starclimber

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Book Reviews and Synopses

Starclimber

Kenneth Oppel

Oppel, Kenneth. Starclimber. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. 2009.

Starclimber, by the French master author and painter Kenneth Oppel, is a modern book placed in the space race era. Since its first publishing in 2001, it has captured many minds with its intriguing mix of science fiction and tragic romance. A sequel to both the Michael L. Printz Honor book Airborn and the New York Times bestselling Skybreaker, Starclimber has always been among the top most recommended books for the world’s top universities including Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. This amazing peek inside the mind of the 1960’s American man shows just how desperate the space race was.

Starclimber is about a NASA constructor named John Eisenhower. John has a not-so-secret affair with a woman named Irina Tchaikovsky. Due to increasing stress and competition with the U.S.S.R., and because of Irina’s ethnical background, John is not allowed to see Irina anymore.

With the distraction of Irina no longer a problem during work, John is ever more focused on getting the Titan II SLV rocket ready for launch to put the first man, Alan Shepard, into space. While working, John meets another woman named Katherine. Unbeknownst to Irina, John and this new woman start having a relationship. John continues to split his time between Irina and Katherine, but Irina senses something is wrong. Irina asks but never gets an answer. As the launch date draws closer, a sudden epidemic spreads across the NASA workers. All but three people are affected. With the architect, designer, and engineer out of commission, the launch had to be postponed.

A month passes and the administration is just getting over the bug. Two test launches fail, taking out two Titan II SLV’s from the fleet. Both NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California begins construction of more rockets. Through all this commotion, the U.S.S.R. succeeds in firing the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space. At this news, the NASA Administration is shocked into inconceivability and Alan Shepard is furious.

Kenneth Oppel’s page turning novel, Starclimber, gives the reader an exciting flashback in the history of the world. He creates a great anticlimax but ultimately returns to the former glory of the story in a new view. With the help of the 1960’s dialogue, Starclimber is both convincing and believable in world history.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Contributed by N. Zhu

Apr. 8th, 2011