Recovering Apollo 8 And Other Stories

This alternate-history science fiction work shifts an iconic moment in the history of spaceflight onto another path, turning it into a story of loss and recovery. Its core lies in respect for historical fact and the emotional force of imagined alternatives.

spaceflightloss and recoveryalternate history

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Work Information

An attempt to recover a memory of the Moon links history with the pain of family and loss.

The title story of Recovering Apollo 8 and Other Stories uses the mythic force of space exploration while depicting the feelings of people trying to recover what was lost.

Review Summaries

Readers respond to the affection for the space program and the poignancy created by a historical divergence. The work is also memorable for focusing on human hurt rather than technical detail alone.

Book Information

Publisher: Golden Gryphon Pr
Published: 2010-05-01
Pages: 316 pages
Language: 英語
Size: 13.97 x 3.05 x 20.96 cm
ISBN-13: 9781930846623
ISBN-10: 1930846622
Price: 14369 JPY
Category: 洋書/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction/Anthologies

This collection highlights Kristine Kathryn Rusch's recent award-nominated and award-winning (and collected in various Year's Best anthologies) short fiction. "Recovering Apollo 8," a Sidewise Award winner for Best Alternate History, a Hugo Award finalist, and winner of the Asimov's Reader's Choice Award, examines a very near-future where Apollo 8 would float forever in the darkness of space. An eight-year-old at the time of the loss, a wealthy pioneer of the space age devotes his life to recovering the capsule and the three lost astronauts. A companion short story also shows inspiration from Apollo 8 in "The Taste of Miracles." In "The Strangeness of the Day," winner of France's Fantasy Award: Le Prix Imaginales 2003, a shy, successful lawyer is hired by a near immortal to battle a witch to save his love. Dying to the sound of banjo music---that's how it's done with Death's helper in "Substitutions." An alternate history of the death of J. Edgar Hoover, and dark secrets about the man, are revealed in "G-Men." A large pile of bones is discovered at a renovation of a resort, which do not seem to be human or animal; what secret lies hidden at "The End of the World"? If you could peek into the past at any day, why would it be "June Sixteenth at Anna's"? Suicide bombings are taken to a new, horrifying level, with the bombers chosen at birth in "Craters." The collection ends with the inspiration for Rusch's novel, Diving into the Wreck, the international award-winning novella of the same name. "Whethwer [Rusch] writes high fantasy, horror, SF., or contemporary fantasy, I've always been fascinated by her ability to tell a story with that enviable gift of invisible prose. She's one of those very few writers whose style takes me right into the story the words and pages disappear as the characters and their story swallows me whole. Rusch has style."---Charles de Lint.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists---even in London---and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages. Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer who has written or collaborated on more than 60 novels, including Afterimage , The Black Queen , The Disappeared , Fantasy Life , The Fey: The Sacrifice , No Good Deed , Star Wars: The New Rebellion , and X-Men . She has won the Asimovs Readers Choice, Ellery Queen Readers Choice, the Homer Award, the Hugo, and the Science Fiction Age Readers Choice. She lives in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Reviews

Disappointing

This is supposed to be the author's "best of" collection. Regrettably, despite liking some of her works in various anthologies, this particular collection of novellas, punctuated by a few stories didn’t appeal to me. Why? These are hard, grimy, deeply American stories that go on and on and on. While the alternate history tale 'G-Men' clearly established that the author can write compact and edgy stuff, the rest were simply overdone. Also, I didn’t like her excessive emphasis on descriptive narrative at the expense of dialogues. Most importantly, the stories had ABSOLUTELY NO humour or wit. Some sort of editorial choice should have been applied here, to make the collection more diverse and approachable. In absence of it, reading the book became a chore rather than pleasure.
Superb SF & Fantasy collection

I had only ever read one story before by this author, one of the "retrieval artist" stories. I had seen a good review elsewhere and thought to give it a try. I was more than pleasantly surprised. This book is extremely good. The first story, "Recovering Apollo 8" is a wonderful tale involving an alternative history, written with the best elements of James Tiptree Jr. and Stephen baxter. This story alone is worth buying the collection. The last story, "Diving the Wreck" outdoes James McDevitt's novel in this category. Mixed in between are some interesting fantasy stories and a chilling tale, "Craters" that takes 9/11 to new levels of horror. I'm a hard SF reader by preference, yet I have barely heard of Ms Rusch. Perhaps that is because she writes more fantasy, but I would say that if the two bookend stories in this collection are examples of what she can write, then she should get a much wider audience. I don't think I've seen her books on the major booksellers' shelves. If they are not, then that is a shame, because this author can really write well. I'm pleased to see that the novella "Diving the Wreck" is now a novel. I look forward to reading it.
Three Stars

A good read, but fully developed.
I am a big fan of the Manned Space Program ...

I am a big fan of the Manned Space Program and alternative futures. This book delivers both. Well written and detailed. Makes you really think "what if," we had not halted our program after Apollo. This book provides a potential outcome that gives reverence to the Apollo crew and of possibilities we could have seen.
Recovering Apollo 8

Please, save your money. Poorly written, boring, and so disappointing. The only bright spot was the reference to the computer whiz named Gates. The premise of this story was promising, but never developed. Too bad.