Irwin Fletcher
asked:
It seems odd that this book came out just a year after the excellent "Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story Of The First Mission To The Moon" by Jeffrey Kluger, who wrote the Apollo 13 book with Apollo 8/13 astronaut Lovell. For anybody who has read both, would you recommend reading this also? Does it add anything or is it pretty much covering all the same ground?
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Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon,
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Sherri
It doesn't necessarily add anything to the story of going to the moon, but it definitely does a great job just setting the context of the time and the accomplishment much better than Kluger's book did. (As someone who did not live through the time, I have very much enjoyed the weaving the tale of American history with the personal story of going to the moon)
Lydia
I have not read both these books, and while I (as someone who did live through it all) think he does a good job in showing how this was a Cold-War-politics driven event, and in showing the incredible bravery of the three guys whose lives were on the line, his POV on events in the country is far from unbiased.
Matthew Kresal
Having read both books (as well as the earlier Genesis by Robert Zimmerman), I'd argue that this is the better book. It's put things into a larger context and goes into more detail about the people involved. Kluger's book is more of a journalistic account in my view and Zimmerman's has a lot of the same aims as Rocket Men but isn't anywhere near as successful.
Emil
What about Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon
by Craig Nelson?
by Craig Nelson?
Cat
Would also like to know the answer to this!
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