Red Moon

An incredible book about an incredible time in the history of spaceflight!

An excellent book!! Michaels weaves three storylines in two time periods together seamlessly! A fantastic premise based on space facts. It just makes you wonder if the Soviets actually tried it in the real world!!!

Well Written and Well Researched Fiction(?)

David Michaels weaves an intriguing story around actual occurrances. He shows his extensive knowledge of both the US and USSR space prgorams, and writes with an intensity that keeps you riveted. I recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in space. Excellent!

One of the most amazing books I have ever read

I LOVED this book. I absolutely LOVED this book. Author David Michaels contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reading his book, and I figured, 'why not?' Firewood publishing, out of Portland, Oregon gambled on this exceptional story, and I thank them and Mr. Michaels for making available truly one of the finest books I have been fortunate enough to have read. The premise is incredible, but based on FACT. Three DAYS before Apollo 11 blasted off from Kennedy, the Soviet Union launched Luna 15 to the moon. Where THIS story takes an interesting turn is when Michaels uses his incredible imagination and 'supposes' that it was actually a manned lunar ship...and since the Russians were notoriously afraid of world-wide retribution, they intended to keep Luna 15's inhabitant quiet -- until the mission was deemed a success...IF something went wrong, he would be quietly forgotten and left to die alone some 250,000 miles from earth. This plot literally captured my imagination from the first page of this big book which I am happy to say, held my interest all the way to the satisfying conclusion. Grigor Belinsky is the cosmonaut who is pretty much forced into this suicide mission, and because of Michaels detailed character development, he becomes much more than the main focus of this amazing tale, Michaels breathes life into this forgotten hero and before long, you find yourself totally absorbed by his situation and its unthinkable outcome. The story shifts from the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing with an International group of astronauts on the moon searching for what they refer to as 'The Mother Lode' when they (for propaganda purposes) go in search of the supposedly unmanned Luna 15...then you switch to 1968 with Grigor preparing along with the entire cosmonaut corp for the eventual Soviet domination of space, including landing first on the moon...unfortunately setback after incredible setback threatens to bring them in 2nd to the Americans -- which is intolerable to the Politburo, you either WIN or forget about even trying. I feel as though I was privy to the inner-workings of the Communist Government thinking as well as the rigorous training and dangers faced by the early Soviet cosmonauts. I also feel that even though I may never actually get to physically step foot on the moon it won't matter too much, because after reading 'Red Moon' I feel as though I have already been there. Once again, I LOVED this book. I CANNOT recommend it highly enough. Quite possibly the most solidly entertaining book I have ever read. If alternate history novels appeal to you, try 'Red Moon' and you will find that it will now become the bar by which ALL others should be judged. Simply brilliant storytelling.

An involving epic of space flight

A fast-moving techno-thriller in the Tom Clancy-Martin Caidin tradition, RED MOON vaults back and forth across a half-century to reveal what might have happened in the frantic closing days of the Moon Race between the United States and Soviet Union, as well as provide a glimpse of humanity's return to the Moon a few years hence.

The story opens in July, 2019, when a spaceship carrying commander Janet Luckman and her multinational crew land on the moon in search of the Mother Lode, a cache of ice that contains a rare isotope which could solve the world's severe energy crunch. When they arrive at the crash site of a supposed robotic space probe launched from the Soviet Union more than 50 years before, they instead fined an intact manned lunar lander with Soviet markings.

The mystery/thriller so well begun is skilfully wrapped around another story line set in 1968/9, tracing the journeys of heroic Russian cosmonaut Grigor Belinsky, his angelic, dissident ex-wife, Mirya; and Radek, the sinister Svengali scheming to seize control of the Soviet space program.

RED MOON is a BIG book in every way, nothing less than an epic of man's struggle to explore space and conquer his own baser nature. The characters are deep and involving, the suspense heart-stopping, and the conclusion remarkably uplifting.