Red Moon

I loved this book not only for its great pacing and story, but for the insight into the Soviet space program - some great insider stories that probably could never have been told with the real names - interesting both as a novel and as almost-history...

I was actually surprised - the only notion I'd had before of Mr. Cassutt's work was that he co-edited a so-so SF anthology "Sacred Visions" (his story was okay, but not the best one in the collection), and here he hits me with an awesome book. Truly - hats off, stand up and applaud. And it wasn't only that the story he presented was an engrossing, detailed and pleasing one - though this is a model thriller per se and should serve as a yardstick for the guys who think they can write. No, I was impressed by something else, something that an American author doesn't pull off all that often. The reality of being Russian in those days. Rybko is so real I was strongly tempted to believe in his existence, warts and all. At once fairly intelligent and helpless in coping with Soviet multi-layered reality, with plots within plots and official smokescreens at every step, with family secrets even more sinister, he just pulled me into the book and didn't let go until the last page. A pity there's no six-star award...

I often wonder why it seems I am reading a different book from other reviewers. Several have called this a mystery of what really happened to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, but that is a plotline in this story that does not arrive until 2/3 of the way through the story... and is truly only a minor part of this techno-thriller. The history of the Russian space program is absolutely fascinating and dictates both the plot and setting. It is a wonderfully brisk read that kept me entertained and looking for further information in the area of the history of space exploration. Highly recommended.

I thought that Cassutt's "Missing Man" was a superb book, but his latest venture into the mysterious and covert world of cosmonautics is simply without peer. I've been following spaceflight history for many years now, and I can see how the author (a renowned authority on the subject) has interwoven a fictional thriller story into the largely-unrevealed world of the Russian space program of the 1960's. Without spoiling the plot, the central focus is on the alleged murder of Russia's Sergei Korolev, the real-life "Chief Designer" of that nation's space program, whose reluctant anonymity only came to an end with his death on an operating table. Without him at the helm, Russia's space program fell apart, and America reached the Moon first. Because it is based very much on fact, this book is quite astonishing reading, and it is very obvious that Cassutt has done some deep and extensive research in putting together his book. There are many surprises stitched into the story, and it has proved to be a real page-turner for me. One of the best techno-thrillers for many years, in my humble opinion.

Michael Cassutt, who penned an earlier murder mystery set within the NASA family (Missing Man), does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the shadowy world of the Russian space program. He adds verisimilitude to the story by using historical figures (Yuri Gagarin, etc.) as central characters (he's obviously done his homework) but keeps the plotting fast-paced. His background in TV/movies (Max Headroom among others) serves him well in evoking visual images through the written word. Some might wonder if today's reader wants to learn more about dead Soviet space pioneers, but then you could've said the same about Apollo 13.