A review by jdeveret
Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon by Alan Shepard

3.0

I echo a number of other reviews - the content was outstanding, and there were stories and perspectives of the various stages of the early space accomplishments that I had not heard before. I especially enjoyed the way the NASA progress was paralleled with the Soviets; I hadn't read an account that presented it quite that way. All that said, the writing was indeed rather poor, and it was hard to read some sections because of it. I found that generally whenever the book focused on the details of the space race separate from Shepard or Slayton, it read pretty smoothly and was of high quality. When instead it talked about Shepard's or Slayton's inner thoughts, or their relationship, it became stilted and awkward. Considering Shepard ostensibly
contributed a fair amount of the content, I was surprised at how unflatteringly he was portrayed at times, particularly how his return to flight status and shoehorning into the moon landing hierarchy was described. It made me almost wish he ended up getting on 13 as he wanted so that the far more deserving Jim Lovell wouldn't have lost his chance at landing on the moon. In summary, a great book for the content, but Flight by Chris Kraft or Lost Moon by Lovell are better-written accounts of the space race.