Back to the Moon

by Homer Hickam

The shuttle is hijacked. Now the countdown to adventure begins....

In his #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, October Sky , real-life NASA engineer Homer Hickam captured the excitement of America's first space ventures. Now, in this no-holds-barred joyride of a thriller, he straps us into the cockpit of the space shuttle Columbia as a renegade rocket man hijacks the shuttle—and blasts off on a Mach-speed chase into space....

Jack Medaris is a man haunted by his past and driven by a He's risking everything to "borrow" the Columbia—and pilot it to the moon. He didn't plan on an unexpected passenger, beautiful celebrity daredevil and scientist Penny High Eagle. To Penny, this hijacking will test every bit of her mettle as an adventurer—and as a woman. To Jack, the mission is a personal quest—to return to the moon and bring back what America left behind, something so explosive, it could change the future of the world. Now, as the U.S. government scrambles to the chase, and as deadly forces are deployed from earth to stop them, a man and a woman find their fates inextricably entwined. And in the savage emptiness of deep space, their only hope is to join forces to reach the lunar surface. Then comes the hard part. Getting home alive.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy, Thriller

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Homer Hickam (also known as Homer H. Hickam, Jr.) is the author of many best-sellers including his latest, Don't Blow Yourself Up. An eclectic writer, he wrote the "Coalwood Series," which includes the # 1 New York Times best-selling memoir Rocket Boys, (made into the ever-popular movie October Sky) the World War II-era "Josh Thurlow" series, the juvenile sci-fi "Crater" series, the adult thriller The Dinosaur Hunter, the romantic Red Helmet, and many others. Among his many writing awards are the University of Alabama's Clarence Cason Award and the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award plus an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Marshall University. For more information on Mr. Hickam and his books and cats and everything else, please go to http://www.homerhickam.com.

Reviews

[Matthew Kresal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who better to write a techno-thriller about the Space Shuttle being used to go to the Moon than Homer Hickam Jr, former NASA engineer and author of Rocket Boys aka October Sky? Published in 1999, Hickam's novel Back to the Moon is a high-tech wish-fulfillment for space nerds, inspired by a real shuttle contractor proposal to modify the shuttle orbiter and the promise of Helium-3 providing energy for the future. It's quite clever in places, such as the bits of law to make our protagonist's actions legal, and the tie-ins with real space hardware and history, such as the Apollo 17 mission in the opening pages, are all first-rate. In that regard, and when Hickam focuses on space, the novel quite literally soars.

Unfortunately, that's only part of the novel. Thrown on top of the return to the Moon plot is a conspiracy involving business and government dating back to the Apollo era, keeping humans grounded, which comes across as unconvincing and ham-fisted, if not an excuse for the author to turn polemic at times. Even worse is the single most cliched romantic subplot I've come across in quite a while. The impact of the latter might not be so detrimental if it wasn't for the cringe-worthy dialogue and love scenes Hickam writes in, which are the worst since I read Robert Conroy's 1862 a few years ago. Hickham produces gems such as:

"Her breasts floated free, unbound by either clothing or gravity."

Back to the Moon then is a fun read for thriller and space nerds, but an immensely frustrating one at the same time.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The successful final test of Prometheus, a robotic moon miner developed by the Medaris Engineering Company, will allow Jack Medaris to provide Doctor Isaac Perlman with a vital component for clean energy. But a destructive attack, designed to annihilate any possibility of a successful mission leaves Jack’s company in ruins.

Determined to fulfill his promise to Perlman and hoping to complete a personal quest, Jack “borrows” the space shuttle Columbia. However, a launch gone fatally wrong and an unanticipated passenger present him with unexpected challenges. Will Jack find a way to reach the moon or will the forces marshaled against him be victorious?

The narrative, populated with believable, nuanced characters and anchored by its strong sense of place, blends science and fiction into an intriguing tale that keeps the suspense building as various subplots weave themselves into a complex tapestry. With several unexpected plot twists and some surprising reveals, readers will find themselves pulled into the telling of the tale from the outset.

Less science fiction and more of a high-tech thriller [with a healthy dose of political machinations], readers will find this narrative difficult to set aside as the rapidly-unfolding story keeps those pages turning. Readers are certain to root for Jack to succeed in his mission [and the legal mumbo-jumbo that authorizes the “hijacking” of Columbia is pure genius]. It’s a rollicking adventure sure to please all space enthusiasts.

