Jun 012015
 

Ian Sales has finished his Apollo Quartet, and the final book is brilliant. You should read the first three first, as they will loop you into this series of worlds all linked by the Apollo programme, all four obsessively researched, in very slightly alternate histories.

The fourth book focusses on the wife of an astronaut going into space, and she has, as a shameful – to him – secret: she is a science fiction writer. The book is gorgeous, a bit longer than the novella-length of the other three – fulfilling this conceptual series, and serving as an exquisite capstone to the quartet.

Jun 112014
 


This is the third of Ian Sales’ Apollo Quartet – I loved both the first and the second novellas. Short books, based on a series of what-ifs around the early days of the space programme. You get the sense that if anyone could plan an Apollo moon mission today, they’d speak to Sales, although he takes the series far beyond its original scope, bringing forth the optimism and fear of space age SF together with some thankfully modern sensibilities, like what if the Mercury astronauts were women. These novellas are tight and well-crafted and a pleasure to read – and re-read. Bravo.

Do yourself a favour: get it here.