (which was expertly told and whose chapters alternated between flashbacks and current dramas). The book highlights things missed in the movie: the vast amount of flight experience Lovell already had (having flown twice around the moon), the personal connection Lovell had with ill...more

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Mar 14, 2012 theduckthief rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Houston we've had a problem."

On April 11, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigart blasted off from Earth on a journey to the moon. Three days later there was an explosion that ended the mission and almost ended their lives. For four days they barely slept and did their best to limp home on limited power and oxygen. This story describes in detail the actions of the crew and Mission Control to save Apollo 13 from an uncertain fate.

I liked the various perspectives presented from the Apollo 1...more "Houston we've had a problem."

On April 11, 1970, Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigart blasted off from Earth on a journey to the moon. Three days later there was an explosion that ended the mission and almost ended their lives. For four days they barely slept and did their best to limp home on limited power and oxygen. This story describes in detail the actions of the crew and Mission Control to save Apollo 13 from an uncertain fate.

I liked the various perspectives presented from the Apollo 13 crew to Mission Control to the Lovell household. It was interesting to see how everyone involved reacted to the situation and especially how the team in Houston handled the various problems with the compromised mission. Reading the story from a 2012 perspective I felt somewhat removed from the issues. The idea that that one problem could cause an almost complete meltdown of the spacecraft seems foreign. Today it seems as if there are redundancies for any complex piece of machinery and any issues have long been worked out. But you have to remember that space program was still fairly young in 1970. Man had only landed on the moon one year prior this mission.

As well, the authors did a good job of creating empathy towards the characters. Despite knowing the ultimate outcome of this mission due to its historical nature, I worried about the Apollo 13 crew. I wanted them to be safe. I especially appreciated the attention to detail within Mission control and the spacecraft. The reader experiences the flight just as the crew did and I found the tecnobabble tired me out. Far from being annoyed at this, it let me identify with crew and the tireless Mission Control employees who even slept at work during the crises.

It was jarring to have Lovell as a co-author and yet the book wasn't in first person from his perspective. I do understand that it wouldn’t have made sense to write the story that way due to the various perspectives presented. It did make the book seem colder and less personable, creating distance between the reader and the story.

One thing I didn’t like was the chronological jumping around in Lovell's and NASA's timeline. I got used to it though, jumping from before Lovell was in the space program to his other space missions to Apollo 13. The problem was everytime we cut away from what was happening on Apollo 13 to a different time, it undercut the tension. If the reader is in the midst of worrying about this three man crew and then they're given a chance to relax by switching to an earlier point in history, it diminishes the excitement the story creates. While I believe that a book told chronologically can be somewhat old hat these days, in this case it would have kept my attention for the entirety of the story. As well, the book was filled with dates and technical details and procedures so it was difficult to separate out and remember all that was going on with Apollo 13 when I came back to chapters regarding their missions.

Overall I had a blast reading this book. If you are interested in the history of space travel and don't mind a few technical details read this book!(less)

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Aug 27, 2012 Staci rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historic, non-fiction, baseball-space-and-summer, read-it-before-you-see-it, been-meaning-to-read-forever

This is the true story of Apollo 13, launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 and suffered an explosion of it’s oxygen tank on April 13th at 9:07PM and finds itself on a four-day mission to get back home.

Co-written by the Apollo 13 commander himself, Jim Lovell gives us a great view of NASA and the moon program as well as an inside-the-spacecraft point of view. What I really love about this book, however, is the fact that it goes chronologically and covers both what was going on inside Apollo 13 and...more

