The Dead Astronaut: 10 Stories of Space Flight
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 12/11/2019
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 12/11/2019 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this vintage '70s paperback from an online seller. It's a collection of SF stories from "Playboy" magazine. Among my favorites:
"The Dead Astronaut" by J. G. Ballard, which is partly an elegy for astronauts who died in orbit and, in this story, remain there until their crafts eventually fall back to Earth - and partly a scathing look at the most grisly kinds of souvenir-hunting. [The story has so many plotholes it's hard to take seriously, but its poignant and tragic atmosphere appealed to me anyway.]
"Nine Lives" by Ursula K. LeGuin, in which a ten-clone group joins a two-man team mining a remote planet, only to have a tragedy result in a clone's need to learn to be a "solitary". Very touching.
"Maelstrom II" by Arthur C. Clarke, a sort of miniature precursor to the novel The Martian (though I don't know if it inspired Andy Weir): a man is trapped in a malfunctioning spacecraft while trying to get from the moon back to Earth, and is facing the certain knowledge that he'll die within a few hours - unless a very risky last-ditch plan might work...
"The Dead Astronaut" by J. G. Ballard, which is partly an elegy for astronauts who died in orbit and, in this story, remain there until their crafts eventually fall back to Earth - and partly a scathing look at the most grisly kinds of souvenir-hunting. [The story has so many plotholes it's hard to take seriously, but its poignant and tragic atmosphere appealed to me anyway.]
"Nine Lives" by Ursula K. LeGuin, in which a ten-clone group joins a two-man team mining a remote planet, only to have a tragedy result in a clone's need to learn to be a "solitary". Very touching.
"Maelstrom II" by Arthur C. Clarke, a sort of miniature precursor to the novel The Martian (though I don't know if it inspired Andy Weir): a man is trapped in a malfunctioning spacecraft while trying to get from the moon back to Earth, and is facing the certain knowledge that he'll die within a few hours - unless a very risky last-ditch plan might work...
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at LFL - E. Merrimack St. (600) in Lowell, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, December 18, 2019
GoryDetails at LFL - E. Merrimack St. (600) in Lowell, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Released 4 yrs ago (12/18/2019 UTC) at LFL - E. Merrimack St. (600) in Lowell, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the repurposed-breadbox Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it![See other recent releases in MA here.]
*** Released for the 2019 D for December release challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2019 Science Fiction release challenge. ***