Highly recommended.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up for book club when we were looking at WV authors. I didn’t expect much from the dust cover but it seemed like it could be fun.

The book has a little bit of a slow start. But after the hijacking things pick up. The book ends up feeling like a space adventure rom com. It was really interesting g to read about space from someone who had worked in the shuttle program. It was obvious that he had good knowledge about the rockets. It was also really interesting to see how the forward about needing to go further in space, and the moon being important for research influenced this book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I didn't read this book decades ago. Homer Hickam spins a gripping and exciting space tale. The book has excitement from beginning to end with a couple of love stories thrown in for romance. The characters are interesting with Jack Medaris the modern space superman. Plenty of bad guys and action as attempts to stop a return to the moon fail. Lots of fun.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down! Full of adventure. There are a few sexual references in the book. Beware.

[Clay Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read. It took a little suspending of disbelief but I enjoyed the journey both in space and on earth.

[Jonathan Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not much of a fiction reader, and this book unfortunately reinforced my tastes rather than making me eager to read more fiction. I have to imagine that Mr. Hickam, as a former NASA engineer, had his tongue very firmly planted in his cheek as he wrote the book. It's so full of incredulous events and technical impossibilities that if you did not know Mr. Hickam's background, you'd think it was written by someone who knew nothing about how spacecraft actually work and just set out to pen a thriller set aboard the space shuttle. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was doing this entirely for fun--think Roger Moore in "Moonraker" in terms of level of accuracy. I felt guilty reading it, but I also had a hard time putting it down because I couldn't resist seeing what wildly improbable event was coming up next. Hardest for me to read were the accounts of the shuttle surviving 'battle damage' in space and collisions with other vehicles, even going into reentry with a Soyuz hanging off its tail. I have just written a book about the shuttle Columbia, which was destroyed thanks to the impact of a 1-pound block of foam. (Hickam's book was written four years before the Columbia disaster.) It would be fun to return to the moon, but please--not like this.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hickam, Homer. Back to the Moon. Delacorte Press, 1999.
No science fiction author was better equipped in 1999 to talk about current space hardware than Homer Hickam, who had a long engineering career with NASA before he turned to writing. Written just a few years before it broke up on reentry, the Space Shuttle Columbia gets a nostalgic tribute in Back to the Moon. A tear comes to the eye when someone in the novel warns that exploding a large bag of water in front of it in orbit could be dangerous because no one knows what damage ice crystals could do to its heat resistant tiles. The premise that the Columbia could be hijacked, modified in orbit, and flown to the Moon seems incredible, but Hickam makes it seem plausible. Unfortunately, his characters and their romance are less so. 3.5 stars.

[Lara Void · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are authors who ace writing science fiction and those who are skillful in the romance genre - Homer Hickam is neither. I pretty much liked the story because I’m a fan of space shuttles and space in general. This book is full of technical terms which I couldn’t confirm so I had to accept them and just trust that they’re used in the correct manner. The romance was way too much and absolutely unnecessary for the plot — I’d go as far as saying the final chapter would have been even better without the romantic parts beforehand.
The thing that really made me shiver though was the fact that in 1999 when the novel was published the Columbia space shuttle was still intact and only four years later it disintegrated almost as “predicted” in the story.

[Leah Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homer Hickman wrote this space novel after his memoir “Rocket Boys” which was made into the movie “October Sky”. After seeing October Sky many years ago I read Rocket Boys and then several of his other books - fiction and non-fiction - enjoying them all. Somehow I only got to Back to the Moon now. From the prologue I was drawn in to this story of a skyjacking of a shuttle detoured to the moon. While it was a bit unsettling to read the shuttle of this novel is the Columbia, which burned up on reentry a couple of years after this book was published, the story still resonates today. A good tale.

[Judy Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Except for the murderous international cabal, this is a rollicking good sci-fi yarn. Some reviewers have criticized it for being too in-credible. Well, that’s why they call it fiction. I’m not generally a sci-fi enthusiast, but Back to the Moon and The Martian (which have some similarities in the in-credible-ness department) were just plain fun reads.

[Todd Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back to the Moon is by the author of Rocket Boys which was made into the movie October Sky. Hickman is a retired NASA engineer. The story is the hijacking of the space shuttle and flying it to the moon. With his background, he makes it sound possible. Excellent plot and characters and a very entertaining read.