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May 10, 2012 07DrewK rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell, was made in 1994 and has 412 pages. The intended audience of the book is probably students and people wanting to learn about what happened that day and what the apollo 13 was.
The main issue in the book was trying to put and find the right astronaunts and right machines to send into space. Another conflict is when the Apollo 13 blew an oxygen tank and couldn't land on the moon so they had to orbit the moon without landing.
The s...more The book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell, was made in 1994 and has 412 pages. The intended audience of the book is probably students and people wanting to learn about what happened that day and what the apollo 13 was.
The main issue in the book was trying to put and find the right astronaunts and right machines to send into space. Another conflict is when the Apollo 13 blew an oxygen tank and couldn't land on the moon so they had to orbit the moon without landing.
The setting and time played a great part in the contribution to the story. If they would've launched the apollo 13 in a different place or time they could risk messing up the coordinates and it could have taken longer. The main character in the story is Jim Lovell. He is smart, cunning, adventurous, risky, and he can stay calm under crazy situations.
The story is about Jim Lovell and how ever since he was a kid he was fascinated by the thoughts and ideas of space and rocketry. All of his life he tried making the perfect rocket and making it fly right, straight, and accurately. He eventuall became and engineer in rocketry and focused his designs on suiting it for human life. He finnaly became an astronaunt and was introduced to the Apollo 13. He had seen what happened to the earlier Apollo's and he was hesitant to go. The apollo thirteen was made and Jim Lovell agreed to go. They went into space successfully on april 11, 1970. but while they were about to land on the moon, one of their oxygen tanks blew up causing them to have to orbit the moon.
I liked this book because it was entertaining, suspenseful, fun to read, and interesting. It also showed many themes of life. One theme was that those who mess with the unknown, may suffer extreme consequences. I reccommend this book to anyone who likes to read or likes to study rocketry and science becuase it is informative, suspenseful, and entertaining.
I gave it three stars because it was very informative but at the same time entertaining, fun, and interesting.
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Jan 08, 2012 Kyle Kerns rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2005, own

I didn’t know much about the Apollo 13 endeavor before I started reading this book (I find it amazing how little it is discussed now), but I definitely learned a lot as I read the first-hand accounts of the days in 1970 that would make “Houston, we have a problem” such a standard phrase in American culture. This story is both harrowing—as you realize that something like this can and did happen to three Americans—and inspiring—when you look at the lengths people went to to ensure that those Ameic...more

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Mar 22, 2011 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

In 1969, on a soundstage adjacent to where The Dick Cavett Show was filmed, the top American filmmakers, working in cahoots with DC's foremost politicians, staged the Apollo 11 lunar landing live on television with the whole world duped and holding its breath.

Naa, I'm just kidding. That shite happened on the moon, ya Flat Earth Society nut-job.

Anyway, 2 missions and 10 months later, Apollo 13 blasted off with hardly a care from the TV networks nor the public at large. Moonwalking was old news. B...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Cranky rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book some time ago, but it was such a good read I thought I'd review it just in time for the holidays....I think it would make a good gift for nonfiction buffs. I don't know if its age makes it hard to find, but it almost guarantees that it may not be familiar to a lot of readers.

This book is a telling of the Apollo 13 saga, as seen by the commander of the mission, Jim Lovell. If you saw the movie "Apollo 13," you will recognize a lot of details, right down to exact quotes. It also h...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Sharon Ferguson rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of those books I would love to have signed by Jim Lovell. Read this about a year or so before the movie Apollo 13 came out. The book itself is gripping and informative, giving insight and perspective to an event that most people did not pay attention to until danger screamed through the headlines of the day. I was too young to remember the incident when it occured, but I am sure, living in Houston at the time, it was of prime interest to everyone who did watch.

I was especially pleased that R...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Martha rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is a fascinating, great read. It's a real-life suspenseful adventure even though you know how things are going to turn out. I marveled the entire time about what seems impossible, what was possible, and how thousands of people responsible for billions of parts on the space craft managed to come together to make things work. There's a lot of technical jargon but nothing that I didn't understand the basic context of. It is a great human story as well with the writers switching focus each...more

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Nov 21, 2012 ♥iDevourBooks♥ ☆Sonic~Obsessed☆ rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: amazingly-true-stories, read-in-2012, romance, my-reviews, biography, realistic-fiction, space-travel, for-all-ages

This story begins before Apollo 13. It starts with talk about previous flights, such as Apollo 8 (which is why you hear of Apollo 8 so often in the movie).

