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alexutzu's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
2.75
I picked this out as I wanted to learn more about the Apollo 11 expedition. Sadly, I was rather disappointed, as the book's main focus was not on the event or key people, but rather on their families or past. Even so, it had potential to be an interesting perspective, but the execution kind of failed it.
š The good:
The design was quite nice, especially the ones from the appendix (related to the technical details of the expedition). These things also encouraged me at first to pick up this book and helped me in understanding a bit more about the topic. The only thing that saved this book a bit was that in the end (due to some appendix explanations), some things fell into place and became more clear.
š The not-so-good:
The graphic novel was hard to follow and the events and flashbacks were scattered, so it fell flat. I felt that the message related to how the astronauts' lives were impacted by this was not really delivered well. I almost wanted to DNF several times, but decided to stick with it as it was a reading from my shelf.
š The good:
The design was quite nice, especially the ones from the appendix (related to the technical details of the expedition). These things also encouraged me at first to pick up this book and helped me in understanding a bit more about the topic. The only thing that saved this book a bit was that in the end (due to some appendix explanations), some things fell into place and became more clear.
š The not-so-good:
The graphic novel was hard to follow and the events and flashbacks were scattered, so it fell flat. I felt that the message related to how the astronauts' lives were impacted by this was not really delivered well. I almost wanted to DNF several times, but decided to stick with it as it was a reading from my shelf.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Child abuse
lkthomas07's review against another edition
2.0
Storytelling was just ok. Art was just ok. I definitely wasn't a fan of the hallucination scenes... Just not sure where it was really going with those. I did like the end scene with Buzz's father and the scenes with Janet, at least. Loved the beginning quote and ending excerpt from JFK.
bug_lightyear's review against another edition
3.75
Weird flashbacks and hallucinations, not very clear what is going on
yohhhanna's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.75
Super cool story but I don't think I would have been able to understand it without having read a lot about space before. especially the references to their life before the Apollo program were quite hard to understand without background knowledge
katievank's review against another edition
3.0
Struck me as not enough. Would have liked more exploration of any one of the directions they hinted at: anticipation of the mission, astronautsā personal lives, responses on earth before and during the mission, more details and reflections and reactions of astronauts during the mission, return process and experience after returning to earth - many of these were briefly touched but none were deep enough to really compel me to the story. Even a story as compelling as the first moon landing needs more to hook the audience. It was also very āRah Rah USAā which I get was the genuine feeling at the time but being not an American that aspect didnāt land for me.
What was there was good, itās what I felt was missing that caused it to fall a little flat in some areas. Iām also very new to graphic novels as a medium so I canāt say if this is typical for the genre, but it didnāt captivate me or leave me hungry for more whereas a few other graphic novels have.
What was there was good, itās what I felt was missing that caused it to fall a little flat in some areas. Iām also very new to graphic novels as a medium so I canāt say if this is typical for the genre, but it didnāt captivate me or leave me hungry for more whereas a few other graphic novels have.
arrianne's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic novel about the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Some of the art work is beautiful but with the flashbacks, the story can be hard to follow and I was left feeling a little bit meh.
Some of the art work is beautiful but with the flashbacks, the story can be hard to follow and I was left feeling a little bit meh.
estellabelle92's review against another edition
4.0
Beautiful illustrations for this out of the world historical event. As I read, I was reminded of James Michener's Space which is one of my favorite books.
sfian's review against another edition
5.0
A smart little graphic novel that mixes that facts of the Apollo 11 mission with sequences that get inside the heads of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins.
I particularly liked the grumpiness of President Nixon, the splash page of the iconic "one small step" moment and the way that Collins' loneliness is depicted, especially the Spirit of America being presented as a kind of hippy-biker type, rather than the usual Uncle Sam.
I don't know how much some of it is true - did Nixon really refer to himself in the third person? Did Aldrin make a bid to be the first person to step on the moon? - but I don't care because it all works in the context of the story presented in this manner.
The grainy style of art took a little time to get used to, but eventually won me over.
A quick, but still detailed read that was perfect for the fiftieth anniversary of the landing.
I particularly liked the grumpiness of President Nixon, the splash page of the iconic "one small step" moment and the way that Collins' loneliness is depicted, especially the Spirit of America being presented as a kind of hippy-biker type, rather than the usual Uncle Sam.
I don't know how much some of it is true - did Nixon really refer to himself in the third person? Did Aldrin make a bid to be the first person to step on the moon? - but I don't care because it all works in the context of the story presented in this manner.
The grainy style of art took a little time to get used to, but eventually won me over.
A quick, but still detailed read that was perfect for the fiftieth anniversary of the landing.