Buzz AldrinReviews

As one of a handful of astronauts to have walked on the moon, Buzz Aldrin has a unique perspective of space. And he serves as an amazing guide as he introduces us to the pioneers of space. From Copernicus to the Wright brothers, from the Apollo program to dreams of future travel, he reminds us that mankind has always looked to the stars.

Buzz Aldrin tells the story of his life, describing his childhood, time in the military, and career as a pilot. Ends with his experience of being one of the first men on the moon.

Rated: B
Buzz Aldrin is one of my true life heroes. He flew to the moon, walked on it, took some great pictures on it and return safely to earth with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. Each astronaut played a critical role. Buzz brought the first food and first drink ever to be taken on the moon's surface: a thimble full of wine and a wafer to celebrate communion. Wow! As his latest book written in his 80's, Dr. Aldrin offers a series of guiding principles for the reader to follow as he has throughout his life. Simple ideas. Good ideas backed with stories of how they have worked in his life. As I write this review, Buzz is now 94 -- just got married again.

Biographical picture book of Buzz Aldrin, chronicling his career from West Point to the moon. Nicely illustrated with full color paintings. Back matter includes a timeline of flight and spaceflight.

In some regards, this book is brilliant. In others (and the reason for the 3-star rating), it is emblematic of why manned space exploration is stalled. The grand scope and long-term vision that Aldrin lays out can both inspire and cause a kind of fatigue. The feeling that, if we want to get to Mars we have to do A, B, C and D through Q, creates an impression of enormous costs and a realization of how unlikely that any organization funded by Congress is to be capable of it.
For my money, the second edition of [a:Robert Zubrin|983409|Robert Zubrin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must|10203128|The Case for Mars The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must|Robert Zubrin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348793532s/10203128.jpg|2128996] is much more realistic and inspiring.

A book written by Buzz. American astronaut who became the second person to walk on the Moon. Aldrin graduated with honors from West Point in 1951 and subsequently flew jet fighters in the Korean War. Upon returning to academic work, he earned a Ph.D. in astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, devising techniques for manned space rendezvous that would be used on future NASA missions including the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Aldrin was selected for astronaut duty in October 1963 and in November 1966 established a new spacewalk duration record on the Gemini 9 mission. As backup Command Module pilot for Apollo 8 he improved operational techniques for astronautical navigation star display. Then, on July 20, 1969, Aldrin and Neil Armstrong made their historic Apollo 11 moonwalk.

Picking up where The Right Stuff left off, and commemorating the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the historic moon walk, here is not only the incredible personal story of one of America's premier astronauts, but the whole story of the spirit and challenge of the Apollo Space Program. 16 pages of photos.

Another good one from Aldrin and Barnes. Not a sequel to their first book, alas, but a good story well written.

Excellent description of both the lunar voyage and American life circa 1969.

I watched the lunar landing from a tiny TV set imported into my New Hampshire sleepaway camp during July 1969. We couldn't really see the moon that night; like much of that "summer" it was pouring rain.

The book helped me fill in what I missed by not reading daily papers while away at camp. It put me back into history.

Best Book award 2006

Ideal book for my 6 year old grandson who is obsessed with the moon landing and a huge fan of the crew of Apollo 11. There's quite a lot of text for a picture book, but he's used to lengthy read-alouds, his father has trained him well.

This is a hard book to evaluate. I thought this book would be more about space and NASA, so I wasn't prepared for all the delving into his personal life. Yeah, I know: "don't judge a book by its cover"... but, c'mon... the cover has an astronaut... in space...

In any case, Buzz is safely home from the moon with 250 pages remaining in the book. I think Buzz Aldrin is brave for discussing his issues with alcoholism, and perhaps it could help others. I'm just not sure it's in my wheelhouse. Within these problems and "blue funks" (temporary bouts of depression where he refuses to do anything?) there are interesting discussions that lean more toward the technical side or his ideas for space flight. It was a bit of a struggle to get to the worthwhile bits at times, so I think it depends what one is looking for in a book.

The most tedious part (for me) by far was his descriptions of his third wife. He takes an enormous amount of time telling about her family (parents' names and history) and the details of her first marriage. It also really bugs me when a first person narrator claims to know the operations of other people's minds - 'cause, boy, did he know every thought his third wife and ex-husband had in their marriage. Why are we even reading about their marriage?? (This is unnecessary ranting. I was REALLY put off by that section. Yeesh.)