I am shocked at how much they went through. I once read a fiction story about people in Africa who were thirsty in 140° F weather (that's Five Weeks in a Balloon in case you are curious about reading it), but I consider that very small compared to what the people in Apollo 13 went through. They suffered from cold, of course, because they were...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Katie D'Angelo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It was certainly an interesting read and quite informative without being overly technical. I enjoyed the writing style for the most part but felt that some key moments in the flight were glossed over (for instance, why is the critical PC+2 burn told from the perspective of the man on the Iwo Jima rescue ship?) but others were told in slightly too much detail (for instance, the names of just about everyone from four different support teams at ground control). I thought the book did a good job of...more

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Sep 24, 2011 William rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even CATS couldn't be better. If you have ever watched the movie and enjoyed it as much as I did, then you will love this book that gives you even more. This has to be one of the most amazing adventures ever taken by Americans. The technical details are described beautifully and can easily be grasped by us non-astronaut types. You learn all of the fundamentals of the Apollo 13 spacecraft and quite a bit about the lifestyle of the ultimate test pilots. We previously read James Michner's Space and...more

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Feb 25, 2013 James Pittman rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Houston, we have a problem..." Those are some of the most terrifying words uttered by astronauts. And for Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, they were the words that shocked the world. Nearly all the way to the Moon, Lovell and crewmates Fred Haise and Jack Swigert had just experienced the unthinkable - in space. Their spacecraft had been crippled by a near-deadly explosion and all that could save them was the tiny spacecraft - the Lunar Module - attached to the Command and Service modules tha...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Darcy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, non-fiction

In my quest to read more non-fiction I picked up this book. Like most people I saw the movie from a few years ago, so had some idea of what was going to be happening.

While I did enjoy so much of this book, there was a lot of it that was very technical and way over my head. My favorite aspects of the book was the individual's and their reactions to this very precarious situation. It is nice knowing that things ended up good, but I can imagine living through it would be harrowing. I see how the wh...more

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Oct 21, 2009 Jerry Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: space-aviation, 2009-read

There always seems to be more to learn about Apollo 13, the ill fated moon shot. This book is full of the details of that flight, written in the 3rd person so it brings in all sides of the story.

Factual, not a huge amount on the emotions felt by the astronauts as they were fighting to survive but they never reveal that stuff anyway! We know how the story ends but this is one of the best accounts of the voyage - compares favorably to the Kranz account "failure is not an option" which tackles it...more

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May 11, 2012 04CadeR rated it 3 of 5 stars

Just think about going about 238,000 from everything that you know and love. With out the reassurance that you would be getting a safe ride home, or even if you where going to make it home. You also have to be ready to face the many things that could go wrong on your flight to your destination, everything has to go nearly perfect to be able to land and continue with mission. This is well what every astronaut has to face if they want to travel and set foot on the moon.

This book was very interes...more Just think about going about 238,000 from everything that you know and love. With out the reassurance that you would be getting a safe ride home, or even if you where going to make it home. You also have to be ready to face the many things that could go wrong on your flight to your destination, everything has to go nearly perfect to be able to land and continue with mission. This is well what every astronaut has to face if they want to travel and set foot on the moon.

