Customer Reviews

T-Minus: The Race to the Moon

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As we "deet deet deet" into the first panel like a capsule descending from outer space, we enter the remarkable world of a space race told comic book style. I've always been a fan of a storyteller who lights a fuse right away. Give us a ticking bomb, a deadline, a finite amount of time in which our hero must succeed or face annihilation: Run Lola Run and Back to the Future did it perfectly and we all remember the catastrophic Y2K computer bug that nearly wiped out the human race and unraveled the fabric of the space-time continuum. Thankfully Dick Clark was there to bring us home in the nick of time.

In the case of T-Minus, the countdown is the premise of the book and while the reader knows that the race will be won when the clock expires, the book's characters are racing against a different deadline: JFK's challenge to put a man on the moon and return him to earth by the end of the decade.

So brings T-Minus: The Race to the Moon, a compelling behind-the-scenes story of the space race filled with software glitches, landing bags that deploy prematurely, loose heat shields and a pair of cosmonauts forced to hide in their downed capsule while Siberian wolves threaten them outside. Told with parallel stories of the United States vs. the Soviet Union, with characters that come and go as the years pass, the artwork pulls you into the world of scientists and space travelers and makes you feel what they actually felt. The character introductions are subtle. Every few pages I say to myself "Oh, there's John Glenn..." or "Hey, that's Yuri Gagarin." They are woven in seamlessly and their allegiance is discernable by a clever variance in speech bubble font (the Russkies speak their words with a backwards N). And it's nice to see that the Soviets aren't portrayed as evil, mindless thugs (Indy 4?) but competent, brilliant scientists and explorers...that is, until they get desperate.

The crisp artwork is filled with first-rate detail, with tiny lifelike tools, soldiers marching to battle and endless knobs, buttons and switches. Most captivating is the iconic imagery of the space missions, especially the highlights drawn into the margins which are reminiscent of the one-shot Sergio Aragonés cartoons from Mad Magazine.

As I sit and write this on a day when six humans in space are awaiting the arrival of seven more, the most ever together in space at one time, I realize what a big deal it was to have two men in space at once, how far we've come and how far we have yet to go. Best part of the book: Yuri Gagarin's landing in the middle of a field and his greeting to the two startled spectators who happen to be nearby.

As a space buff I thought this was a terrific book that elaborated on a great story that we all know. Meant to educate children ages 9-12 it will provide certain enjoyment for adults (I finally learned what woomera means). This is best exemplified by an astronaut who defies his orders and absolutely refuses to go to bed while orbiting the moon because he is too busy taking pictures. Can you blame him? I'd fight to stay awake too!

Mark McGinty is the author of ELVIS AND THE BLUE MOON CONSPIRACY

I bought this for my son (who loved it!) and really enjoyed it myself. Tons of historical detail and personal stories. I learned much more about the Soviet side of the space race from this book than from anything else I've read or seen.

Every boy with an interest in space, rocketry, science or engineering should have a copy and so should every school library.

Trying to tell the story of the US-Soviet space race is biting off quiet a large slice of history. Ottaviani and crew are only partly successful in this graphic novel approach to the tale.

There's a lot of good about this book. It tries to tell the story of the space race with as much of an eye to the Russian side as to the American. I had never heard of The Great Designer, Sergei Korolev, the sickly Soviet master engineer who was the Werner von Braun of the Soviet space program. The contrast between the stunning early Russian space "firsts" contrasted with string of the US rocket disasters was as eye-opening as the later American series of successes and Russians debacles.

That said, the book's missteps were irritating. Many launches are described with a single illustration on the sides of a page. Many critical missions of the Gemini program, which tested the ability of astronauts to rendezvous and dock in space, were "covered" in a few confusing throwaway side panels. And the attention paid to certain missions or events was out of balance to their importance. The routine orbit of Apollo 8 around the moon went on for page after page. Also, the arguments about which corporations should build the US space craft were hard to follow and borderline irrelevant. And Ottaviani more than occasionally got lost in depicting unintelligible NASA space-talk.

In the end, though, I came away a great deal of knowledge from this imperfect depiction of the space program, and the two-party race to the moon. Not a glowing endorsement, but a thumbs up, weakly, nonetheless.

I got this book out of my local library because I love the whole space travel concept, And also because my friend reccomended it. I was skeptical at first, because I had flipped through it before and a black and white graphic novel didn't seem very interesting. But in the first few minutes of reading this book, I learned more than 45 minutes of school! It's a great book that I definetly reccomend for all ages.

A great story, well told and beautifully illustrated. I couldn't put it down. Aside from the engaging story-line, this incredible work is loaded with interesting facts and figures. The author and illustrators clearly have tremendous passion for the subject, and their enthusiasm is infectious. I truly enjoyed this memorable read, highly recommended.

I have an astonishing new appreciation of the vast efforts and nearly impossible tasks that took place to put humans into space and on the moon. The risks. The trials. The "Space Race" with the Russians. The innovation. How far we've come.

There's a huge amount of information in the book, but it's told with enough storyline as to be clear anyway. I'm blown away by the research Jim Ottaviani must have done to write this. And the graphics are an integral part of the story-telling, as well, serving the dual functions of moving the story forward and telling parts of the story by showing us the environment, the spacecraft designs, and more.

I highly recommend it.

What did it take to get a man on the moon? This book is the fascinating tale of the US/Soviet space race. The writing is excellent, and the art is perfectly suited for the subject - the narrative is literally framed with the launches, failed and successful, on the path to this goal.

This is mostly an ensemble cast, but if there's a single star it's the mysterious genius in charge of the Soviet space program - The Designer. I didn't really know much about him (we still don't, in absolute terms, but I sure know a lot more now). And in fact the USSR most likely would have beaten the US to the Moon if not... well I won't spoil the why.

While the art may be appropriately clinical, the story is as much human as technical, and the book is a slowly building crescendo to a double page spread that to my surprise actually choked me up a bit. I had not to that point realized how pulled into the book I was.

Some of Ottaviani's other books are a bit too introspective for me to recommend to just anyone, but this and Bone Sharps I would recommend to anyone of any age.