Book to shed light on the Soviet space program?

best books 2011 npr on Literature & Fiction Books: April 2011
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Owen Vanki


Anyone know any good books that can shed some light on the Soviet space program? I can find so much on Apollo, Mercury, and Gemini, but nearly nothing for the USSR, being a communist country after all. Surely there must be some though.


Answer
Oh there's plenty. But the question is what can you believe.

I was just reading an online review of a book a few days ago that talks about one death during reentry of a cosmonaut. The equipment was known to be defective, and he died cursing his superiors.

Unfortunately, the author's source was a single ex-KGB agent, and other people have come forward disputing a lot of the details from the book.

Read this, it's pretty grim. Apparently the standard Soviet procedure when a cosmonaut died was to pretend they never existed.

Edit: Sorry, forgot to include the "pretty grim" article. It's a Wikipedia article on cosmonaut deaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Cosmonauts
Not all of them are true.

But the book I was thinking of is "Starman" by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, and the article I read was this one.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/03/23/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage

Could some one recommend a good book similar to the style of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?




Jacob


I have never been real into recreational reading, i have read a few good books in my time but the best one for me was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series; i would love to find another book that would read like that one. A few other good books i have read are Z for Zechariah, and 1984. kind of scy fi'y i guess.


Answer
A recent poll held by NPR has a number of good sci-fi recommendations (mixed with fantasy).
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/09/139248590/top-100-science-fiction-fantasy-books

Here's a fun chart that guides you through the list, and separates the sci-fi. http://www.box.net/shared/static/a6omcl2la0ivlxsn3o8m.jpg

For humour it lists the Hitchhiker's Guide, and the Culture Series by Ian Banks.
Books similar to 1984: Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, Fahrenheit 451




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