This book was very interesting and dragged for some of the book, but it is a true story which makes it all the more interesting and gets you wondering how it all happened. While going through the latter part of the 1900's while the Apollo Missions where still underway after have success of the Apollo Missions 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. There where feeling pretty high about themselves. Everyone that was working with NASA knew that they would have eventually go on to the superstitious number of 13 which they where not to happy about doing. And yes they did go on an use the dreadful number of 13 which makes me think that they will never do that again. But since they where going to have to send a crew of astronauts up on the Apollo 13 mission, they had to be choose and the three lucky men where those who they called Jim Lovell, a previous astronaut for the Apollo 8 Mission, he was going to be the fifth man to set foot on the moon. Jack Swigert, having been on the back up crew not just days before the Apollo 13 mission would begin when the rocket launched off the pad and the space station, he had to replace the original crew member that became ill, he was to stay with the command module know as odyssey while the other to astronauts went down to the moon and proceeded with the mission. Last but no least is a man know as Fred Haise, the Lunar Module pilot he was suppose to be the sixth man to ever set foot on the moon. This mission would be different from all of the other missions that had come before it and they would be wishing that they where not on this flight at all. On the way to earths celestial friend the moon. They had a quite a big problem they developed shortly after going off the air on the television broadcast they they where sending form in side the space craft, this broadcast really held no interest in any of the world and did not draw anyone's attention because they had seen some what of the same thing two times before. But about ten minutes after the went off of the air the felt a tremendous shock and would then on be fearing for their life. This is where to famous saying come in "Houston, we have a problem." which was first said by the man named Jack Swigert. They where doing good for a little while they where trying to figure out what had gone wrong. While looking for what have could happened to the ship John Lovell decided to look out the window to see if he could see something on the exterior of the space craft and oh he was glad that he did, they figured out that they where venting some kind of gas out of the space craft which latter was found out that it was the oxygen that was escaping into space. Many things had go exactly the way that hey where planning them down here on earth in order for the safe return of the Apollo 13 crew members. So all in all there are many things that they have to face and they come up with a plan for everyone of the problems. In the end they do get back down to planet earth and are rescued. They had to come back to the earth or there would probably be no Apollo 13 book.(less)

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Aug 21, 2012 Mom rated it 4 of 5 stars

OK, OK, big surprise! I started this book very grudingly for book club and ended up really liking it. It read like a suspense/thriller, only it really happened. The history of the space program was also very interesting and I learned a lot that I never knew. I also remembered some of the things I had forgotten. There was some technical stuff that of course went over my head, but not that much. I really like this book and would recommend it for anyone. I really think my husband and most men, espe...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-books

Apollo 13 (formerly Lost Moon) is a well written and well constructed account of the harrowing events that rattled the Apollo 13 mission to the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, a destination it never reached. Kluger does an exellent job of telling the story. The flashbacks that give us a pertinent biographical sketch of mission commander Jim Lovell are injected at good places, and while they may seem superfluous to some, I was very grateful to have them. This book relays a story of real dedicati...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Remixrunixlp rated it 5 of 5 stars

When I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut. I visited both the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers. I watched every episode of “From The Earth To The Moon”. I had a denim jacket on which my father and grandmother stitched every patch from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Naturally, I also was a huge fan of Ron Howard’s 1995 film “Apollo 13.” The tale of NASA’s “successful failure” captivated me. I thrilled in watching the engineers and astronauts struggle with fantastic machinery to co...more When I was young, I wanted to be an astronaut. I visited both the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers. I watched every episode of “From The Earth To The Moon”. I had a denim jacket on which my father and grandmother stitched every patch from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. Naturally, I also was a huge fan of Ron Howard’s 1995 film “Apollo 13.” The tale of NASA’s “successful failure” captivated me. I thrilled in watching the engineers and astronauts struggle with fantastic machinery to conquer space flight. I am certain this childhood admiration for space led to my majoring in Engineering and my belief that an abundance of fun can be found in sharing those twenty amazing years in world history with my students.

Thus, I screened parts of “Apollo 13″ to my summer engineering camp. Much to my delight, I discovered the film was based on a novelization of the events written by astronaut Jim Lovell. Too my dismay, the book has been out of print for fifteen years. However, I stumbled on a copy at a used book store, and rekindled a dormant admiration inside of me that sent my mind once again wandering in the vast expanse of the universe.

“Lost Moon’ is written not as a memoir or a series of interviews. Instead, Lovell and co-author Jeffery Kluger opt to present the story as just that, a story. The book closely follows the events of those fateful days in April, 1970, paraphrasing statements made by members of the crew and ground control to create dialogue and using information gathered by the authors from interviews to provide insight into what the various folks involved were thinking and feeling. The novelization isn’t a perfect historical retelling, as several people – most notably Jack Swigert – had passed away and were not available to share their piece of the whole story.

