1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation.
But a third power is rising, in the race to dominate Space. As NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, three of the six astronauts are killed in a depressurisation accident. And from a remote location in east Asia, a capsule secretly launches with China's very first astronaut aboard, purpose unknown . . .
Full of Cold War intrigue and real historical characters, Final Orbit accelerates to a thrilling conclusion - and brings to life the loneliness, majesty and pure rush of Space flight, with all of the hard-won experience of a writer who is himself one of the most decorated astronauts alive.
About the AuthorColonel Chris Hadfield is one of the most seasoned and accomplished astronauts in the world. A multiple New York Times bestselling author, his books
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, You Are Here, The Apollo Murders, The Defector and
The Darkest Dark have sold over a million copies worldwide.
He was the top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and a Cold War fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in North American airspace. A veteran of three spaceflights, he crewed the US Space Shuttle twice, piloted the Russian Soyuz, helped build space station Mir, conducted two space walks, and served as Commander of the International Space Station. He was also NASA's Director of Operations in Russia.
Chris is the co-creator and host of the BBC series
Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? and helped create and host, along with actor Will Smith, the National Geographic series One Strange Rock. His zero-gravity version of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' has received more than 50 million views, and his TED talk on fear over 10 million.
He advises SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and other space companies, chairs the board of the Open Lunar Foundation, leads the CDL-Space international tech incubator, and teaches a MasterClass on space exploration.
Industry Reviews
Action-filled, believable drama that flows. Readers of sci-fi thrillers by
Isaac Asimov, Andy Weir, and James Michener will enjoy the realism of Hadfield's latest - Library Journal
Hadfield delivers
a pulse-pounding adventure about a 1975 U.S.-Soviet space mission that devolves into a battle hundreds of miles above Earth . . . the crackling finale is well worth the wai - Publishers Weekly
Hadfield is
a terrific storyteller, and his blending of the real and the made-up is seamless.
Another terrific thriller from a writer who is uniquely qualified to write it - Booklist
[A] wham-bang plot . . . Hadfield has developed a signature style that fluidly
blends real historical personages and events with explosive action . . . Hadfield has established himself as a reliable brand in grounded, retro-flavoured SF - Toronto Star
Hadfield
expertly weaves fact, fiction and his own experiences in orbit to produce a novel that is both technical and entertaining . . .
a master of the genre - New Scientist
PRAISE FOR THE APOLLO MURDERS SERIES: '
A nail-biting Cold War thriller' - James Cameron
An
exciting journey to an alternate past - Andy Weir
Hadfield is as
deft at racking up the tension as he is at explaining complex technology simply to non-technical readers - The Irish Independent
