Anyone Ever Read "Children of Apollo"?

It is basically, what if after Apollo 11, President Nixon read a CIA report that indicated the race to the moon was straining the Soviet economy?

So instead of gutting the space program, Nixon doubles down and dramatically continues and expands Apollo to provoke the Soviets into wasting economic resources trying to catch the U.S. Just as some claim they did with their military in the 70s and 80s?

It is a very enjoyable book. As I wrote in one of my early book reviews, it is just about the only alternate history I've read where almost everyone actually comes out ahead. (Aside from Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton).
 
I dunno, wouldn't this have the effect of turning the left against space exploration, seeing as a part of the military-industrial complex?
 
I liked it....right up until the point where he decided that being a liberal automatically made you either an ignorant sheep being mislead or a secret agent of the Communists, and then had them try to sabotage a moon landing (twice!). This, combined with interacting with the author here on AH where it became very clear that if anything, he was softballing his actual beliefs on anything insufficiently conservative in the book, is why though I've read it twice and I actually purchased it, I don't see myself reading it again.
 
I liked it....right up until the point where he decided that being a liberal automatically made you either an ignorant sheep being mislead or a secret agent of the Communists, and then had them try to sabotage a moon landing (twice!). This, combined with interacting with the author here on AH where it became very clear that if anything, he was softballing his actual beliefs on anything insufficiently conservative in the book, is why though I've read it twice and I actually purchased it, I don't see myself reading it again.

Well, that's wasn't what I was implying...
 
I dunno, wouldn't this have the effect of turning the left against space exploration, seeing as a part of the military-industrial complex?

The thing is that by the time the moon landing occurred, the "left" in the U.S (mainly in the Democratic Party) had already turned heavily against the space program.

IIRC, Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee in 1968 was against the space program and his protégé future Vice President Walter Mondale, actually tried to get NASA killed completely.
 
I liked it....right up until the point where he decided that being a liberal automatically made you either an ignorant sheep being mislead or a secret agent of the Communists, and then had them try to sabotage a moon landing (twice!). This, combined with interacting with the author here on AH where it became very clear that if anything, he was softballing his actual beliefs on anything insufficiently conservative in the book, is why though I've read it twice and I actually purchased it, I don't see myself reading it again.

e of pi

That seems to be all too common a flaw with a lot of the right wing authors of military SF. :mad::mad:

Steve
 
It's is a interesting Idea

The Soviets wanted to reach moon with manned mission, but there N1 Rocket was stillborn program.
Had the N1 no design faults and bad management or the UR-700 rocket were take instead.
the Soviet had responds Apollo 11 with bigger manned Lunar program like L3M or even lunar base and Almaz station in moon orbit.

Nixon had just speed up things, with restart of Saturn V production line for improved Saturn with F-1A and J-2S engine
an Apollo Application Program, with dual lunar mission up to 90 days on lunar surface, 2-3 Skylabs and several manned mission in Earth Polar or GEO.
so with US spaceflight in 1970s is dominated by AAP, the soviet hat to responds on this.
But on prize of wasting economic and financially resources trying to catch the U.S.
Already in begin 1980s the Soviet union would be in severe problems, just it have in end of 1980s OTL.
it's depends on who become new soviet leader after Brezhnev, how the USSR gonna end: peacefully or in horror of a nuclear war...
 
In the end of "Children of Apollo" Brezhnev is overthrown by the Soviet military IIRC.

Ultimately, it is vaguely mentioned that in the early 1980s, the Soviets attempt a "Red Storm Rising" type of solution to their problems by invading Western Europe only to be defeated in no small part due to space based weapons quickly deployed by the U.S.

Ironically, the CIA analyst who wrote the analysis for Nixon that jump started the book was one of the first killed in that war as he was stationed in West Berlin and died in Soviet attacks on that city.
 
Top