The story is nonetheless riveting, and reads as a “love-letter” to a time when failing was not a possibility. Despite the tragedies of Apollo 1 and the John F. Kennedy assassination, and waning tax payer support, America put men on the Moon through technical know-how and shear will power (and the world’s largest flying vehicle, the monstrous Saturn V rocket). Similarly, despite dire, inexplicable damage to the Odyssey Command Module, NASA managed to save three men from certain death.

Lovell’s deep appreciation for the work conducted by the men of mission control pours through his prose, as unsung heroes Sy Liebergot and John Aaron are paid their due. How often are engineers celebrated heroes? How often are the results of massive scientific experimentation true high drama for everyone in the United States, let alone the whole world? The story of Apollo 13 is a celebration of ingenuity and creative thinking as much as it is the original space drama. The authors rightly strike a balance between these two aspects of the tale, creating a retelling which steers clear of sappy inspiration.

The space race of the 60′s and 70′s captured the imaginations of every man and woman in this country. It terrified the world when Apollo 8 read the first lines of Genesis on Christmas Day from orbit sixty miles above the Moon. It united the world in awe when Neil Armstrong descended a ladder and declared his small step a giant leap for mankind. This book captures all those emotions and makes them accessible to an entirely different generation who unfortunately did not live through those years when mankind attempted to touch the face of God. The great unknown growled back when Apollo 13 roared into the heavens, and four otherwise unremarkable days in history are captured in this book for all to experience. Perhaps it’s the times we live in, but it’s refreshing to read a tale of success despite massive odds against.(less)

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Jun 19, 2012 Gavin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fantastic book. Granted, I'm a Cold War space program nerd, but it's still a great, great book. It's an incredible story of unlikely survival, but it's also a clear snapshot of America and the already waning space program in the early 70's. Even though it was only the 3rd mission to the moon, it took this disaster to recapture the public interest in space travel. After Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11, apparently the country saw something shiny and lost interest. How's that for limited attention spa...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Rissie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an amazing story. I stand in awe of all those involved. Their bravery, intelligence, fortitude and ingenuity are to be commended. However, I didn’t really like this book. The way it was written made it feel more like a novel that a scientific memoire. There was a lot of weird techno dialogue and hokey descriptors with the author writing about himself in the third person. It’s weird. Like this example where Lovell is describing one of his conversations with Huston.

“Jim,” Lousma called, “h...more

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May 28, 2009 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Karen by: Ron Howard

Shelves: non-fiction, space

Here is an excellent book. If you have any interest in spaceflight, lunar exploration, NASA, the Apollo missions (and you should), you will enjoy Lost Moon.

I expected the book to follow the Apollo 13 mission in detail; and, indeed, I found the coverage of that voyage intensely satisfying. What I did not expect but quite appreciated was the background that the authors folded neatly into the story. They provide readers with a brief history of the Apollo program and with the story of Jim Lovell's p...more

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Mar 11, 2008 George Bradford rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: apollo

Jim Lovell is one cool cat. He's also resilient. Nothing throws this guy off balance or keeps him down for long. And he's passed the tests to prove it.

Lovell's life story is remarkable. He overcomes several set backs, disappointments and out right disasters. As a young navy aviator he had his share of equipment failures. But nothing quite like the one he encountered as the commander of Apollo 13 on the way to the moon.

Lovell’s account of this disaster is beyond intense. When you reach this part...more

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Nov 28, 2009 'Aussie Rick' rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

This is not the type of book that I would normally read but the movie sparked an interest I had to satisfy. I am so glad that I bought this book, I have not been able to put it down since I laid my hands on it. I can say no more that its a great book and a great story of man's courage and determination. I was spell bound from cover to cover, its well written, well researched and easy to read. This is one of my all time non-fiction books and it sits proudly in my library. GREAT STUFF!!!!!!!!!

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About Jim Lovell

James "Jim" Arthur Lovell, Jr., (born March 25, 1928) is a former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon but was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew and mission control. Lovell was also the command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first Apollo miss...more

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“Remember where you're standing when the spotlight goes off," Lovell warned me once, when our book was a best-seller and the movie it spawned was in theatres. "You'll have to find your own way off the stage.” — 1 person liked it

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