Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Red Moon

I've been watching the new TV series, For All Mankind, and enjoying it. The series begins with the Soviet Union landing a cosmonaut on the moon just before Apollo 11 and goes on from there. As a piece of drama, I've found it a bit predictable, but the alternate history is very well worked out.

This isn't the first, or possibly the best example, of an alternate history of the space program. Barnes and Noble's Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog has published an article listing several examples.

Out of the seven stories they've picked, I've read five, which is not a surprise considering I'm both a spaceflight junkie and a fan of alternate histories. The best known and most recent is Mary Robinette Kowal's The Calculating Stars, which deservedly won both the Hugo and Nebula awards this year, and its direct sequel, The Fated Sky.

Out of the other stories, I recommend Stephen Baxter's Voyage, a richly detailed story of a mid-80s US mission to Mars and Warren Ellis' and Chris Weston's Ministry of Space, which imagines a British space program.

No comments: