Customer Reviews

Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let's start with what this book is not. It is not the complete story of the Apollo moon missions; there are lots of history and technology books for that. It is not the best picture book of the Apollo moon missions; there are some stunning large format books for that. It is not the detailed personal story of what it was like to go to the moon; there are many individual autobiographies for that. So what is this book? It's the best, closest to first-hand, most beautiful summary of what it was like to experience going to moon in the 1960's and `70's.

The production quality is outstanding. The pictures are stunning, the layout inspired. And the extensive text is comprised entirely of extended quotations from the original moon voyagers taken from lots of long interviews with trusted moon mission expert Andrew Chaikin. This is not a quick cut and paste job. This is original quality, a true contribution to our fledging space history captured with care and understanding before it's too late. It's the reflections of the men that really walked and lived on the moon, the only men that can tell the story, organized and illustrated. The feeling I have is of sitting around a comfortable living room with all the legendary moon astronauts as they share memories and reflections, while they hand around the best pictures you've never seen. But the book is better than that! Chaikin draws out the best from the astronauts, and then distils his over 150 hours of conversation down to just the best parts.

So in summary, there are lots of good books about the Apollo moon missions, but this is one of the best you can have to get close to the real human experience of getting there, being there, and coming home. Hope this review helps you.

Of all the books written about the Apollo program, this book is the personal stories of what it was like to train and fly these missions. My colleague Andy Chaikin has extracted from his vast archive of interviews, conducted for his earlier Apollo book "A Man on the Moon" some of the most powerful and evocative quotations and observations from the lunar crews that flew to the moon from 1968 to 1972. If you buy and read this book, you will see a side to these iconic astronauts rarely shown to the public: sensitive, thoughtful, contemplative and focused. Above all, they show a sense of wonder at their experience and describe views of the universe that most of us will never see. I read the book once and re-read it to savor these reflections. I know personally some of these astronauts, but have never heard them speak this way before.
If you ever really wondered what it was like to ride the Saturn V, fly the Lunar Module, and walk the ancient lunar soil this book is for you.
When the story of our time is written, the missions of the Apollo program will be among our most significant legacies to the history and evolution of the human race. Read this important work-and buy a copy for any young student you know that is considering a career in science, math, engineering-or history.

It is hard to believe that forty years have passed since Neil Armstrong uttered one of history's most famous lines. But largely unread are the words of a few others that walked on or orbited our closest celestial neighbor, the Moon.

The starkness of the lunar landscape with a black sky and briliiant sun rays inspired these men to say words that are enshrined in Andrew Chaikin's latest masterpiece. He is the definitive journalist who has spent hundreds of hours interviewing and compiling the peotic and inspiring words of the first lunar voyagers.

The stunning, breathtaking pictures using the latest printing technology are a magnificent visual experience compared to the grainy, soft color photos from Life magazines of the sixties and seventies. Many images are published here for the first time. The American flags and the marble blue Earth are printed in mesmerizing bold colors. A five star presentation indeed. Priced at a great point for the quality it delivers.

Tahir Rahman, author of We Came in Peace for all Mankind

The author of 'A Man on the Moon' has been able to get the men who have a marvelous story to tell,to express their stories like few have been able to accomplish,including their own admitted difficulty in telling the rest of us 'what it was like'.This book demonstrates quite well how one can get a person to open up their recollections with the right questions asked.History is served well when the story is told by those who made the history.I hope Chaikin has at least one more of these in depth stories to publish..they are indeed special!

I found "Voices From the Moon" to be well-produced, visually alluring, moderately interesting but, ultimately, strangely unsatisfying. In white text on its 200-plus glossy black pages, you'll find a meticulously chosen collection of sentence- or paragraph-size nibbles of the Apollo astronauts' descriptions of their lunar journeys. All of the Apollo missions except 7 and 9 are represented--these two are omitted presumably because they did not leave Earth orbit. Author Andrew Chaikin selected the quotes from over 100 hours of interviews that he conducted from 1985 through 1992 for his magnum opus "A Man on the Moon." Integrated with the text are more than 160 stunning black-and-white and color images, many not widely seen previously. Some of them are truly breathtaking, seemingly allowing the viewer to reach out and touch the lunar surface.

"Voices From the Moon" is organized by mission phase, such as Chapter 3, "Outward Bound," (the Earth-to-moon coast), Chapter 5, "Landing," Chapter 6, "On the Surface" and Chapter 7, "Solo" (the Command Module Pilot in lunar orbit). In each chapter, the photos and astronauts' quotes appear in random order, with little or no unifying structure. Some astronauts' personalities show through quite clearly, especially Alan Bean, Frank Borman and Dave Scott. Others are barely distinguishable from each other.

"Voices From the Moon" definitely supplements the body of literature about America's greatest adventure. But I'm not sure who the intended audience is. Those looking to learn the astronauts' deepest and most personal feelings about what they did are doomed to disappointment. The Apollo crews were highly focused, professional "right stuff" test-pilot types disinclined to put much stock in the touchy-feely aspects of their missions, or to reveal their emotions. These quotes don't really pierce their protective shells very much. Technophiles will find few new revelations about the hardware, the timeline of events or mission operations. For these reasons, I found "Voices From the Moon" to be somewhat shallow. To me, it failed to live up to the hype of Apollo astronauts describing "their otherworldly experiences in intimate detail for the first time." It's an okay book, and worth a quick read, but it's not that great. I recommend it with reservations.

