February 26, 2007
In February 2003, the space shuttle Columbia, returning from the International Space Station, exploded after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, killing its seven passengers. Three other astronauts were left stranded aboard the ISS after the launch program was suspended in the wake of the tragedy. Jones follows the three aboard the space station and charts their eventual return home. Davies delivers a serviceable if lackluster performance. His voice is pleasant enough, but his narrative style is a bit bland. There are a number of dramatic scenes throughout the story that Davies simply recounts rather than dramatizes. Since most, if not all, of the dialogue between the ISS astronauts and mission control was probably recorded, not using them in the audiobook is a missed opportunity to really bring the story to life. Jones's tale of compelling human drama is fascinating, but the narrator doesn't quite have "the right stuff." Simultaneous release with the Atria hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 26).
January 1, 2007
When the space shuttle Columbia
broke up during its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in February 2003, two American astronauts were still aboard the International Space Station, along with a Russian flight engineer. With further NASA flights suspended for months, perhaps years, questions began to emerge not only about how to bring the three men back, but how to provide them with enough supplies while they remained in space. Jones first wrote about the Expedition 6 team in an award-winning article for Esquire
(where he is a contributing editor), and his story combines gripping narrative and strongly defined characters. Though extensive accounts of the Americans' backgrounds seems at first to put the brakes on, it's a necessary counterweight to parallel passages about the little-understood Russian space program—essential information because the three eventually took "an accelerated, lung-crushing dive" in a Soyuz capsule. In addition to that adventure, Jones's reporting is filled with details of life aboard the space station, from the amazing beauty of a space walk to the more mundane problem of "taking a crap" in zero gravity. That sort of frank talk enhances readers' identification with the astronauts, making their drama all the more engrossing.