Too Far From Home, by Chris Jones. rating: 2.5-3

ok, the story itself is a 4.5, but I'm not fond of his style at all. his style gets a 2.

Too Far From Home recounts the story of three astronauts (two American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut) that were stranded on the International Space Station when the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry, killing all seven aboard. beyond the amazing loss of those seven who died, this left NASA with no vehicle with which to retrieve the station residents for at least two or three years. this is the story of how those station-bound astronauts finally got home.

but more than that, it's a story about the first American astronauts, and how the world viewed them when they returned to the Earth (afraid they would die just from going to space, or that they would give everyone Moon plague picked up from the dust on their boots, etc.), the American and Soviet space race, and the realities of space exploration, both for the spacemen and for those left behind on the ground.

the history provided is fascinating, and often not the aspects you hear in the media, the character background is fine, and the flow of the story is compelling. but. the writing is also very sensationalistic to the point of sounding hokey at times (page 12: "He was a chemical engineer, an inventor, a man who couldn't help wondering how engines worked, why clouds formed, what lived in the hearts of volcanoes. In his endless quest to understand more about the inner workings of the universe, he had tried and failed to become an astronaut three times; the fourth time around, he was finally given the chance to dissect the stars." --- honestly, I'd be ashamed to turn that in to a publisher. "dissect the stars"?) , quite unneccessarily. and he shows an obvious disdain and prejudice against the Russian people, which sounds like a misplaced attempt at drumming up Nationalistic pride, and is completely uncalled for and out of line. imho.

(nationalism is almost always out of line, but this, moreso, since Russia and America get along fine now. the KGB has stopped being the bad guy in all the spy movies; this should clue him in!)

(I mean, I come from Big Sky country myself. as do the Russians, which he completely ignores, insinuating that they are all "cold-souled" robotic slaves of the Soviet state. ouch! the author makes allowances for the one cosmonaut on the ISS (Nikolai Budarin) (in order for us to want to find out how he gets home) by saying that he acts more "American" than the others??? sorry, but I find the stereotypes too cliche and moronic. where's his reality check? has he never been to Big Sky country? esp the little towns in the desert-like surroundings? cultural norms notwithstanding, we from Big Sky ALL have a tendency to appear cold--- to outsiders. to those inside our group, we can be open, honest, fun-loving, and very affectionate. but each to its proper time and place. have you ever seen an old Western where the stranger walks into town and is immediately slapped on the back by people who don't know him? I think not.)

(and no, I don't usually call it Big Sky country. it's too tempting to shorten that to BS country lol.)

ignoring the storyteller, however, it is a great story.

and, hey, the town I was born in was mentioned on page 72! (my "hometown" is now San Diego; I've been a "native" of San Diego since 2001 :) ) also, one person in the book has my surname as well. won't say who, but they work at NASA. silly things, silly things, I know. but in their own way, they are "goldfish moments" too.

116 "Still learning their way, the Americans governed the lives of their astronauts by a high holy document known as Form 24, which structured the course of their mission, minute by minute, day by day." (Form 24 sounds a lot like the schedules my autistic son draws up for us to abide by.)

154-5 "They came to appreciate how their days unfolded exactly as they wanted them to. They liked never having to alter their routine to make room for someone else in it. They were never caught in traffic or in the rain, bumped into on the sidewalk, jostled on the subway, tied to a desk for hours each day. They never caught colds. They never had to keep appoitnments of cut the grass. They were never rushed. They were never late."

also discussed is how Skylab rebelled against ground control, and actually went on strike. on page 178 the astronauts watch their first movie in space and realize how oversensitized they've become to sudden motion, flashing lights, violence, and gore (or how callous they were to it on Earth). when they return to Earth, it is mentioned how they are oversensitive to even a temperature change of a few degrees etc. I read this and thought, "I wonder how many people CJC has inside NASA!" lol