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HOW TO DIE IN SPACE

Name: HOW TO DIE IN SPACE
Author: Paul M. Sutter
ISBN: 978-1-64313-438-3

A JOURNEY THROUGH DANGEROUS ASTROPHYSICAL PHENOMENA

by Paul M. Sutter ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020

Sutter’s macabre humor and lucid science writing make this an entertaining read with mass appeal.

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Sure, space travel sounds like fun—but there are countless ways to die out there. Comets, black holes, radiation, solar flares, neutron stars, supernovae—the universe is endlessly creative in devising phenomena that make leaving the comfortable atmosphere of Earth a risk. “Space is nasty,” writes astrophysicist Sutter, who adopts an informal, humorous persona in this book-length warning to aspiring astronauts: “Let’s sketch out the most dangerous parts of the solar system: The solar system. There, that was easy.” It’s a refreshing approach to a vast and complex subject, and the author doesn’t skimp on the science despite his non-serious tone. He walks readers through the physics of familiar dangers such as asteroids (“rocks that are looking for a target”) and unstable stars (“slumbering dragon[s], just waiting for the chance to awaken and begin breathing flame”) as well as more exotic elements—e.g., the “deadly, poisonous embrace” of the white dwarf or “the infinite density” of a black hole’s singularity. Sutter also covers what he calls “speculative threats,” which include “relics of the ancient universe” such as dark matter, cosmic strings, or the alluring possibility of aliens and wormholes. The author's analyses are deeply researched and enormously interesting, and he navigates the nuances of new science and evolving knowledge deftly, with nontechnical readers in mind. In the end, Sutter shifts slightly from his doomsday focus to reveal his serious enthusiasm for humankind’s future as intergalactic explorers. “I wrote these chapters to weed out the weak and unwilling. To scare some sense into them,” he writes. “For the remaining, the more foolish and daring and curious than usual, this book is a guide. It’s really an excuse to talk about all the wonderful physics happening in the cosmos….There is so much to learn, and we need to study it as closely and intimately as possible.” Sutter’s macabre humor and lucid science writing make this an entertaining read with mass appeal. (8 pages of color photos)

Pub Date: June 2, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-64313-438-3

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020

Categories:

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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Best Books Of 2023

New York Times Bestseller

ELON MUSK

by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

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Best Books Of 2023

New York Times Bestseller

A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.

To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.

Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023

ISBN: 9781982181284

Page Count: 688

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023

Categories:

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THE RIGHT STUFF

by Tom Wolfe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 24, 1979

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Yes: it's high time for a de-romanticized, de-mythified, close-up retelling of the U.S. Space Program's launching—the inside story of those first seven astronauts.

But no: jazzy, jivey, exclamation-pointed, italicized Tom Wolfe "Mr. Overkill" hasn't really got the fight stuff for the job. Admittedly, he covers all the ground. He begins with the competitive, macho world of test pilots from which the astronauts came (thus being grossly overqualified to just sit in a controlled capsule); he follows the choosing of the Seven, the preparations for space flight, the flights themselves, the feelings of the wives; and he presents the breathless press coverage, the sudden celebrity, the glorification. He even throws in some of the technology. But instead of replacing the heroic standard version with the ring of truth, Wolfe merely offers an alternative myth: a surreal, satiric, often cartoony Wolfe-arama that, especially since there isn't a bit of documentation along the way, has one constantly wondering if anything really happened the way Wolfe tells it. His astronauts (referred to as "the brethren" or "The True Brothers") are obsessed with having the "right stuff" that certain blend of guts and smarts that spells pilot success. The Press is a ravenous fool, always referred to as "the eternal Victorian Gent": when Walter Cronkite's voice breaks while reporting a possible astronaut death, "There was the Press the Genteel Gent, coming up with the appropriate emotion. . . live. . . with no prompting whatsoever!" And, most off-puttingly, Wolfe presumes to enter the minds of one and all: he's with near-drowing Gus Grissom ("Cox. . . That face up there!—it's Cox. . . Cox knew how to get people out of here! . . . Cox! . . ."); he's with Betty Grissom angry about not staying at Holiday Inn ("Now. . . they truly owed her"); and, in a crude hatchet-job, he's with John Glenn furious at Al Shepard's being chosen for the first flight, pontificating to the others about their licentious behavior, or holding onto his self-image during his flight ("Oh, yes! I've been here before! And I am immune! I don't get into corners I can't get out of! . . . The Presbyterian Pilot was not about to foul up. His pipeline to dear Lord could not be clearer"). Certainly there's much here that Wolfe is quite right about, much that people will be interested in hearing: the P-R whitewash of Grissom's foul-up, the Life magazine excesses, the inter-astronaut tensions. And, for those who want to give Wolfe the benefit of the doubt throughout, there are emotional reconstructions that are juicily shrill.

But most readers outside the slick urban Wolfe orbit will find credibility fatally undermined by the self-indulgent digressions, the stylistic excesses, and the broadly satiric, anti-All-American stance; and, though The Right Stuff has enough energy, sass, and dirt to attract an audience, it mostly suggests that until Wolfe can put his subject first and his preening writing-persona second, he probably won't be a convincing chronicler of anything much weightier than radical chic.