Back to the Moon

I found this a really good read, filled with interesting characters and a great plot. It starts out with a highjacking of the space shuttle. Hickam has enough inside knowledge to make that perfectly plausible. There is a lot of work in space suits involved, something Hickam apparently was involved in a lot at NASA. Penny High Eagle, the payload specialist, is a great and sympathetic characture. Paco the cat who's aboard is a funny touch. There's a lot of fun to this novel. I think a lot of it is tongue in cheek that some reviewers can't figure out. It definitely is not boring and is a real page-turner.It is very thought-provoking about the "Star Wars" killer satellites around the moon, plausible, too.In a lot of ways, this novel is a love story. Jack wants most of all to go to find a message on the moon from his late wife. Yet, his wife never went to the moon so how could it be there? I teared up when I read what Jack actually finds there.I noticed a note on a review about a pistol being fired in space. Gun powder does not require air to burn. It contains all the ingredients in it to work in a vacuum. A form of gun powder, after all, is what is used in solid fuel rockets! As for a space-suited astronaut getting his finger on the trigger, a .45 caliber pistol has plenty of room in its trigger guard. Recoil is a problem but Hickam has his astronaut well wedged in.I enjoyed rummaging around the old Apollo 17 site with Medaris. Some really good writing here.All in all, much recommended. Let there be no doubt that Homer Hickam knows how to write a novel. I love all his books. Remember, even his memoirs are written as novelsKeep it up, Mister Hickam! Can't wait for the Back to the Moon movie!

First off, this was written before Hickam's Rocket Boys according to his web site even though it came out afterwards. Clearly, when he wrote this novel, Hickam was just developing his skills as a writer. Still, even though it's dated (he uses the ill-fated shuttle Columbia for this trip to the moon) this is a very good book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hickam's inside knowledge of NASA makes it a unique book. I think his tongue was very much in cheek most of the time while he was writing this but I still get the idea that the characters are based on real people he knew while working for the agency. After reading the novel, I felt as if I actually knew each and every one of the people in this book from old gruff Sam the head of mission control to Cecil the lawyer. I especially liked Cecil. He's a great character and is a good example of Hickam's development while writing this book into the great novelist he's become. Like his latest novel, The Keeper's Son, this is a novel filled with action and adventure but it is also a love story, too, and a good one. Not only is there love between the hero Jack Medaris and the beautiful Amerindian science reporter Penny High Eagle aboard the shuttle but there is also the memory of love still with Jack's dead wife who was also a rocket scientist. The scenes on the moon were especially well done. Hickam makes you feel as if you really are there. And the idea of having Jack walking around the old Apollo 17 site was pure genius. How lonely it must be there in reality. Hickam gave me that sense but also wrote it with wonder and hope. Then when Penny joins him and Jack reads the letter (I won't tell you who it's from), I got goose bumps! Even then, Hickam's talent was very impressive in his ability to make you feel for his characters. I read this novel in one long reading and was very impressed, especially since I've read Hickam's most recent work. He is a much better writer now and it's interesting to see his early work as he learned his trade. I look forward to reading all of his work from here on and I certainly don't hold this early effort against him. Read it for what it is and simply enjoy the ride.

I am 14 years old. This novel is fun to read. I couldn't pt it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jack and Penny and Paco (who is a cat). I've really enjoyed all of Mr. Hickam's books, especially his books about Coalwood and growing up there. I and my parents are going to visit Coalwood this October 4 to meet Mr. Hickam and the other rocket boys. It should be a lot of fun. But on this novel, I really think it's a great book. My mom and dad both read it before me and said so. I just like the idea of us going back to the moon but I also really got into Jack and Penny's love story. I also loved when he wrote about Paco. A cat in space is a very funny and interesting idea. I think a cat in space would be just like Paco is described. I felt really bad for Jack when he found the message on the moon. I cried over that. I am getting all my friends to read this book.

It is remarkable to me that a space engineer/reviewer would not like this book. I am such, have worked in the industry for decades, and believe that Homer Hickam has written a delightful techno-thriller that not only is a compelling page turner but gives the reader, space insider or not, much to think about. I guess you'd have to say Hickam is nor has ever been much of a "in the box" kind of thinker. If he was, he wouldn't have written Rocket Boys/October Sky which has sold ten times more copies than any astronaut biography.The plot of this novel is centered around the Apollo 13 type of "can do" engineering whereby what is available is modified to do the impossible. But this is more than a book of engineering. It is a deeply philosophical look at the American space program and the very real people who are in it. Hickam has created characters that I deeply cared about as I read their adventures although he, as evinced in all his books, has his tongue firmly in his cheek much of the time. Homer, by the way, no longer works for NASA and from what I can tell rarely devotes any time to it these days. Most of his writing has centered around the town of Coalwood, West Virginia and I notice that his new novel is set on the Outer Banks and is a seafaring novel. Much can be learned about Hickam the writer on his site... In any case, this is a great novel for everybody. Don't miss it.

This book by homer ranks up there with any other fiction author like Cussler and Clancy. He includes a plausable senerio with adventure and suspence. There were no boring parts in the intire book, and it kept you wondering until the very last page. You will finish the book in a few days easy. This is a great book which I highly reccommend.