Space
This week’s selections of books, TV shows, games, and more that captivated New Scientist staff.
By Jacob Aron
More than 50 years ago, astronauts from the US and cosmonauts from the Soviet Union came together for a historic handshake in space. This event inspires Chris Hadfield’s new alternate history novel, Final Orbit, where a mishap endangers the lives of half the crew onboard.
In this narrative, Hadfield also revisits the abandoned 1960s Shuguang space program, launching the first Chinese astronaut into orbit nearly thirty years earlier than what actually occurred. With these elements set, he crafts a tale of a covert three-party conflict in space, offering what may be the most authentic portrayal of a confrontation between two spacecraft.
As seen in his earlier works, Hadfield skillfully blends fact with fiction and his personal space experiences, creating a narrative that is both engaging and technically sound. If you’re not fond of detailed discussions akin to Tom Clancy regarding spacecraft operations, you might want to tread carefully; however, I find Hadfield’s adeptness in this genre to be remarkable.
