What do You think about Space (1983)?
Sad. Just sad. A great author on the downslope of a career, that's how I see this. I mean, Hawaii, The Source, great stuff! Ditto Centennial. But, then, I read Texas, and about halfway through I got the impression something was just...off. Can't really say what. Maybe it was the well-worn Michener formula...you know, superficial character stumbling upon some artifact and we are transported back to the time of the story where the magic really happens, but I was expecting that, so, no, wasn't it. Just...off. A few years later, I picked up Chesapeake and stopped reading it after about 10 pages because it was definitely off. Michener had run his course.But, then I saw Space sitting on a shelf a couple of months ago and said, ya know, I'm older now and more forgiving so, hey, give the guy a chance. I had to force myself to read it all the way through and, when I got to the last page, said, "What dreck." It was. The characters are simply not human. Not at all. No person would react to anything the way these people reacted to everything. I thought it was a study of alien culture, to tell you the truth. And what's with "Fremont?" Just call it California. I don't think you'll be sued.Can't recommend it.
—D. Krauss
..the final frontier. To me, space has been an abstract, with a few perspectives molded by the science fiction I read. with this work, albeit a novel, James Michener gave me a lot of tangible snippets of how humans working in this wonderful scientific field have evolved over time.From the time of the Second World War, when creating rockets that would destroy opposing forces and cities was the priority to a nation's obsession to place a man on the moon, during the Cold War, to NASA and later scientists who grapple with manned and unmanned explorations and the possibility of life outside earth, this book, as with all of Michener's works, is one vast canvas. And mirroring, and perhaps concluding a debate in the book, (man as a measure of success..and interest) Michener uses the lives of the politicians, astronauts and the scientists working on the missions to show the universal nature of man's self doubts, his trials, tribulations, joys, sorrows, successes and failures. Personal battles - with self and others, mingle with professional clashes to make the story..human. A few real life figures like Sagan and Asimov get a mention in this work of fiction.There are some wonderful hat tips to some excellent works in sci fi. In tackling Space, Michener also draws attention to other profound things - evolution, religion, culture and gives some amazing perspectives on questions that each of us carry within us. A wonderful read, that re-created the awe and splendour that the cosmos invokes, and reminded me of the fundamental paradox of human existence - the preciousness in finite time and the meaninglessness, in the infinite.
—Manu Prasad
I finished this feeling ambivalent. Character development was for the most part very, very flat. Really, Stanley Mott is about the only character with much depth. I don't feel like I came away with much more insight into the early US space program as I might have liked and there was very little that I didn't already know. The climax (?) of the novel on the moon with the solar flare is all too brief and quickly skipped over. The guys on the moon die quickly and with little attention devoted to ho
—Justine
