Voyage

The NASA Trilogy, Book 1

By: Stephen Baxter

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

The space mission of a lifetime

An epic saga of America’s might-have-been, Voyage is a powerful, sweeping novel of how, if President Kennedy had lived, we could have sent a manned mission to Mars in the 1980s. Imaginatively created from the true lives and real events, Voyage returns to the geniuses of NASA and the excitement of the Saturn rocket and includes historical figures from Neil Armstrong to Ronald Reagan who are interwoven with unforgettable characters whose dreams mirror the promise of a young space program that held the world in thrall. There is: Dana, the Nazi camp survivor who achieves the dream of his hated masters; Gershon, the Vietnam fighter jock determined to be the first African American to land on another planet; and Natalie York, the brilliant geologist/astronaut who risks a career and love for the chance to run her fingers through the soil of another world.

©1996 by Stephen Baxter (P)2021 by Blackstone Publishing

like a cross-country trip on back roads

In "Voyage," Baxter credibly charts a path for American exploration of Mars, including downsides. Happily, Baxter does not ignore character development along the way. On the other hand, he rarely moved the story along at anything more than a leisurely pace, with many engineering related diversions of great detail.

A fine NASA related alternative history story

All the pieces are in place here for a wonderful series. This is the first part of what appears to be a well-researched alternative history of NASA and manned space travel, well performed by the seasoned Kevin Kenerly.

Like all alternative history novels, it takes some liberties with characters, timelines, etc., but it is a small quibble. Likewise, some of the characters are a bit predictable but, again, a small quibble. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of NASA history, I highly recommend this offering with references to real-world events.

Alternate history with a trip to Mars

Stephen Baxter’s Voyage is the first installment in his NASA trilogy. Set in an alternate history universe, Kennedy was not assassinated and while crippled, he remains a strong space advocate and pushes for a manned mission to Mars. What transpires are the political and technical machinations necessary to accomplish the mission, especially the tension between manned versus unmanned missions. A few innovative approaches are employed after some serious setbacks with fatalities.

Baxter offers a realistic possible history that includes the tough decisions that are required to pull off a mission to Mars that is an order of magnitude beyond what Apollo accomplished. At the same time, he includes the political and social angles that force compromises and sometimes provide individual dis-appointments.

The narration is well done with good character distinction. Pacing is smooth.

just right

Imagining a history that might have been, this book balances technical ideas with human element very well.

Yorks journey was powerful!

The story of Yorks journey from adviser to astronaut was amazing. I cried twice listening to this book. A mist listen! Highly recommended.

Alternate history shop manual with characters

I usually like Stephen Baxter's work, but I'm having a hard time getting through this one. It's all technical and project detail, very little dialog or character development, and an extremely linear plot. This happens, then this happens, then this happens, then this happens. It's a history text if things had been different at NASA, and documented by technical historian.

Great Info dump on NASA

This book isn't for everyone. It has a lot of history of the space program, engineering, and since it was written in the 90s, a lot of speculation.

If you enjoy detail-heavy books like Neal Stephenson's works, you will love Voyage. It is definitely a better book to listen to, due to the huge amount of detail and descriptions. The narration is great, and although you sort of know what is going to happen due to the structure of the book, it is satisfying to get to the end.

Bad Narration, Good Story.

The cadence of the readers narration is so strange! Its jerky and describing statements are read like questions? Haha. I had to quit listening. I’ll just read it.

Absolutely worst paring of story with narrator...

i could not finish listing i hot a bit less than halfway... story is very interesting! BUT the narrator is hmmm not good at chater voices it is vert hard to fallow... no emotions or expressions it is like a wonderful voice talking with a good friend! Not able to do what needs to be done almost machine like saying the words. I feel bad for author i think it could be great with another narrator. i have never ever felt to motivated to do this before and i have 250+ downloaded books from audible! Please give this book a chance with write narrator!!!!

Borrrring

Tough book to finish. Good character development but nothing really happens... It took 24hours of listening to land on Mars. ..thats it. If you have time to kill, try it but don't expect much.