Synopses & Reviews
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...
Review
Praise for Allen Steele
“Would make Robert A. Heinlein proud.”—Entertainment Weekly
“One of the fields very finest writers.” —Robert J. Sawyer, Nebula Award-winning author
“Allen Steele is among the best.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Allen Steele is always good.”—Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author
“The closest thing the science fiction world now has to Robert A. Heinlein.”—SFRevu
And Praise for VS Day
“Filled with fascinating minutiae of the early days of modern rocketry and exceptional characterization.”—Booklist
“Awesome, meticulous attention to scientific details, engineering protocols, bureaucratic procedures, and international politics.”—Locus
“A searing blast of ‘what if.”—SFFWorld.com
“Thoughtful and fascinating, as entertaining and well-executed an alternate history as youre going to find. Its subtle and ultimately successful, demonstrating once again that you can take a tiny moment, alter a simple decision, and end up with something new and interesting. This, like anything, shows why Steeles a multiple Hugo winner, and why he remains relevant.”—Tor.com
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
Synopsis
Three-time Hugo Awardwinning author Allen Steele imagines an alternate history rooted in an actual historical possibility: What if the race to space had occurred in the early days of World War II? Its 1941, and Wernher von Braun is ordered by his fuhrer to abandon the V-2 rocket and turn German resources in a daring new direction: construction of a manned orbital spacecraft capable of attacking the United States. When the top secret plan is leaked to Franklin Roosevelt, the president has only one logical response: The United States must build their own spacecraft to destroy it. Robert Goddard, inventor of the liquid-fuel rocket, agrees to head the classified project.
So begins a race against time between 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.
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.