As other reviewers have mentioned, Buzz Aldrin does come across as self-congratulatory and drops quite a few names near the end. Buuut... he deserves all the kudos, methinks. And is it name-dropping if a quasi-celebrity talks about other celebrities? I do think he's brought a lot of attention to the space program -probably more than any other astronaut- and you don't do that by being humble.

I don't know if I would have read this if I'd realized just how autobiographical it was, so that was my own fault. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book, I did quite enjoy the first hand recounting of the Apollo 11 mission. So...read the first fifty pages, have a gander at the pictures, and skim the rest.

Who would have thought that Buzz Aldrin could write so well? The entire story was superbly done, not the boring tome that so many famous individuals choose to write about their lives. I was thoroughly impressed with the entire tale. It was a great read, well written and illustrated. Of course, anytime you get a Wendall Minor book, you know you're getting top-of-the-line illustrations.

Other than knowing that Buzz Aldrin was on the first moon landing, I didn't know much about his personal life. I wouldn't have guessed that an astronaut, a PhD engineer from MIT, an Air Force Officer, and an American hero from the Apollo XI flight would have ended up suffering from depression and alcoholism after the moon landing. Aldrin bared it all, showing that it's not the unfortunates struggling through life who can be suffering on the inside. Lots of insights into Aldrin's life, NASA, the space program, and his turning his life around and his vision of future space travel.

nonfiction/memoir. 1st 2 chapters cover the Apollo 11 mission; next 4-6 hours take Buzz to Korea War and through a LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNGG battle against depression and alcoholism. Granted, this is a difficult battle, and it understandably could take up a big portion of a person's life, but unfortunately it does not make for good reading/listening. It's the equivalent of arguing with an irrational person for hours and hours--because that's what it is to try and get help for a person that doesn't accept the help, over and over and over and over and over again, for multiple chapters. So we skipped a whole disc, and ultimately quit listening.

An insight into the life of one of the first men on the moon

No Dream Is Too High: LIfe Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon is equal parts memoir and equal parts an inspirational book which use Aldrin's achievements and failures as the background for the bigger life lessons he portrays to the reader. The lessons Buzz gives us all web back to the central theme at no dream is too big if you work hard enough for it. I read this book when I was pretending to be upset at the world and actually made me feel enlightened?? You get to know yourself as well as Buzz Aldrin more in depth when reading this book. His writing was good even though sometimes it didn't flow well together. The book is vivid and entertaining.½

This book was interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying.

The real strength of this book is discussion of the technical aspects of various lunar and extra-solar missions. If that's your thing, this is probably a good book for you. After all, it's written by somebody who really ought to know that stuff, and it shows. It's very readable, and does not drown you in technical information; it gives just enough to be interesting. There's lots of fascinating speculation about possibly-achievable technologies that are really quite cool. There's also a lot of interesting narrative about how various agencies and people work or do not work together (e.g., the swirling controversy over the names of the planets and aliens). Without these, I do not think I would have made it to the end.

This book has two main weaknesses: plot and character.

The story is really three almost-independent stories of different times, loosely tied together by a fourth narrative of the generation that builds on that. None of the stories follows the usual three-act formula for a plot, and it really would have been better if they had. The first story is the story of Chris Terence, scientist and astronaut, who is a key player in the discovery and deciphering of an alien signal from Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually *do* much: there is no triumph (this part is basically a tragedy), but neither the successes nor the failures have all that much to do with him. The second part is the story of the aliens, thousands of years ago. This again is basically a tragedy, in this case caused by their own evil. The third part is back in our time; Chris Terence's son goes to Mars to help get the alien technology. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually *do* anything particularly noteworthy; they go there, nothing out of the ordinary happens, and they manage to get the alien goodies. The fourth, overarching narrative is the next generation's trip to the aliens' homeworld. Again, though, nothing happens. They get on the ship, they potter around for a few years, they arrive, and--well, that's the end, everybody!

The characters here are also weak. The aliens were simply awful; they started out as possibly sympathetic protagonists, but by the end you *wanted* them dead, along with all the humans they interacted with. That story was just a pile of ugliness with nothing redeeming it, and I never want to hear about those characters again. The human characters in the other stories started out as somewhat interesting. They could have been much more interesting if they ever *did* anything, e.g., had to make some difficult choices, or had to triumph over some tragedy, or face off against some bad person or force, or really if anything important happened to them and they had to cope.

