The Return - Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes Book Review

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Review Summary

Scott Blackstone, former shuttle astronaut, is now CEO of ShareSpace, a private corporation devoted to marketing space travel. The first "Citizen Observer" flights are a success, but when celebrity basketball player Michael James is killed in a freak accident in space, Scott is fired and subjected to a lawsuit filed by the victim's family, and the future of the U.S. space program is in jeopardy. Complicating matters is a war between Pakistan and India (how plausible is THAT?) during which Pakistan explodes a proton bomb that releases unexpected amounts of radiation into orbit and disables all orbiting craft, from television- and cell phone-assisting satellites to the International Space Station with its hapless crew aboard. Scott's ex-wife Thalia -- an activist attorney -- takes on his case while his brother Nick, an executive engineer with Republic Wright corporation, positions his company both to pick up the pieces of the space program in general and mount a rescue mission for the astronauts in the space station (with Scott as pilot). This is a smart, workmanlike novel that gives a good glimpse into the technology and politics of the space program. It blows most of its big plot twists in the first half and coasts to a satisfying if predictable finish, but the character development is of a higher quality than the average book of this type, partly because the story is told in first person by the several principals in turn. This is the second novel coauthored by Barnes and the second man to walk on the moon.
David Loftus, Resident Scholar

Detailed literary breakdown of The Return

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - lost in spaceship - primitive/present day space voyage
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - engineer
Age: - 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - an organization

Setting
Earth setting: - current (early 21st century)
Spaceship setting: - primative (present, near future) human spaceship - a space station
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a significant amount of technical jargon
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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