If you love
airplanes, spacecrafts, orbiting stations and stories that have to do with NASA,
you must read this book.
I bought it
simply because I liked the cover and the title. That sort of airplane that I
later found out to be a spaceplane (a plane that works both in the atmosphere
and in space), lost in orbit, which seemed to be in trouble, made me
immediately portend an interesting story. And I was not disappointed.
The plot of
this techno-thriller is intriguing. It is set in a future when spaceplanes are
used to travel between two antipodal points on Earth. These aircrafts, called
clippers, have a drive that can almost bring them to orbit, drawing a parabolic
trajectory, and then down to the final destination, which is reached in a few
hours. During the journey, a very expensive one, the passengers feel the
sensation of weightlessness for a short period of time, in which the clipper is
in free fall.
The author,
Patrick Chiles, is a pilot, has made several works in the field of aviation and
has written numerous articles in magazines which deal with space flight. In
short, he is an expert, both for the technical and the human part concerning
flight and space. Reading his book, all this appears obvious. The pace of the
story is compelling, the dialogue is well-orchestrated and you are given the
impression to find yourselves there on the clipper or in the mission control or
on the space station. New emotions are always around the corner, making the
reading fun as well as instructive. It is actually characterized by a good
balance between the technical part and fiction, which ensures credibility. It
is a pity that such books do not arrive to the Italian market, because there
would really be the need for them. This book is one of many examples of good
value products written by independent authors.
If I had to
define it with a word, it would be thrilling, under all points of view. Read
it.
Perigee (Kindle and paperback)
on Amazon.com.
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