Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Picking up the threads of his acclaimed 1973 autobiography, Return to Earth, Aldrin presents as no-holds-barred account of how his celebrity, career and human weaknesses nearly destroyed his life. On July 19, 1968, millions witnessed Neil Armstrong and Aldrin become the first two people on the moon; an instant American hero, Aldrin was "greeted with ticker-tape parades" and spent the next two years, along with his fellow astronauts, as public relations assets for NASA and the Nixon administration. With a PhD from MIT, Aldrin had not only spent eight years training for the mission, but also helped developed technology needed for the mission; upon returning home from his world tour as an "unofficial space ambassador," however, he found the doors at NASA "pretty much closed"; the moon-landing program had given way to the shuttle project. That homecoming would catapult Aldrin into a decades-long struggle with alcoholism and clinical depression (both his grandfather and mother committed suicide) that broke up two marriages before psychiatric treatment and rehab put him on the road to recovery. This inspiring story exhibits Aldrin as a different, perfectly human kind of hero, giving readers a sympathetic look at a man eclipsed by his own legend.
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Review

"Buzz Aldrin relives the Magnificent Desolation of space, and the soul-sucking depression that awaited back home."
–Vanity Fair, “Hot Type”

"An admirable account of an icon of the golden age of space flight."
–Kirkus Reviews

“Space fans, in particular, will cheer.”
–Booklist

“Aldrin presents a no-holds-barred account of how his celebrity, career and human weaknesses nearly destroyed his life….This inspiring story exhibits Aldrin as a different, perfectly human kind of hero, giving readers a sympathetic look at a man eclipsed by his own legend.”
–Publishers Weekly

“Buzz Aldrin relives the Magnificent Desolation of space, and the soul-sucking depression that awaited back home."
–Vanity Fair, “Hot Type”

“Riveting reading.”
–The Economist

“Leads the field of new releases.The candid portrayal of his earthly battles—often written with great humor—make this a cut above the rest….Great holiday reading.”
–New Scientist

“Captivating….an engaging first-hand account by one of history’s most important explorers.”
–Alive East Bay

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1St Edition edition (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307463451
• ISBN-13: 978-0307463456
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,411 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Did Aldrin write this?, July 26, 2009

By	David Shomper "Apollo engineer" (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having worked on Apollo at Kennedy, I am always eager to read the latest books about space history. While I realize that the bulk of this book has to do with Aldrin's problems he endured (and overcame) after the mission, I was quite surprised at the number and magnitude of the technical errors I noticed regarding the mission. It made me wonder just how much input Aldrin really had in the writing of this book. Surely he knows better.

A few examples: the book states that Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 reached an altitude of 62 miles (it went up 116 miles). The book repeatedly refers to multiple engines on the LM descent and ascent stages as well as on the Service Module; each of the 3 only had one engine. The book refers to the "dark side" of the moon; (there is no "dark" side, only a "far" or "back" side). Even the text on the LM commemoration plaque is misquoted. There are many more.

There is a photo whose caption states it is taken after Aldrin's Gemini 12 EVA. If this is true, who took it from outside the spacecraft? It is actually a photo (JSC image S66-59907) taken prior to liftoff. (The visor protective cover is still in place.)

All in all, I still enjoyed the book, but I am always suspect about the rest of the book when I am able to find so many errors in the parts I am familiar with. But these errors in no way detract from my admiration of the man.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Magnificent Disappointment, July 29, 2009

By	Chandrashekar Tamirisa "Chandra Tamirisa" (Rockville, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This book by Buzz Aldrin written with Ken Abraham appears to have been written in a hurry. It could have used some better editing.

Substantively, Aldrin's account has a tone of exaggerated self-importance and now, into his eighties, it is clear that he is still struggling to come up with a coherent vision for exploring outer space. By contrast, Armstrong and Collins appear to be far more down-to-earth and it is clear that perhaps Neil Armstrong, of the three, truly fully understood what it meant to set foot on the moon. Me, being not alien to the space sciences, space exploration, an extraordinary technical feat, cannot happen outside of its political, economic and social contexts and the book reveals a complete lack of this understanding besides recounting a laundry list of Aldrin's high-powered access, albeit with affected humility.

After all, with due respect, Aldrin is more of a super hero to himself (and his Lois) because Apollo was an accomplishment of many. When all is said and done, any astronaut, moon walker or otherwise, is a NASA government employee, not Columbus who had set out to explore and raised funds for his exploration promising riches to his sponsors in return. If NASA promotes a culture within the organization of glorifying the astronauts, the government should perhaps look into getting them off the pedestal.

The Earth (not just the United States) had gone to the Moon, not Buzz Aldrin. The issue is one of identity transformation, not Aldrin's soup of super ego, self-pity and unbounded American nationalism, none of which suit the idea of space exploration.

He could have done better for the 40th anniversary of Apollo. We should hope 50, "before the [next] decade is out," will really mean something for the country and the world.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just Not Good Enough, August 4, 2009

By	Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Magnificent DesolationMagnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin (with Ken Abraham). This is Aldrin's second or third stab at an autobiography, but the first I've read. I saw it on the New York Times list of bestsellers, timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the moon landings, and thought I'd have to give it a read. I was rather disappointed. I don't know that I can say it a whole lot better than this other Amazon reviewer did: "At one point in the book, Buzz Aldrin observes: `I kind of like David Letterman's quirky humor, it is like mine'. This pretty much sums up the annoyingly self-centered storytelling of the book. As others have pointed out, the space-program related parts are boilerplate, nothing new or interesting here. The rest, 85% of the book, is self-centered crank, crank, crank, descent into depression and alcoholism, page after page of self-quotations from speeches and pitches of the same old `Mars cycler' or go-to-space-lottery half baked ideas. For a 3-year old to misbehave and throw a tantrum in order to get attention is normal, and most get over it in time. Buzz Aldrin is still stomping his foot, `me, me, me'." Perhaps that is overstating the case a little bit but reading this autobiography, which begins with the countdown to Apollo 11 and carries on to the present day, primarily details life after NASA. The most interesting parts of the book, then, are the in the opening pages. After that the reader is forced to walk with him through the dissolution of his first marriage (and his second and the first twenty years of his third), affairs and girlfriends, drunkenness and clinical depression, and the rise and wane (and rise and wane) of celebrity. It was forty years that Aldrin stepped on the moon and it seems that since then he has been trying to find some return to glory. So far it has not happened. This is a pretty dismal tale and one that is not only quite boring but also poorly-written. I love to read biographies of heroes, but the more I read of Aldrin the more I see that he is no hero. Desolation described the moon, it described much of Aldrin's life (by his own admission), and it describes this book. You'll want to take a pass on this one (or at least wait for the paperback).