[Krisan Marotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this is not the most popular of Homer Hickam's books, it remains my favorite. I brought this book to read on a family vacation thinking it would last me all week. I finished it in two days. My husband then read it and also finished it in two days. Then my mother-in-law picked it up and she also finished it before vacation was over. None of us could put it down.

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I love Homer Hickam, I guess I wasn't paying attention- this is a novel, not another autobiography-although he went over all the specs with his astronaut friends and the space admin to make it accurate, I wanted non-fiction I guess.

[Dean Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable

I enjoyed the book but it did not pull me in like The Rocket Boys. That said, I’m starting another if his books now as I enjoyed The Greyhound on AppleTV, with Tom Hanks, and want to learn more about that time period.

[David Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This thriller that I picked up at the library was an engaging quick read. No, it wasn't great literature, but it held my interest.

[Janet Cline · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellemt book by a great storyteller! all of his boks are worth reading!

[M.J. Edington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dandy SciFi read

This was an engrossing space opera that was highly entertaining.
I tore through the book with great pleasure. Sci-fi at its best

[Jared Herstine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bery good read fast paced and full of advwnture!

[Jarrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5星。
概念很簡單但足夠吸引人，加上作者本身就有航太背景，原本還滿期待這個故事的。
只可惜作者的文筆、角色塑造跟敘事能力，都沒有好到可以撐起預期的劇情規模。最好看的部分是全書前1/5，男主角跟友人攔截一艘準備發射的太空梭。故事在主角群離開地球後開始走下坡，好像很多年沒看到如此無趣的感情線跟女性角色了。男主角死掉的老婆小時候寫的「情書」內容有夠矯情，把找到這封情書當作上月球的目標也有夠莫名，但作者明顯覺得這種橋段能感天動地（隱約讓我想到三體……）。

[Jim Brohard · Rating 5 out of 5]

very fun to read. this is the second book I've read by Mr. Hickam and I look forward to reading many more.

[Robert Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

++++

[Rick Chesler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a good space thriller that involved the moon--something realistic and not totally science fiction with now-impossible traveling to other galaxies or planets and such. So seeing that (1) this novel was titled BACK TO THE MOON and (2) was written by real-life former NASA engineer Homer Hickam, Jr. (author of NYT #1 bestseller Rocket Boys), I decided to buy and read it. Overall, I was not disappointed (I'd rate it 3.5 stars if I could).

**********SPOILERS AHEAD***************

The good: authoritative and realistic writing on space, space technology, NASA operations and culture. Exciting premise (space shuttle hijacked to go to the moon for valuable minerals).

The bad: It's pretty slow-paced for a thriller, with long on-the-ground and administrative development scenes from multiple parties unfolding long before the action ever gets to space (okay, I know, I wanted realism and I got it--that is what it takes to get to space, after all). The love interest between the lead character, Jack Medaris, and Penny "High Eagle" (really, that's what people call her?!) is just plain silly at times, and even more painful is the "love-note--left-on-the-moon" by a former lover in her childhood, which supposedly provides part of Medaris' motivation to hijack the shuttle, putting many people at risk, and to return to the moon. Also irritating was the all-too-convenient post-script "3 years later" wrap-up where all loose ends are bluntly tied up, like the overlay script just before the credits of a movie where they write what became of each character. The ending overall is sort of a gung-ho NASA space enthusiast wet dream, with everything working out for the main characters and plenty of funding going to all the right places for all the right things.

That said, there's still a lot to like here. Published over a decade ago in 2000, Hickam predicts the demise of the shuttle program (although not for exactly the right reasons) and the rise of the private space industry. Also, as a diver myself, I enjoyed the minor SCUBA connection present in this novel, especially the ending scene with the moon rocks.

[D.w. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Hickam's semi-autobiographical accounts of growing up in Coal Wood. Of being a Rocket Boy. Those are amongst the best I have ever read, and that ability to bring character of course to himself, as well as the child he was at the time is tremendous. And one should mention that he brings character to Coal Wood and all its environs and people much as Kellior does with Lake Woebegone. We are immersed.

Turing to this entire work of fiction, we see the NASA space program as he does, as an insider. We see fictitious politicians who wish to stop the program and are pretty successful at it. And if Hickam with his knowledge is correct, a solution to many problems of the space program and of us here on earth.

