The Return by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes
Thirteen people attended this meeting, and one submitted comments by email. This is a near-future thriller about the space program. Former astronaut Scott Blackstone is the CEO of a private space company dedicated to getting normal people into space. For publicity his company gets a famous athlete to go on a shuttle flight, but the flight turns into a disaster. In the aftermath America’s confidence in the space program goes way down, Blackstone loses his job, and he must defend himself in an expensive lawsuit. And then terrorists in the Middle East start messing around with nuclear weapons. This book was written by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin in collaboration with John Barnes, author of several novels including Mother of Storms and One for the Morning Glory. Nine people at the meeting had read the book.
We enjoyed reading a hard SF novel for the first time in a while. The plot started with a bang and kept us interested to the end. We had complete confidence that the technical details of spacecraft and space flight were correct. We liked reading an insider’s view of the politics and inner workings of the corporate aerospace industry. Blackstone and his family were engaging and believable, and we enjoyed the flashbacks that showed them getting interested in space as