I am quite familiar with the subjects of this book as I am still the wife of one of the Apollo astronauts. Andy Chaiken interviewed me several times prior to writing "Man on the Moon" and has done careful research and been associated with many of the the astronauts and their families he wrote about. In "Voices" he did an excellent job of capturing the quotes that gave insight into the personalities of the men.
Valerie Anders

Andrew Chaikin is one of the greatest living Apollo historians: I still hold his brilliant "A Man on the Moon" up as the single best comprehensive introduction to Apollo when recommending books on the program. In "Voices From the Moon", Chaikin and Victoria Kohl have painstakingly gone through thousands of still photos (virtually all of them are NASA official photos), and hours of motion picture imagery looking for the ideal set of photos to capture the essence of the Apollo lunar voyages from numerous vantage points.

Along with the photographic challenge, Chaikin also interviewed 23 of the 24 lunar Apollo astronauts (sadly Jack Swigert died before he had the opportunity; Conrad, Shepard, Roosa, Irwin, and Evans have now passed away as well) to better understand their experiences during the program. Unlike many of these types of interviews, these interviews and the quotations from them focus on perceptions and emotions more than the technical challenges of the flights. That's what made this an invaluable book in my library: not only are the images stunning, but the quotes from the people who lived the experience are thoughtful and perfectly selected to match the photos.

This is not a history of lunar exploration in any conventional sense, but it is an amazing and beautiful book full of insights and perceptions from 23 very diverse personalities. I highly recommend this book.

Growing up in the sixties, the American space program strode in contrast alongside the unraveling of a great many institutions and notions of what the USA was, what it stood for and where it was going. While the Viet Nam war dragged on with nightly tallies of American dead on the news, the broadcasts of war, protests, the struggle against racism and political upheaval were peppered with nearly unimaginable feats of engineering, bravery and ingenuity.

Andrew Chaikin does a wonderful job pulling together accounts of all living (at the time of the interviews) astronauts who visited the moon, either by walking on it, driving on it or waiting above it in the command module. He takes us on a journey, grabbing excerpts from interviews from all the astronauts from each step in the process of going to the moon, from training to splashdown. The resulting side-by-side comparison of the impressions and feelings of each astronaut provides a singularly unique perspective of the awesome and audacious effort of visiting the moon and returning safely.

Readers may be shocked to learn of the diversity of personalities that NASA chiefs chose for these spectacular missions. It would be difficult to pin down any but the most general characteristics that made these men suitable for the tasks at hand. Yes, they were all highly intelligent, but beyond that, the reader soon discovers that beyond the "right stuff" test pilot bluster, there are real men with real feelings (even abject fear) who, as much as in spite of what they knew as because of what they knew, left the safety and comfort of earth for the dangerous and forbidding vacuum of space.

With all the voices recalling their experiences at each phase of the journey, it becomes clear why Neil Armstrong was chosen for his role at the tip of the spear. His demeanor is nearly completely void of excitement, shock, wonder or any other strong emotion as recounted in his interview. He was the absolute prototype of cool under pressure. Even with only seconds of fuel left in the descent engine and boulders the size of Volkswagens in his landing area, only his heart monitor knew that he wasn't just backing into a spot at the grocery store.

Chaikin does a great job pulling together all of these impressions in what could have been an editing mess or a simple collection of interviews from each astronaut. The images are absolutely breathtaking and well explained, as are many details and facts that may have puzzled the reader for years, such as, "Why don't we see stars in the sky on the moon?" The only negative point about this work is that 100% of the type is white on a black background which may give some readers a hard time. Beyond that, the book deserves the five stars I'm giving it based on the original approach, the uniqueness of the content and the perspective it brings to an amazing time in U.S. history.

The book is thick, with a dust cover and the pages are very sturdy. The photos are beautiful and the interviews are very touching. Just lifting this book from the Amazon packaging gave me great pride in our country. Travel to the moon?

I cannot attest to the truth or the facts in the book, but I can state confidently that this is one of the best space coffee table books that I've found.

I bought this book as a gift to my father who has wanted to fly to the moon since he was a small kid. He is now almost 50 and I'm afraid he won't be able to attain his dream. However, he does work in the rocket expertise and he has been obsessed with space and the moon since as far back as I can remember. This is a fantastic gift for him. I KNOW he is going to love it.

My fiance, after seeing the book, also wants a copy. :)

Fantastic buy. I was pleasantly surprised.

This is not a comprehensive history of the Apollo program. There are several books that are written about that. This is a first person account about what it felt like to actually be in the drivers seat on the way to the moon and on the moon. No matter how many books you read about the Apollo program there is nothing like getting the description in the astronaut's own words and that is what this book does. It was captivating to hear what the astronauts were feeling and what was going through their heads as they left earth and landed on the moon. Out of all the books I have read on the Apollo program this book was the closes thing to sharing the emotions that the astronauts themselves felt. A great book to experience. The pictures in the book was just the icing on the cake to enhance the experience even more.