Name: First Cosmic Velocity
ISBN: 9780525539278

Zach Powers

"A stunningly inventive novel set in the Russian space program during the Cold War, about the heights of mankind's accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the remarkable magic of loyalty, love, and home" --

First Cosmic Velocity

Kaylah Rodriguez

Phewwww last week was a doozy, but this book was really cool!
This was somehow both a lot of fun and really melancholy which I am totally here for. 👌🏻 It’s a sort of alternate history of the Soviet space program with some little hints of magical realism sprinkled in here and there. ✨ In this version of the story the success of the space program is a total sham. They’ve launched plenty of capsules into space but none have had competent enough heat shields and have all burnt up upon reentry. 🤭 In order to hide that pesky little detail, all of the cosmonauts that have been sent up are actually twins whose identical siblings have stayed behind to keep up the illusion that each launch was successful. 🤫 I loved what Zach Powers did with this setup. While there was plenty of intrigue and big events that took place, it was not an action packed thriller but rather more of a quiet, slowly unfolding story with lots of introspection and a sense of lonely ennui. The language was really lovely and had me even underlying passages here and there to come back to and think about. 👌🏻All in all a great read and one that stayed with me long after the last sentence. If you haven't read Zach Powers yet, you're missing out.

First Cosmic Velocity

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