This book was written before 2000, and it's about the early 2000s. Turns out, writing prophetically is hard. The predictions (even apart from the alien signal) were completely, laughably wrong. That doesn't necessarily doom an SF book, though; you can just think of it as alternate history. (But it's interesting to ask the question: why were their predictions about the direction of society, and the equalization of wealth, so completely wrong? They must have started with some wrong assumptions.)

This book was interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying. It has two main weaknesses: character and plot.

The good thing about this book is discussion of the technical aspects of various lunar and extra-solar missions. If that's your thing, this is probably a good book for you. After all, it's written by somebody who really ought to know that stuff, and it shows. It's very readable, and does not drown you in technical information; it gives just enough to be interesting. There's lots of fascinating speculation about possibly-achievable technologies that are really quite cool. There's also a lot of interesting narrative about how various agencies and people work or do not work together (e.g., the swirling controversy over the names of the planets and aliens). Without these, I do not think I would have made it to the end.

Now for the less-than-good things. First, the plot.

The story is really three almost-independent stories of different times, loosely tied together by a fourth narrative of the generation that builds on that. None of the stories follows the usual three-act formula for a plot, and it really would have been better if they had. The first story is the story of Chris Terence, scientist and astronaut, who is a key player in the discovery and deciphering of an alien signal from Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually *do* much: there is no triumph (this part is basically a tragedy), but neither the successes nor the failures have all that much to do with him. The second part is the story of the aliens, thousands of years ago. This again is basically a tragedy, in this case caused by their own evil. The third part is back in our time; Chris Terence's son goes to Mars to help get the alien technology. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually *do* anything particularly noteworthy; they go there, nothing out of the ordinary happens, and they manage to get the alien goodies. The fourth, overarching narrative is the next generation's trip to the aliens' homeworld. Again, though, nothing happens. They get on the ship, they potter around for a few years, they arrive, and--well, that's the end, everybody!

The characters here are also weak. The aliens were simply awful; they started out as possibly sympathetic protagonists, but by the end you *wanted* them dead, along with all the humans they interacted with. That story was just a pile of ugliness with nothing redeeming it, and I never want to hear about those characters again. The human characters in the other stories started out as somewhat interesting. They could have been much more interesting if they ever *did* anything, e.g., had to make some difficult choices, or had to triumph over some tragedy, or face off against some bad person or force, or really if anything important happened to them and they had to cope.

This book was written before 2000, and it's about the early 2000s. Turns out, writing prophetically is hard. The predictions (even apart from the alien signal) were completely, laughably wrong. That doesn't necessarily doom an SF book, though; you can just think of it as alternate history. (But it's interesting to ask the question: why were their predictions about the direction of society, and the equalization of wealth, so completely wrong? They must have started with some wrong assumptions.)

Buzz lays out his plan for getting to Mars, which is basically, create a NASA-But-Only-For-Mars based on the legal framework for the International Space Station, and he comes back to this point again and again and again. If you can get past that, it's fine.

523.43

The Return is a tale about the kind of space adventure that could happen today--and that will happen tomorrow. As told by Buzz Aldrin, who's been there...and who's already helped change the world.
Former astronaut Scott Blackstone's dream of opening outer space to visits from everyday people is under attack. His pilot program has been marred by a fatal accident, he's out of a job, and he's being sued for a billions dollars. And it's beginning to seem that the "accident" wasn't at all accidental.
Then the endless conflict between India and Pakistan heats up...and Pakistan explodes a nuclear device in the upper atmosphere, frying electronics on earth and in space, and putting the crew of the international Space Station at risk. With the Shuttle fleet grounded, only a secret skunkworks project known to Scott and his old friends can save the space station's stranded crew.

The Apollo 11 astronauts describe their unparalleled space venture.

FROM AMAZON: From the heroes' mouths but in a quite impersonal third person. The narrative shuttles back and forth from in-flight transmissions to home-fire gatherings to space program retrospectives to scientific elucidations to homey biographical flashbacks to pre-flight preparations to Cape Kennedy hubbub to historical huzzas. But with all the attendant trivia and trappings, it certainly is the stuff of history, and Arthur C. Clarke provides a fascinating epilogue on the future of space travel.

