Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin - Softcover

Doran, Jamie; Bizony, Piers

4.06

1,134 ratings by Goodreads

9780802779502: Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802779506 ISBN 13: 9780802779502

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2011

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On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. His flight aboard a Russian Vostok rocket lasted only 108 minutes, but at the end of it he had become the most famous man in the world. Back on the ground, his smiling face captured the hearts of millions around the globe. Film stars, politicians and pop stars from Europe to Japan, India to the United States vied with each other to shake his hand.

Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. Starman tells for the first time Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in a mysterious air crash. Publicly the Soviet hierarchy mourned; privately their sighs of relief were almost audible, and the KGB report into his death remains secret.

Entwined with Gagarin's history is that of the breathtaking and highly secretive Russian space program - its technological daring, its triumphs and disasters. In a gripping account, Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony reveal the astonishing world behind the scenes of the first great space spectacular, and how Gagarin's flight came frighteningly close to destruction.

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Review:

Writer Piers Bizony and award winning film producer Jamie Doran have written a slim, yet well-researched biography of the world's first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, in Starman. The 250-page book traces Gagarin's jet-propelled life, from his poor- boy roots in the Russian village of Klushino to his historic flight into space on April 12, 1961. The biography's strong point is in its examination of the institutional idiocies and failures that marked the Russian space programme. A classic example would be Gagarin's death in an aircraft crash near Moscow on March 27, 1968. The Soviet authorities left his family believing he was assassinated when it was almost certain that the cause of the crash was a simple air traffic control error. In another incident, a pre-flight report that showed cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov's Soyuz spacecraft had 203 faults--including a parachute that wouldn't open--was pulped. Komarov died in the craft. The biography is a fascinating--yet chilling--look at bureaucracy gone wrong.

Review:

"An extraordinary and accessible examination of this enormous contribution to space exploration, supported by riveting first-hand anecdotes. Essential to any air and space collection." - Library Journal (starred)

"Well-written, engaging, and brow-raising in many ways."--SpaceCoalition.com

"This excellent narrative will keep you enthralled and give you new perspectives on an old name we're all familiar with." - "Astronomy Magazine online

"This extraordinarily intimate account of the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut appears in a new book, "Starman, " by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, to be published next month. The authors base their narrative principally on revelations from a KGB officer, Venymin Ivanovich Russayev, and previous reporting by Yaroslav Golovanov in "Pravda". This version -- if it's true -- is beyond shocking."--Robert Krulwich, in his post on NPR.org

An extraordinary and accessible examination of this enormous contribution to space exploration, supported by riveting first-hand anecdotes. Essential to any air and space collection. "Library Journal (starred)"

Well-written, engaging, and brow-raising in many ways. "SpaceCoalition.com"

This excellent narrative will keep you enthralled and give you new perspectives on an old name we're all familiar with. "Astronomy Magazine online"

This extraordinarily intimate account of the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut appears in a new book, "Starman, " by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, to be published next month. The authors base their narrative principally on revelations from a KGB officer, Venymin Ivanovich Russayev, and previous reporting by Yaroslav Golovanov in "Pravda." This version -- if it's true -- is beyond shocking. "Robert Krulwich, in his post on NPR.org""

Well-written, engaging, and brow-raising in many ways. SpaceCoalition.com

This excellent narrative will keep you enthralled and give you new perspectives on an old name we're all familiar with. Astronomy Magazine online

This extraordinarily intimate account of the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut appears in a new book, Starman, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, to be published next month. The authors base their narrative principally on revelations from a KGB officer, Venymin Ivanovich Russayev, and previous reporting by Yaroslav Golovanov in Pravda. This version -- if it's true -- is beyond shocking. Robert Krulwich, in his post on NPR.org

-An extraordinary and accessible examination of this enormous contribution to space exploration, supported by riveting first-hand anecdotes. Essential to any air and space collection.- --Library Journal (starred)

-Well-written, engaging, and brow-raising in many ways.- --SpaceCoalition.com

-This excellent narrative will keep you enthralled and give you new perspectives on an old name we're all familiar with.- --Astronomy Magazine online

-This extraordinarily intimate account of the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut appears in a new book, Starman, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony, to be published next month. The authors base their narrative principally on revelations from a KGB officer, Venymin Ivanovich Russayev, and previous reporting by Yaroslav Golovanov in Pravda. This version -- if it's true -- is beyond shocking.- --Robert Krulwich, in his post on NPR.org

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