Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins, Charles A. Lindbergh ISBN: 0-8154-1028-X Publisher: Cooper Square Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.71 (31 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book - Tells What it Was Like
Comment: I found this book by referral from other's reviews of lesser astronaut books. Several reviews said, in effect, "don't read this book but find yourself a copy of Carrying the Fire." So I did and now I know what they meant.
Michael Collins was the third astronaut on the famous Apollo 11 flight that landed on the moon in July, 1969. Unfortunately, because he wasn't one of the two in the Lunar Module, he isn't often mentioned. He stayed in lunar orbit as the Command Module Pilot. This book is Collins' telling of what it was like to be an astronaut, both in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He talks about the astronaut selection process, and what it was like to go through it. And he tells the story - from a very personal perspective, of what it was like, what he felt, what he worried about, what angered him, and well...you get the idea - of preparing for and flying a Gemini and Apollo mission.
Because this is his story, and his first person telling of the story, there isn't really anything here about the lunar landing itself. Rather, he talks about what he was doing when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It often made me laugh out loud and I certainly believe that I now know how Collins felt during his tenure as one of America's Astronauts. I found the book both well-written and engaging. I also found, to my surprise, that this is a humble, revealing and candid story. Highly recommended if you are interested in the genre.
Rating: 4
Summary: Probably the best of the astronaut autobiographies
Comment: In "Carrying the Fire" Michael Collins has given us a very unusual picture of the manned space program: a human and a humble one. While many of the astronaut autobiographies have been marred by shameless self-promotion ("Off the Planet" by Jerry Linnenger, or "The Last Man On the Moon" by Gene Cernan to name two), Astronaut Collins gives real warmth to his coming of age in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He is surprisingly honest about his own anxieties and fears, as well as candid about his role as "the one who didn't get to walk on the moon" on Apollo 11. Offered command of a later lunar landing, Collins demured, both out of respect for his family and out of a fear of pushing his luck. Collins often comes off as cranky and irritable, but never lets you forget that he started as an "outsider" amd had to climb his way to the top of the Astronaut hierarchy.
I was especially impressed with his candid assessments of the other astronauts.
Overall, a great read. Not as dramatic as some other books of this type, but probably more honest.
Rating: 5
Summary: No Question About It--The Best Astronaut Memoir Ever!
Comment: There have been several excellent Apollo astronaut memoirs, especially Gene Cernan's "The Last Man on the Moon" and Jim Lovell's "Lost Moon," which was made into the feature film "Apollo 13." This one is still the most honest and reflective of them all. It extends a tradition of the aviator as litterateur into the age of space travel.
Collins had an illustrious career as an astronaut. Chosen in the third group of astronauts in 1963, he served as backup pilot for Gemini VII, pilot for Gemini X, and command module pilot for Apollo 11. On that last mission he became the loneliest man in the universe when his two crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, landed on the Moon while he remained in orbit around the Moon in the Command Module. In "Carrying the Fire" Collins writes of his solitude in lunar orbit in July 1969. As he disappeared on the backside of the Moon from Earth, he recalled, "I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life, I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God only knows what on this side. I feel this powerfully-not as fear or loneliness-but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation. I like the feeling. Outside my window I can see stars-and that is all. Where I know the moon to be, there is simply a black void, the moon's presence is defined solely by the absence of stars." He compared it to being in a skiff in the middle of the ocean with only the stars above and black water below. It proved a profoundly moving experience for him.
Michael Collins left NASA in 1970 and became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, continuing to write eloquently of the possibilities of spaceflight. Among other works he published "Liftoff: The Story of America's Adventure in Space" (1988) and "Mission to Mars" (1990), a powerful exposition on the value of a human mission to Mars.
"Carrying the Fire" is the first candid book about life as an astronaut. The author comments on other astronauts, describes the seemingly endless preparations for flights to the Moon, and assesses the results. He also describes what he thinks of as the most important perspective that emerged from his flight, a realization of the fragility of the Earth. He wrote that "from space there is no hint of ruggedness to it; smooth as a billiard ball, it seems delicately poised on its circular journey around the Sun, and above all it seems fragile...Is the sea water clean enough to pour over your head, or is there a glaze of oil on its surface?...Is the riverbank a delight or an obscenity? The difference between a blue-and-white planet and a black-and-brown one is delicate indeed."
It is a powerful and moving memoir. Read it more than once and lend copies to your friends. You, and they, will not be disappointed.
 |
Title: Deke! : An Autobiography by Donald K. Slayton, Michael Cassutt ISBN: 031285918X Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: 15 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
 |
Title: The Last Man on the Moon : Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space by Donald A. Davis ISBN: 0312199066 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 15 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Flight My Life in Mission Control by Christopher C. Kraft, Chris Kraft ISBN: 0452283043 Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc. Pub. Date: 26 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz ISBN: 0425179877 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew L. Chaikin, Tom Hanks ISBN: 0140272011 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
