Synopses & Reviews
With a gift for visionary fiction that would make Robert A. Heinlein proud” (Entertainment Weekly) three-time Hugo Award-winning author Allen Steele now imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: what if the race to space had occurred in the early days of WWII?
It's 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his Fuehrer to abandon the V2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the U.S. Work on the rocketcalled Silbervogelbegins at Peenemunde. Though it is top secret, British intelligence discovers the plan, and brings word to Franklin Roosevelt. The American President determines that there is only one logical response: the U.S. must build a spacecraft capable of intercepting Silbervogel and destroying it. Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuel rocket, agrees to head the classified project.
So begins a race against timebetween two secret military programs and two brilliant scientists whose high-stakes competition will spiral into a deadly game of political intrigue and unforeseen catastrophes played to the death in the brutal skies above America.
Review
"[Jack McDevitt is] the logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke."—Stephen King
"Jack McDevitt is a master of describing otherworldy grandeur."—The Denver Post
"Nobody spins a yarn better than Mike Resnick."—Orson Scott Card
"Resnick is thought-provoking, imaginative...and above all galactically grand."—Los Angeles Times
Review
“McDevitt and Resnick take us along on a well-written ride through all sorts of back-door deals and hidden secrets before they tell us what really happened...as they rewrite history in a way that doesnt conflict with what we think we know.”—
Florida-Times Union “The apparent cover-up conspiracy at the heart of (the novel) is unpeeled back layer by layer through and elaborate series of plot twists and turns.”—
Jessup Press Sentinel
“The authors expertly crank up the tension and maintain it throughout via a suite of thoroughly believable characters.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
Praise for Allen Steele and His Novels
“Bears evidence of fresh thought about the opportunities inherent in science fiction to take the familiar and make it new.”—The New York Times Book Review
“A rich blend of personal and political storytelling.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Vivid realism.”—USA Today
“The closest thing the science fiction world now has to Robert A. Heinlein.”—SFRevu
“Allen Steele is always good.”—Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author
Synopsis
Two science fiction masters—Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick—team up to deliver a classic thriller in which one man uncovers the secret history of the US space program… Early in his career, Jerry Culpepper could never have been accused of being idealistic. Doing public relations—even for politicians—was strictly business...until he was hired as NASA’s public affairs director and discovered a client he could believe in. Proud of the agency’s history and sure of its destiny, he was thrilled to be a part of its future—a bright era of far-reaching space exploration.
But public disinterest and budget cuts changed that future. Now, a half century after the first moon landing, Jerry feels like the only one with stars—and unexplored planets and solar systems—in his eyes.
Still, Jerry does his job, trying to drum up interest in the legacy of the agency. Then a fifty-year-old secret about the Apollo XI mission is revealed, and he finds himself embroiled in the biggest controversy of the twenty-first century, one that will test his ability—and his willingness—to spin the truth about a conspiracy of reality-altering proportions...
About the Author
Jack McDevitt is a former naval officer, taxi driver, English teacher, customs officer, and motivational trainer, and is now a full-time writer. His novel
Seeker won a Nebula Award, and he is a multiple Nebula Award finalist. He lives in Georgia with his wife, Maureen.
Mike Resnick has won five Hugos (from a record thirty-five nominations), a Nebula, and other major awards in the US, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, and Poland. He’s the author of sixty-eight novels, more than two hundred and fifty short stories, and two screenplays, and is the editor of forty anthologies. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages.