Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Apollo Murders

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The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield

10 reviews

kelly_e's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Title: The Apollo Murders
Author: Chris Hadfield
Series: Apollo Murders #1
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3.50
Pub Date: October 21, 2021

T H R E E • W O R D S

Realistic • Cinematic • Entertaining

📖 S Y N O P S I S

1973: a final, top-secret mission to the Moon. Three astronauts in a tiny module, a quarter of a million miles from home. A quarter of a million miles from help.

As Russian and American crews sprint for a secret bounty hidden away on the lunar surface, old rivalries blossom and the political stakes are stretched to breaking point back on Earth. Houston flight controller Kazimieras ‘Kaz’ Zemeckis must do all he can to keep the NASA crew together, while staying one step ahead of his Soviet rivals. But not everyone on board Apollo 18 is quite who they appear to be.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I'd previously enjoyed Chris Hadfield's non-fiction account, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, so when I needed a book to fulfil the prompt 'takes place in space', The Apollo Murders seemed like the prefect place to land. Who better to write a space-centric thriller than a real astronaut, right?

I'll start out by saying, Hadfield delivers an incredibly creative, entertaining, and well-written space adventure. Using his lived experience as an astronaut, there is no one better qualified to write such a story. Yet, it's quite possible he is over qualified. The pacing is on the slower side, and at times, the technical detail overwhelmed the plot. Often reading more like non fiction, I found myself getting distracted wanting to know which aspects were real and which weren't. This reality often lead to my focus drifting off and I struggled to grasp all of the technological jargon. It could have easily been pared down, with more of a focus on the thrill and less on the historical accuracy and technological details of flying.

One thing I really did appreciate, was getting a first hand account of the loneliness of space. Given the author's history, it's easy to believe this as the lived experience of those travelling into the ether. It's something I have never really thought about and I imagine has a great psychological impact on space travelers.

Overall, The Apollo Murders was an interesting and entertaining account. I enjoyed the meat of the story, yet it could have easily been significantly shorter and been just as enjoyable. It's possible it would have landed differently if I had picked it up at a more suitable point in time. I think it likely a case of it just not being what my mood was craving. I will likely continue with book two at some point, but there's no urgency.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• space exploration
• history of space travel

⚠️ CW: violence, gun violence, murder, death, death of parent, medical trauma, blood, injury/injury detail, vomit, misogyny, sexism, gaslighting, racism, confinement, cursing, war, suicide, excrement

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Until you have suffered much in your heart, you cannot learn humility."

Content Warnings

adaora_ble's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Up until the last few chapters I would have given it 5 stars, the tension was building, the mystery and intrigue was ratcheted up and ready for a satisfying payoff with all the characters ready to figure out everything together and lay out all the answers for the readers but I found it fell flat on its face in the last 10 pages. I couldn't imagine how they could possibly resolve some of the major plot elements and they couldn't.

The book is split into 5 very uneven parts that detail different parts of the journey to space during the Apollo 18 Mission, and you start off with Kaz as our main character and our eyes into the world of space travel. He's a good, compelling, intelligent character with a burgeoning personal life and good position as an overseer of most of the action of the plot and yet all his skills as a NSA Navy pilot astronaut or whatever he does barely helps him at all in figuring out what's going on which. Part 1 is the longest part because it sets us up with who I think will be the main POV, the stakes of the mission ect but Kaz kind of falls to the way side once they launch into space and his story kind of doesn't matter at all to be honest. Chad, another major character especially in the latter half of the book, is IMMENSELY annoying and arrogant, he acts like he has these master plans he's thinking up in his head but when he executes then they make no sense and make everything worse for him. I feel this meant to be purposeful for his character but again all it does it set up this amazing chain of events that never come to fruition. The only decently smart character is Gromova who actually does manage to stay a couple of steps ahead of everyone and is the most badass of all the other characters and even then I'm not entire sure if she succeeded or not at the end.
There better be a sequel because this story is not over.

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robbiehuman's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

jazhandz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Content Warnings

sohma4uesugi's review

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was a lot of fun and written very much like an Andy Weir book, though not quite on that level. I wanted more closure from the ending but I really enjoyed it just the same. The start was a little bit hard to follow with so many different view points, but it evened out before too long.

Content Warnings

jyblouin's review

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adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I only really got into this book in the second half, once I started to skim read the very technical portions and the plot develops more but it's a very exciting and interesting story. Totally worth a read.

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