Buddy Read : Apollo Murders

[Aishwarya]

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.

Talk about intense space science fiction!

Looking forward for some thrilling G-forces there... :D

[Nathan]

Yeah!!!

[Nathan]

Just info for anyone willing to join

No limitations on number of pages or chapters to be read per day.

Just mention the number of pages/chapters read. Use spoiler tag. Discuss your thoughts. Close spoiler tag.

Happy reading ~

[Gorab, TheGunman]

Is this the one by Chris Hadfield?
I'm tempted to join if it is. Absolutely loved his space memoir!

[Nathan]

Please join @Gorab

[Aishwarya]

@Gorab Yes! It's the same by Chris Hadfield.

[Aishwarya]

Hey there, how is it going?
I am done with 10 chapters... I like the simple details of astronaut's life. Simple like this makes me smile = )
And... 'Russians are up to something...' Of course, they are always up to something.
Looking forward to the unpredictables...

[Nathan]

Hello,

You seem to be pretty fast xD

Well for me, I finished 2 chapters. Around 30 pages approx I guess...
(view spoiler)[ Poor Kaz. Lost his eye due to the seagull whilst testing the Phantom...
Of course , they'd cap his flying license but then as with most storylines, he comes back up into some position of power.

Like I got this accident/trauma & then I trained / got better and I'm back types... 🤣

It's good that Tom, Like & Michael are testing all the things in simulation before the launch. (hide spoiler)]

[Gorab, TheGunman]

Ok I'll join in another 3-4 days after wrapping up my current read.

[Aishwarya]

Nathan wrote: "Hello,

You seem to be pretty fast xD

Well for me, I finished 2 chapters. Around 30 pages approx I guess...
Poor Kaz. Lost his eye due to the seagull whilst testing the Phantom...
Of course , th..."


Ahh!
It's Aerospace! Science! Air Force! Navy! War! kindling the mystery thriller there... A complete treat for me... =D I don't want to stop reading :P

(view spoiler)[ yeah... poor Kaz, I wonder what his glass eye must be like.
And this is true incident, there is a one-eyed fighter pilot in real, I am not sure about his glass eye though and whether it was a Phantom or not.

The mission is yet to reach its go-no go stage and one man is already down.
And there is a Mole. (hide spoiler)]

Done with 15chapters/100 pages =D

[Aishwarya]

Gorab wrote: "Ok I'll join in another 3-4 days after wrapping up my current read."

Copy that. Will save you a seat in the space ship. =)

[Gorab, TheGunman]

ha ha ha
Got intrigued by your comments, I squeezed in some space in current reads and started reading this.

The eye injury reminds me of An Astronaut's Guide... have you guys read that? Or any other by this author?

[Nathan]

Gorab wrote: "ha ha ha
Got intrigued by your comments, I squeezed in some space in current reads and started reading this.

The eye injury reminds me of An Astronaut's Guide... have you guys read that? Or any o..."

Nope. This is my first Hadfield novel 🙂

[Nathan]

Read upto 71 odd pages...
Honestly I'm not feeling the sci-fi effect nor the murder mystery effect yet... 😅

(view spoiler)[
Russians did this... Americans did that because they felt pissant about things 🥱

Yawn...
Rover. Orbiting. Sudden Change of plans yada yada yada.....
Project Hail Mary had much better pacing though 🙊 (hide spoiler)]

Maybe it'll get better after 100 pages???

[Aishwarya]

Ha ha... well yeah, in a way, with the typical America Vs Russia cold war plot, and also because the most writing is all first-hand experience of technicalities and processes happening in real life. Making a fiction out of cancelled Apollo mission... :)

You know, it's a general feeling with books like these where authors are writing a fiction story on basis of their real life experience/occupational background. Happened with one of my authors/project too.

