Island of Clouds: The Great 1972 Venus Flyby (Altered Space Book 3)

by Gerald Brennan

  Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon (by Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan and Burt Vis) is an interesting look at astronauts and cosmonauts who perished before their time, and sometimes before they’d even flown. The book was a great help learning more about Ed White, Gus Grissom, Elliott See, and Charlie Bassett.

  My friend Victor Gonzalez was gracious enough to house me during my visit to Spacefest VII; he and his wife also talked to me at length about radiological sickness, and the symptoms thereof. On top of that, he recommended the Apsley Cherry-Garrard book The Worst Journey in the World, from which I’ve quoted extensively.

  Francis French has been a tremendously great source of online support, knowledgeable reading, and friendship throughout the publication of the Altered Space series. I had the privilege of finally meeting him in person this year at Spacefest VII, and he’s every bit as funny and engaging and decent in person as he is on the internet.

  I’m tremendously grateful to Emily Carney for her enthusiasm and support for this series, and for helping moderate the Space Hipsters group on Facebook, which is an absolutely wonderful place to geek out with like-minded space fans.

  W. David Woods’ How Apollo Flew to the Moon was a great resource on the technical details of the Apollo spacecraft, and was particularly useful in researching failure modes for the high-gain antennae. I somehow hadn’t read it when I wrote my previous Apollo-inspired story, Zero Phase, but I’m wondering now how I got by without it. He was also gracious enough to speak with me a bit at Spacefest, and to provide some contacts with others who could help me with some of my technical questions.

  Hugh Everett III, the scientist behind the “many worlds” hypothesis of quantum mechanics, only appears briefly in the manuscript (alongside Post Office-era Charles Bukowski, no less), but his ideas loom large in the book’s themes. Anyone interested would do well to read Peter Byrne’s excellent biography The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family.

  Jorge Luis Borges’ work was, in turn, an influence on Everett, and myself; his Collected Fictions (trans. Andrew Hurley) is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in literature; this is one of those books that reminds us why we read.

  The drinking escapades in the Holiday Inn scene were inspired, in part, by anecdotes told by one of my uncles. (Not that I don’t have crazy drinking stories, but his are better.)

  “The City on the Edge of Forever” is, of course, one of the absolute classic episodes of the original Star Trek series; I happened to be rewatching it on Netflix when I was getting started on this manuscript, and I was fortunate to get to this episode when I did.

  John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Svetlana Alexeivich’s Voices from Chernobyl were both incredible books, and great sources of inspiration for the radiation-related scenes.

  Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris is a strange and compelling and haunting movie, well worth watching.

  The speech in the recovery meeting is inspired by A New Pair of Glasses by Chuck C., a contemporaneous speaker from the Los Angeles area.

  I owe a debt of gratitude to everyone involved in Chicago’s independent publishing scene, and an even bigger debt to everyone involved in this crazy shared dream that is Tortoise Books. I love all of you tremendously.

  I’m particularly grateful to Logan Ryan Smith, a very talented author who’s been incredibly supportive of this series, and who was gracious enough to read and comment on an advance copy of this manuscript.

  I’m also tremendously thankful for Giano Cromley, who’s an amazing author and a stalwart member of the Tortoise Books team. He caught a great many errors in the manuscript.

  While I hope I’ve done a decent job of depicting the technologies and personalities that might have been involved in an early-70s Venus flyby, I’m sure I stretched some of them a little for the sake of what I hope is a good story. Any errors or distortions are mine alone.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Mr. Brennan earned a B.S. in European History from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. His writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Good Men Project, and Innerview Magazine; he's also been a frequent contributor and co-editor at Back to Print and The Deadline. He resides in Chicago.

  Other titles include:

  Resistance

  Zero Phase (Part of the Altered Space series)

  Public Loneliness (Part of the Altered Space series)

  ABOUT TORTOISE BOOKS

  Slow and steady wins in the end, but the book industry often focuses on the fast-seller. Tortoise Books is dedicated to finding and promoting quality authors who haven’t yet found a niche in the marketplace—writers producing memorable and engaging works that will stand the test of time.

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