Customer Reviews

They All Laughed at Christopher Columbus: An Incurable Dreamer Builds the First Civilian Spaceship

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First, it should be known that I have worked with Gary Hudson for about thirty years now. I have worked with him and for him in every one of his endeavors. I am working with him now on space projects. I have also and known many of the other people described in this book, and sometimes I think that Weil spent most of her time talking to and being with an entirely different set of people.

Her research on the subject of space is intensive, and it is obvious she has done her best to do her homework. Her background information on the space field is detailed, and as far as I can tell, correct. I know from observation that she spent huge amounts of time at Rotary Rocket interviewing people and hanging around the operation, and that either through extensive note taking or a steel-trap memory, no detail or comment, technical or otherwise, escaped her notice. This is no half-assed writing job. There is a lot of work here. One cannot say this book was written by someone who blew in for a week to take a look around and then left. Which makes the end result more disappointing. More on that later.

The book is almost painful to read, but that might just be me. It seems unsympathetic at best, patronizing at worst. There is a generous supply of unflattering physical descriptions, applied to almost every person in the book, and repeated continuously. Hudson's shaking hands are endlessly commented on. When Zubrin is expounding on his innovative methods and philosophy of space exploration, Weil makes a point of commenting on "projectiles of spit flying from his mouth." Why this is relevant or what function this could have other than to express dislike or even contempt for the subjects is unclear. One can imagine a description of Lincoln giving the Gettysburg address, and describing in detail the way his wart quivered as he talked.

If the physical descriptions are unflattering, so are the descriptions of their views and attitudes. To read this book, one would think that every person involved in trying to get private space off the ground is just one signature short of commitment to an asylum. While I would be the first to admit that the field garners its share of eccentrics, in my work the people I dealt with were mostly professional, reasoned, experienced, and above all, highly intelligent. That they don't fit easily into a mold goes without saying. That's why they were there. In the book, Tom Clancy offers a quote from George Bernard Shaw: "[t]he reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." I understand the original title of this book was to be "Unreasonable Men," and it would have been a better title.

After a while the feet of clay she keeps slapping onto the ends of everyone's legs gets tiring.

What makes the book disappointing, is that it is not a bad book. It is that Weil seems to have completely missed the whole point. Her detached, somewhat patronizing viewpoint of these efforts is not limited to Hudson and his people, but extends to everyone who dreams of going into space. For that matter, it seems to extend to all entrepreneurs and explorers anywhere who push forward despite obstacles and the scorn of less enthusiastic people. This attitude is even less comprehensible considering Weil has a background of writing articles on the movers and shakers in Silicon Valley. What doesn't she get?

Is there nothing of the dreamer in Weil's soul? I don't want to be that ungenerous. I don't know her that well. But one get the impression that she would have been one of those people wondering why we spent so much money on Moon rocks.

The most telling part of the book to me were the following paragraphs:

"Gary, like almost everybody else who worked at Rotary, had grown up in the science fiction world among the fen. His favorite books were Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 'The Mote in God's Eye' and Poul Anderson's 'The Earth Book of Stormgate,' and he believed that science fiction taught its readers that 'there is no end to accomplishments' and that 'the future is yours to create.'

"...Jaws dropped in Mojave when I first admitted that I hadn't read Heinlein or Bradbury. Or Asimov either. On came an avalanche of well-thumbed paperbacks, people explaining, with generous hearts, that I could not understand them unless I read this one or that. Embarrassingly, I tried to return the favor, extending copies of my own dog-eared favorites--James Salter's 'Light Years,' Joan Didion's 'Slouching Toward Bethlehem'--which people politely accepted and completely ignored.

"Why? As Alexei and Cory Panshin explain in their fannish manifesto, 'SF in Dimension,' 'mimetic fiction'--that is, realistic fiction--is 'a negative drag on literature' Moreover, 'SF which rejects its freedom to be positive is as big a bummer as mimetic fiction.'"

I largely agree with this view on mimetic fiction, or Naturalism, which Ayn Rand effectively skewers in The Romantic Manifesto.

I have run across a lot of non-science people who have never read Heinlein, and are turned off by "scientific fiction." But to have never at least read Bradbury indicates a major lack of the fantastic in one's life. It would be interesting to see if Weil has ever read Tolkein.

I don't think she was the right person to write this book. You might get a similar result from having a highly creative and intelligent blind person do an extensive treatise on Vincent Van Gogh. All the details would be there of his life, and the research thoroughly done, but the impact of his work on the author's mind and soul would be missing.

Had Weil been able to understand the motivations of the people who try such things, fail, and try again endlessly until they succeed, and then applied her considerable skills, this could have been a very good book indeed.

There seem to be two reactions to this book: pro-space activists think it's trash, while the normal people who seemingly read it by accident all love it. Here's a third perspective: I strongly believe that we need cheap, reusable, privately owned launch vehicles like the one Rotary Rocket tried to develop. But I love this book because it reveals exactly why none of the many Mom & Pop rocket companies have ever produced one. The main problem is that the people who are strongly motivated to start such firms are mostly impractical dreamers who lack the technical skills and business sense to make them work. Reading Weil's dispassionate description of the Roton development program is like watching the film "Ed Wood" -- you can't believe that these people actually existed and actually believed they were building a workable rocketship. The sane part of the space community always knew that the Roton would be a miserable technical failure for all the reasons given on p.167, but it is really scary to see just how out of touch with reality the major players like Gary Hudson and Walt Anderson really were. And these guys are still active in the alt.space community! I sure hope Elon Musk's SpaceX project succeeds so we don't have to watch any more of these painful failures.

