Red Moon Rising

Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age

By: Matthew Brzezinski

Narrated by: Charles Stransky

On October 4, 1957, a time of Cold War paranoia, the Soviet Union secretly launched the Earth's first artificial moon. No bigger than a basketball, the tiny satellite was powered by a car battery. Yet, for all its simplicity, Sputnik stunned the world.

Based on extensive research in the US and newly opened archives in the former USSR, Red Moon Rising tells the story of five extraordinary months in the history of technology and the rivalry between two superpowers. It takes us inside the Kremlin and introduces the Soviet engineer Korolev, the charismatic, politically-minded visionary who motivated Khruschev to support what others dismissed as a ridiculous program. Korolev is virtually unknown to most Americans, yet it is because of him that NASA exists, that college loan programs were started in the U.S., and that Kennedy and Johnson became presidents.

Character driven, suspenseful, and dramatic, Red Moon Rising unveils the politics, people, science, and mindset behind a critical and transformative world event.

©2007 Matthew Brzezinski (P)2007 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"The writing is fast-paced and crisp...Yet even more than his absorbing narrative, Brzezinski's final analysis has staying power." ( Publishers Weekly)

The Real Story of the Start of the Space Race

I am admittedly a bit biased, being a fan of space exploration since childhood, but this is a terrific book. It thoughtfully lays out the political underpinnings on both sides of the Cold War that detoured the race for the 1st effective ICBM into a race to put the first artificial satellite in orbit. Likewise, it exposes the technical hurdles and how each group sought to overcome them. It is amazing to consider that mere years after the invention of the transistor and a little over a decade after WW2, both the U.S. and the Soviet Union were actually capable of putting an artificial satellite in orbit. I blinked in disbelief reading how after launch a technician hurredly worked a slide rule, manually calculating during flight when to press a button to start the 2nd stage of a rocket in flight. The Soviets in particular showed an amazing practicality and sang froid which allowed them to overtake the U.S. and score the historical first. There are many details which flesh out and enrich the story of the nascent U.S. and Soviet satellite efforts. Even being familiar with the outlines of the story, I learned many fascinating and disturbing details - and Brzesinski isn't afraid to show Korolev and Von Braun's many personal and professional faults - and demons lurking in their respective pasts. His account of the struggle to all important primacy and especially the launch sequences are written grippingly. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it not only to those interested in the space race, but those interested in U.S. and Soviet politics and history of the period.

Narration was fine but, as mentioned elsewhere, the dramatic music, emphatic countdown in Russian, and rocketlift off sound at the beginning of each half were a little jarring. :-)

Much more than space and satellites

I was impressed with various topics covered within this book. While the central theme revolved around the launching of the first satellite, this book touched on topics such as the relationships within the Kremlin, the White house, and between the USA ans Germany post-WWII. This is not the limit of those topics, but just a sampling.

As such, this is an excellent read for anyone who grew up in that era or who can recall the cold war. Of course, if you're young enough to have heard of these things and are curious, this book will be of interest. It should be of interest to everyone, as it shows how politics and personalities can, and still do, drive national policy.

The author managed to weave all of these elements into a well paced and flowing work. The material in this work could have been very dry if presented wrong, but Mr. Brzezinski managed to breath much life into this book. He's the type of history teacher I wish I had.

If you read just one book about cold war history, make it this one.

Mostly great book, OK narration, misread names

TLDR: Acceptable narration but unacceptable name pronunciations. Great, fascinating, descriptive book but with a rough first few charterers.

Performance: While the narrator did an acceptable job reading the main text (but not amazingly by any means), my massive frustration is the egregious mispronunciation of many names throughout the book, particularly the Russian ones. I am not looking for a flawless Russian accent, but I reasonably expect the correct syllables to be voiced. An example is Beria, a very easily pronounced name, which the narrator reads instead as "BAR-ia". But worst of all is the entirely incorrect reading of Sergei Korolev's name (as "koro-LEV" rather than "KERE-lyov") which is inexcusable considering that he is likely the main character in the book.

Story: I really enjoyed listening to the book's holistic recount of the political landscape on both sides of the Iron Curtain including the motivations, struggles, and bureaucracy present in the two countries. Covering the background of Von Braun and the Nazi V-2 program during WWII up through development of the R-7 Semyorka and the Redstone rocket family, and eventually culminating with the stage set for the Cuban Missile Crisis—Red Moon Rising illustrates the story of how the Space Race began and how its founders fought furiously through politics and entrenched miopic interests to take to the skies and win the struggle for public, propagandist, and political favor. This is a fascinating story and also one I mostly already knew well from a broad, factual standpoint. The book, however, filled in the context and the story of the visionaries who made it happen. The writing throughout most of the book is excellent, informative, and provides a delightfully fair coverage of both countries. But my only complaint is that the first several chapters were written in an awful style infused with unnecessary technobabble and unnecessarily specific details of "technical storytelling" wherein whole pages describe out-of-place narratives of machines and not people. This is most apparent in the introduction that awkwardly fails to start the book with a gripping moment-by-moment recount of the first V-2 bombardment of London. I have a good understanding of rocketry and had no trouble following along with the details, but for a book about political and personal struggles to bootstrap the race into the cosmos, these hyper-technical sequences at the start of the book were just an awkward distraction that should have been rewritten to fit along with the excellent and fascinating writing present throughout the reminder of the Red Moon Rising.

What a great story

This was a great book. An overview of the infancy of the Soviet and American space programs and the impact of them on each other and the world. Reader was spot on.

A good historical account

A nice account. My only gripe is that the author sometimes narrates some scenes as if he were an eye witness. I prefer my history served cold, not peppered with made up conversations. Other than this minor quibble, I quite enjoyed the book.

Pound for Pound…one of best histories read!

To those who remember The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe…this book covers what was left out!!...the origins of space race and dooms day scare. Better than fiction, Brzezinski details the unseen struggle between the USSR and the US…the genius of Korolev, the surprising US treatment of Werner Von Braun. Unbelievable!! Mysteries revealed, cold war history that few will ever know. Recommended as...a MUST read...for the military history fan!

Informative, straight-forward.

I liked the book. Some interesting history and the background to the dawn of the space race. The narrator had a tone and pace that was neither over-bearing or monotonous.

Narrator got lost on the way to a b-grade thriller

The book does manage to be informative and interesting, but seemingly in spite of itself. The narration makes the worst of purple prose by reading it off like a movie trailer. The try-hard prose would've been unfortunate enough if read normally, but the dramatic reading veers into outright irritating. Ending chapters with "sinister climax! Suspense!" sound bites is just insult added to injury. The subject matter is interesting enough on its own; the flair actively detracts.

Above average and well balanced

This is a well written book about a time when Americans awoke to find the skies had changed.

Bringing together both the technology and political situations of the time, with information from the Soviet side, it tells the story not only of the first satellite, but how personalities played a role in it's launch. It also points to the problems the post war American build up enhanced the Soviet's seeking to display an ability not yet possessed by the Americans.

The often times demeaning attitudes held by political leaders playing a large part in Nikita Khrushchev's desire, to proceed with a program which would focus the worlds attention towards the heavens.

Spell-binding behind-the-scenes history

I was born in 1956, when several of the key events in this book took place, so I found myself feeling very connected to the story. And, like many of my generation, I was totally tuned in to the space race in the 1960's. What a different perspective to hear how it really happened. Highly recommended.