Another good one from Aldrin and Barnes. Not a sequel to their first book, alas, but a good story well written.

This is Buzz Aldrin's memoir written in the early 1970s of the effects the first Moon landing had on his subsequent life and, in particular, on his mental health. In early 1970s America, he was one of the very few prominent public figures to speak openly about his mental health and to want depression to be treated without judgement as are physical infirmities.

The account begins with three chapters detailing the massive round the country and round the world tours that Buzz did alongside Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins for many months after their return to Earth. The extensive and exhaustingly rapid changes of location, press conferences, speeches and receptions, often involving their wives and children as well, and with minimal downtime built in to their schedules, took its toll on most of them in one way or another.

In the middle part of the book Buzz recounts his life story (at home, young Edwin "became known as “Brother.” My sister, Fay Ann, a year and a half older, could not quite manage that: her version came out “Buzzer” and it stuck until it evolved into Buzz"). His father was a pilot so Buzz flew from a very early age and, later graduating from West Point, entered the Air Force and flew in Korea during the war as a young man. Unlike Neil Armstrong and many other astronauts, he was not a test pilot, but became an astronaut in 1963 at the second attempt and took part in the Gemini programme (without the mishaps that Armstrong had undergone in his flight earlier on that programme).

Buzz apparently had reservations about being on the first lunar landing flight: "My instinct was murmuring quietly that my own scientific interests might be better served by one of the longer, more adventurous missions later on and, if I went on the first flight, it might turn out a bit difficult to get back into the swing of the astronaut business again. My instinct eventually proved to be guilty of a major understatement". While prescient, I cannot help but wonder whether there is at least some post hoc rationalisation here; and other accounts have said that Buzz was upset at not being selected as the first man to step onto the lunar surface (whatever the truth of that, his father was very angry about the situation, regardless of his son's true feelings about it). Buzz records his feelings about the Moon itself: "the surface was “Beautiful. Beautiful. Magnificent desolation.”" and "was particularly struck by the contrast between the starkness of the shadows and the desertlike barrenness of the rest of the surface." He reflects on how he and his fellow moon walkers view their home planet in light of their experience: "If the twelve of us have any one viewpoint in common, it is that unlike most men we have a special concept of the earth. We have seen it from space as whole and bright and beautiful; we have seen it from the surface of the moon as not very large and somehow vulnerable. With all its imperfections, it is a great place to come from and an even greater place to go back to."

The effect of the demands of his life and career on Buzz's well-being manifested themselves in an early warning from his nervous system even before his Apollo days. One day after the ending of the Gemini programme at the end of 1966, he "felt an almost overwhelming sense of fatigue mixed with a vague sadness. I yearned for sleep so strongly, I considered nodding off right there and not going to bed. I made it to bed and stayed there for five days." Four years later after the razzmatazz of the Apollo flight and the subsequent tours had started to died down, when Buzz was re-assessing his life and deciding what to do next, this depression returned with a vengeance. While extensive research had been carried out into the effects of spaceflight on astronauts' physical health, none had been carried out on their emotional and mental health. So Buzz was charting new territory for a man in his position and, as was nearly always the case then and sometimes still is now, albeit less so, he hid his condition as he worried it would damage his career. His relationship with his father foundered, as the latter could not understand or accept his son's condition and his wish to change his life and move away from the structured career of the Air Force. Buzz was not able to get across to his father or other older family members the crippling effects of his depression: "my intellect was by now separated by the jagged and dangerous wall of my emotions. The rule of my emotions was absolute and ruthless. In no way could I stop what I felt, but I hoped somehow to stop feeling anything at all. I yearned for a brightly lit oblivion—wept for it." His marriage to Joan also suffered hugely and he had an affair with a New York widow, although at the time this book was published in 1973, they had to an extent patched up their marriage (however, they divorced the following year).

Like many high-functioning sufferers from depression, he was extremely hard on himself: "I felt I was not entitled to have such emotions. My goal was command of every situation in which I might find myself, and such an aim was unattainable. When I sensed I was not in full command, there was no harsher judge of my actions than I myself." In conclusion, he sums up pithily what life has taught him thus: "I traveled to the moon, but the most significant voyage of my life began when I returned from where no man had been before."