The Cassandra Project

September 10, 2012
In 2019, 50 years after Apollo 11, Jerry Culpepper, a NASA press agent, is caught between his hopes for a better future for the space program and puzzling clues that suggest Neil Armstrong was the fifth man to walk on the Moon. Adding in a libertarian entrepreneur with his own Moon rocket and a president anxious to learn what may be hiding on the far side of the moon, Jerry is caught in a race to discover a truth that has been buried in bureaucracy for decades. Nebula-winner McDevitt and Hugo-winner Resnick mix conspiracy theories into classic SF ideas pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and Poul Anderson, producing a somewhat rushed spacesuit-and-dagger yarn that reads more like 1969 than 2019. Agents: (for McDevitt) Chris Lotts, Lotts Agency; (for Resnick) Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Literary Agency.

Starred review from October 1, 2012
This first collaboration from McDevitt (Firebird, 2011, etc.) and Resnick (The Doctor and the Kid, 2011, etc.), developed from a 2010 story by McDevitt (spoiler alert: don't read the story first), takes the form of a conspiracy involving the moon landings. And no, Stanley Kubrick didn't fake them. By 2019, the U.S. economy is still grinding along the fringes of recession. Jerry Culpepper, NASA's public affairs director, loves his job and still believes in its mission, even though the only foreseeable future is one of continuing slow decline. But then a routine release of background material from the late 1960s turns up an oddity. Before Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, there were two dress-rehearsal moon shots, both of which orbited the moon but did not land. Yet, a recording of a chat between Houston and Sydney Myshko, captain of the first of the test missions, shows Myshko apparently preparing to descend! And Aaron Walker, on the mission after Myshko, wrote in his diary that he landed on the moon. Both men are now dead and cannot be questioned. But was there a coverup? Of what, and for what possible reason? Multibillionaire entrepreneur Morgan "Bucky" Blackstone sees a chance to goose the complacent Washington establishment and, not coincidentally, whip up enthusiasm for his own, strictly private enterprise, planned moon landings. As other evidence, suggestive yet inconclusive, trickles in, Jerry tries to keep a lid on things. Meanwhile, POTUS George Cunningham, an essentially decent man with a strong interest in NASA but hampered by intractable budgetary constraints, finds himself in a bind: If there was a conspiracy and he didn't know, he's out of touch and an idiotic dupe; if he did know, he's a liar and part of the coverup. Against the solid and affectionately rendered NASA backdrop, the authors expertly crank up the tension and maintain it throughout via a suite of thoroughly believable characters. A top-notch, edge-of-the-seat thriller in which there are no villains, only mysteries.

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Starred review from November 15, 2012

As director of NASA's public affairs department Jerry Culpepper believes wholeheartedly in the organization's mission to explore space. When budget cuts and lack of public interest in the face of more pressing political and social issues threaten the agency's existence, a notorious entrepreneur plans a privately funded voyage to the moon and approaches Culpepper with a proposition both attractive and politically explosive. When Culpepper uncovers hints of a 50-year-old cover up involving NASA and the moon landings, he discovers where his loyalties and commitments truly lie. VERDICT Veteran sf authors McDevitt (Nebula) and Resnick (see his The Doctor and the Rough Rider, reviewed below) combine their considerable talents to tell a tale of conspiracies, of hope and despair, and of individual courage. Their near-future sf thriller should appeal to a wide audience and deserves to cross over into the adventure/suspense mainstream. [Previewed in LJ 8/15 Genre Fiction Spotlight Feature, "Hungry for SF," by Kristi Chadwick--Ed.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 15, 2012
Two SF powerhouses team up for this near-future thriller that touches on one of the great conspiracy theories of our time: that NASA is keeping secrets about the Apollo program. When Jerry Culpepper, NASA public-relations director, listens to an audio recording that seems to reveal that NASA put an astronaut on the moon six months before Neil Armstong's one small step, he's inclined to dismiss it as some sort of joke. Why would NASA keep something like that a secret for 50 years? But, as more evidence appears, Jerry is forced to question everything he believes in: NASA, the space program, even himself. This is an extremely well told tale in which the authors dispense information a bit at a time, in the manner of a police procedural, and Culpepper is a well-designed character, an idealist (but not an idiot) with whom readers will find it easy to empathize. Bucky Blackstone, the larger-than-life billionaire who's planning his own manned mission to the moon (similarities to certain real-life individuals are surely not coincidental), is colorful and difficult to pin down: Is he a galumphing good guy, unaware of the confusion he's causing, or is he a devious villain? And the story's astounding conclusion is wildly imaginative but also completely believable. Readers, be warned to get comfortable before opening the book. You could put it down at some point, perhaps, but why on earth would you want to?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)