Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon (ISBN 0471148539) Book Reviews 1-6 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Excellent on many levels

This is a great book because it describes not only the life of a remarkable man about which the West has heard very little, but also for it's lucid description of the profoundly messed-up system that was the Soviet space program. The reader will feel the victories and the anguish that Korolev experience during his life as he turned his childhood dreams of space travel in to groundbreaking reality, only to have progress snuffed out by the political system there. If you enjoy reading about space travel, history, biography or politics, you'll enjoy this book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-07-24 09:35:27 EST)

07-14-07

(NA)

A must read

James Harford has done a great job in putting this book together. It has taken him many years to do this. It is a well written and a well researched book. This book tells the story of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev who was the Mastermind behind the Soviet space program. There are a lot of interviews with people who worked with him and new him. It gives you a really good look at this great Man. It also gives you a good history lesson of the soviet space program.
I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in the history of space. If you want some inspiration in life of what one man can do then this is a great read.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-04-16 03:36:58 EST)

10-31-01

8\8

The other side...

Go beyond the Propaganda with this book.

Massively documented, dense and well written, this book is a treasure to anyone interested in the space race, the men and women behind it, the politics involved, between nations, ideologies, and especially between individuals.

With "Korolev", you follow the rise and fall (to the Gulag), and rise(!) of the man that took on himself to beat the Americans, fighting against the Party, the lack of interest from his leaders, his enemies, and of course, some technological problems.

It's hard to comprehend what could have motivated anyone to work during this troubled era with such devotion and faith in his country, even after having been sent for no reason to Siberia for 7 years during the Stalinist Terror.

And yet, it's this period of space history that saw Sputnik, Gagarin, Vostok and Venera, as well as a number of "circus acts", as they said, that scared the USA about a possible "Communist Moon". It's also the Soviet space program that will create the most ingenious space technology ever built (read "Russia In Space" about the RD-180, or the NK-33 rocket engines, built in the 60's).

It's worth noting that the author never tries to revise history: facts, facts and facts, explained in their context. I am just waiting for such a book to be written on the US space program, the only country with China that still uses propaganda... After all, NASA has been created for the Moon race during the Cold War.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-15 14:13:11 EST)

05-22-01

4\4

Great insight into the Soviet space program

This book is very well resarched and gives deep insights into the Soviet space effort unknown in the West. A must to read for anyone really interested in space. Before only the American side was presented to the public, while the Soviet side well hidden. Very interesting is the the fate of the N-1 Moon rocket. It is impossible to believe that the Soviets had not only one manned Moon program but two competing ones.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-15 14:13:11 EST)

05-09-01

6\7

A review of Hartford's biography of Korolyev

Sergei Pavlovich Korolyev was the "chief designer" responsible for the development of the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and artificial earth satellite (Sputnik 1). The authoritative biography of Sergei Pavlovich must probably await a translation from the Russian. More technical detail is required beyond what is available in Hartford's book. Still, the present volume is the best current study of Korolyev available in English. The book is more than adequate for a popular readership but will occasionally annoy the professional with errors like the one on page 255 where Hartford claims that the Soyuz reentry capsule is spherical and the orbital module is bell-shaped. The opposite is true. I also felt there was a bit too much speculation mixed in with the historical fact.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-02-15 14:13:11 EST)

03-08-01

2\2

An account on the man behind soviet space program