This book gives some insight to the history on some of the major charcaters at Mojave Spaceport. While I can not judge the book on how it casts the real-life characters of Mojave as the "mecca for emotionally vulnerable fringe technologists," many have walked away from Roton to do some quite interesting, challenging, and, historic space feats. I highly susepct many more historic events will be at the hands of the Roton veterans of Mojave. The evolution of the people from the failure demonstrates the strength of the passion and the determination of the human spirit. The book is an interesting read for those looking for some basic understanding of the connections among the players of Mojave's fledgling commercialization of space. I recommend the book. Gary Hudson, keep going!

I thought that this was a fun read. I have met many of the people in the book, and I have always wondered why they kept working on the rocket after they gave up on the engine, and this book explains it all. (Walt kept giving them money) Some of Gary's associates have complained that the author has treated him harshly, but I have heard much worse about him from others. Also some people have complained about the technical errors, but this is not a technical book. This book was entertaining, and a little scary for me, because I have a rocket problem as well.

What a disappointment that Elizabeth Weil missed not only the point of space development and it's leadership, but the opportunity to communicate the importance of their cause. Weil obviously spent a significant amount of time with Gary Hudson and other leaders of the space activist community in her research for the book. Yet, she seems more interested in pointing out various human frailties and short comings of these dedicated individuals, than describing the true selfless vision that drives them every day.

In this day and age of ENRON scandals it is unbelieveable that Weil does not recognize how much Gary and Anne Hudson have personally sacrificed in order to provide a better life and future for humanity. Gary's continued efforts to open space for future generations is nothing short of heroic. If he had put his significant talents to work at either NASA or the aerospace industry I have no doubt that he would have gained more financially and personally than he has working as a space entrepreneur. The reason he, and others, have chosen this path is because they truly believe it has a greater opportunity for success.

The space community no doubt is characterized by its share of science fiction aficionados and techie-geeks. My experience has also proven to me that the majority of these people, and most assuradly Gary Hudson, are contributing to a better future for humanity. If that inspiration comes from science fiction, I'll buy Heinlein and Asimov rather than Weil for my kids' libraries any day.

As someone who worked at Rotary and had a great deal to do with making the Roton ATV fly, I had been looking forward to reading this book. The material for a great read was certainly there. However, this book is intensly and wrongly negative, unfair, and unkind to many of the principles, and certainly to the goal of space access for the masses. I had never noticed that Gary Hudson's hands shake; mentioning that more than once is nothing more than narcissistic indulgence by the author. Personally, I would like to have been mentioned in the context of my contribution to the Rotary effort rather than (twice) that of having a dead daughter or as "the mechanic". References to the technology are also full of errors.
Those with enough interest in the subject to relate to the alternate access to space movement will be insulted by association right from the Forward. You have probably read a few Science Fiction classics; the author admits to being completely unfamiliar with them, and thus has an unqualified frame of reference. Perhaps the author should have spent more of her time in Mojave actually researching the story, and less of it chasing the single guys there. Don't waste your money on this book.

This book isn't about technical accuracy. It's about how a quixotic technologist deals with the cumulative weight of a life of failure.

From steamships to cars to airplanes, the early days of invention were never pretty. Crackpots abounded. Failed companies littered the landscape. Even today, technical failure is more of a fact of life than ever. But now it's less visible to non-specialists outside the corporate and university laboratory establishment.

The rocketeers in Weil's book stand out like throwbacks to that earlier time because they have chosen to work outside the mainstream research community. They live in the shadow of NASA, the decabillion-dollar government agency that pretends to own outer space. The fact that NASA has failed to make space cheaper or safer in nearly 50 years invites entrepreneurial ambition---but not necessarily talent.

Weil's book follows the most driven of modern rocket crackpots on their painful journey from dreams to failure. She does not share their dreams; indeed, what draws her is an almost ghoulish attraction to their experience of tragedy. Was her bitter, sometimes cruel depiction of Hudson et al the only way she could think of to distance herself from their pain? Who knows! In any case, it's a vivid, cautionary tale. Bitter medicine indeed for any dreamer who is tempted to turn away from reality and throw a party, as Rotary did, when things got tough.

Excellent story about one early company in the entrepreneurial space industry. More about the people and the process than the product. Many of the people in this book are still active in the commercial space business.

The book acted as a third person job shadowing of the Roton Rocket Company. It was interesting from a business stand point to hear just how unrealistic the companies goals were. Any one interested in the New Space movement would find this book enjoyable.

I just think Weil is a really good writer. I didn't know what to expect when I picked up the book, but it really engaged me. the story feels both big -- about american's specific capacity to dream -- and intimate. We get to know and sympathize with a specific group of characters.

If you want a good read, this is great -- swift and smart.