But it is a fiction and we have to suspend our disbelief. Because we do so, when the premise of taking the shuttle in the fashion that it is done, then I have to wonder at the science that is then given us. I am no space expert and I expect many who read this are like me, space hopefuls with no grounding in the realities of space. So when things like the EVA are done, I wonder if it is like Gravity, that just came out. How much is true and how much fiction.

That is only one part of the disappointment, for the cliche of our lead characters past makes it hard to see them as well formed as those of Coal Wood and Hickam's earlier work. Too many characters, including those from the past in back flashes, that we have to spend time with. A few less of those, a few that we could have slimmed down and then worked with the leads more, and that would have elevated this for me.

And perhaps getting rid of an illuminati like other power. Many books use it. When we one day prove the existence of such entities then perhaps seeing them in our fiction will round out such tales.

A once read. For those who like space or love it, a book to get for some of what Hickam has given us you won't find so readily elsewhere.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this book. While I truly and deeply enjoyed the author's trilogy of memoirs, the tree hugger in me bristled when he advocated a real life return to the moon because the earth is running out of energy generating resources. So, what, are we to pillage the moon now to continue to feed our greed?

Very timely book. Although written in 1999, it strikes a resonant chord during this current economic collapse while the many suffer the consequences of the few's untrammeled greed.

The book was laced with technical jargon but there moments of sheer ingenuity. The space shuttle is hijacked in a legal maneuver. The good guys are not the good guys and the main hijacker is really the good guy. Also in the pot was a love story, and man's determination to accomplish despite overwhelming odds. There is a secret society and lots of political and international intrigue.

All in all, a satisfying read by a NASA insider who never lost his passion for space and VonBraun.

My favorite quote from the book is: "This Country has been too powerful for too long, a shameless Country of racism, pollution, out-of-control capitalism, and disregard for the poor and afflicted". Words written in 1999, but never truer than in November 2011.

[Siri Fiction · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book... a Space book written by an actual NASA engineer and his NASA buddies.

For the first 1/2 or so, I couldn't put it down. Well, I could, but I was really interested in what happened next. Then the author awkwardly threw in this love connection between two of the main characters and I could barely pick the book up. Not only was the writing awkward but the characters were awkward. I was rather disappointed. Took me forever to actually finish it. He also seemed fond of plot twists, too much so. There is a point where there are too many!

Overall, the book reads like a movie. Not like a book. I didn't mind the way it was set up, it kind of worked for the story I guess. I loved all the technical crap that went with hijacking and flying a spaceship... all those big fancy words and acronyms ^_^... but yeah, I will not be reading this book again.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Homer Hickman's first book-length fiction, published in 1999. It is an adult, page-turning scientific thriller with lots of insider information about NASA. Like all of Homer's books, this one also has comic situations that will have readers laughing out loud. But when Homer shifts gears and the drama kicks in, the action is incredible. Back to the Moon, besides being a heart-pounding adventure, is a wonderful, sensuous love story of the near future like only Homer can tell. Hickman is the author of The Rockt Boys as well as a series on the character Josh Thurlow with the settings in the World War II era.

[Valley Cottage Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

SUMMER READING CLUB: "This is a gripping adventure novel of space travel and intrigue. The writer gives technical details of space engineering and the running of a space craft. Jack Medaris hijacks the space shuttle Columbia for a trip to the moon. His plans go awry because Penny Hightower becomes an unexpected passenger and Hoppy, the pilot, is shot and dies. In addition to the dangers of space travel, various schemes and plots on the ground make the trip more dangerous than usual. If you are a space enthusiast, you will like this book." -Audrey Du Bovy

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, fascinating book, even if at times it stretches credulity. It's well-paced and does a fine job of mixing scientific jargon with the action without bogging down the story or boring the reader. The dialog between Medaris and High Eagle gets a bit corny at times, but that's no big deal.

I especially liked the conservative sentiments expressed near the end of the novel. But I won't spoil it for anyone.

[Jennifer H · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I read this book it was really timely. It's an interesting story, but I think the best part about reading this book is that it's amazingly current. With the administration destroying the NASA program, the seach for energy sources, it's very relevant. And fun. Who wouldn't want to hijack a space shuttle??