Done with 20 chapters, I am relishing the details, like flying in T-38 (whaa... they can fly themselves to launch site!) and how Almaz and Proton are modified. I wish there could be more details on Russian tech, well there is good a chunk of it but from a POV where Russians are not antagonists. (Will have to find a similar genre book by Russian writer)

[Aishwarya]

Gorab wrote: "ha ha ha
Got intrigued by your comments, I squeezed in some space in current reads and started reading this.

The eye injury reminds me of An Astronaut's Guide... have you guys read that? Or any o..."


Great!

Astronaut's Guide--Nope.
I don't really like to read biographies/memoirs. (Dr Kalam's being an exception there) But looking at reviews and chapter titles, I might like it. I will read that next.

[Nathan]

Been really swamped with work & other things. Completed around 100 pages...

(view spoiler)[
Sad to note that Tom died during the helicopter unit crash. Don't know if it's tampered with ... You know the cold war inside agent types.... Probably there is a mole 🥱🥱
Read too many spy thriller for me to be excited about this ....
Good for Russia that they found some radioactive material on the moon .. though I fail to see what the hype is all about???

I'm still reading reams & reams about info on politics, simulations, findings & whatnot... Where is the sci-fi thrill part??? Am I expecting too much or am I drawing way too much of a parallel from PHM?
(hide spoiler)]

[Nathan]

Sadly, I'm finding it so difficult to read & make progress on this novel 😅
I'm genuinely bored reading relentless details about simulations, flights , rovers, almaz, proton & stuff 🙊

But in the spirit of reading, I'll finish the novel.

[Gorab, TheGunman]

I read till Chapter 10 and I am DNFing this.
I don't see any value reading further speculative fiction.

Maybe the awesomeness of An Astronaut's Guide set the benchmark high for this.

Sorry for dropping out of the BR.

[Nathan]

Gorab wrote: "I read till Chapter 10 and I am DNFing this.
I don't see any value reading further speculative fiction.

Maybe the awesomeness of An Astronaut's Guide set the benchmark high for this.

Sorry for d..."

Ah ok. 😃
Happy reading for the other books in your pipeline ~
Ciao!

Cheers,
Nathan

[Aishwarya]

Hi...
I finished reading last night.
@Gorab, not surprised that you are DNFing. :)
@Nathan, you can rethink about finishing it... XD

I am disappointed. Why is it even 470 pages?
(view spoiler)[
-I was liking the details of spacecrafts, jets, and all but after a point I was like- 'Sir, I get it, I get how the rotors work, can we just fly of to where we are supposed to be!'
-The main plot/subject of murder/mystery/thrill is lost in details... I had higher expectations. :\
-Climax; it is a disaster (both in fictional and real life) with no adrenaline rush. Why?! Could have just iterated the details and rather worked on making a story there in the climax at least :')
-I was expecting Russia to be more aggressive in the right place/time, would have made a worthy competition. And Svetlana, poor woman all time looking out of the window, I understand her circumstances, but she is a trained cosmonaut for goodness sake, could have done better with that character :'(
-You are fighting for a radioactive stone found on Moon; Ok considered. You are fighting to keep your secrets from the enemy; Ok. But enemy knows your secret already! What more are you hiding now?! Almaz didn't even survived for one chapter!! It was armed with R-23, first of a kind!
- I liked the re-entry part, but it could have been better And there is another loop hole there. Why?! I was expecting it to be reasoned out in next chapter, but no.
-Character development for Chad was nice. But with Kaz I am not sure.
(hide spoiler)]

Well... learned a lot from this book. For example- how to not write a speculative fiction.

[Nathan]

Aishwarya wrote: "Hi...
I finished reading last night.
@Gorab, not surprised that you are DNFing. :)
@Nathan, you can rethink about finishing it... XD

I am disappointed. Why is it even 470 pages?

-I was liking th..."

Lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sadly I've also finished it & I'm in no mood to discuss anything of this. It's like 2 weeks time wasted....

The more I read, the more annoyed & disappointed I became. The sheer amount of useless technical details...
It's like every damn component, bolt is explained....
I'm going to forget I ever read this.

Sadly,
Nathan