Customer Reviews
Thoroughly recommended! - By: bigdhav, 29 Apr 2006 
Absolutely brilliant book. I recommend it to anyone interestedin the workings of NASA & the USA & USSR during the Space Race. It gives a detailed, & to some extent, unbiased view of the actual things going on during the such a tense time, from both the eyes of an American astronaut, & a Russian cosmonaut.
Both stories begin from childhood & show the development of their lives, rising up the ranks to both become highly respected people. Once again, thoroughly recommended.
Two good space biographies for the price of one - By: W. Douglas, 12 Apr 2006 
This detailed & entertaining book tells the respective stories of U.S. astronaut Dave Scott & Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. A succinct & genuinely interesting foreword by Neil Armstrong lays out the context. Thereafter, Scott & Leonov alternate chapters, all writtenin the first person.
Their respective upbringings & pilot backgrounds are described at just the right length, followed by the pair's recruitment to opposite sides of the space race.
Leonov offers a candid account of his & man's first ever spacewalkin 1965 as well as his frustrations as the U.S. later took the leadin the rush to land a man on the moon. Meanwhile, Scott provides rare detail of his frightening Gemini 8 mission & a full review of walking & driving on the moon with Apollo 15. Scott's chaptersin particular are very well written & he does credit writer Christine Toomeyin the acknowledgements.
It was only when Scott assisted with preparations for the early 70s Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) that he & Leonov became good friends & the latter sections here describe how that led to this joint biography. ASTP gets little attention all these years later, so Leonov's account of his partin the mission is valuable.
Twenty-odd photos from Leonov, including a couple of his paintings, & a similar number from Scott round the book out. Worth adding to any collection of Apollo-related biographies, this paperback gives double the value for its added insight to the Russian space effort.
A review.... - By: g o'connor, 04 Feb 2006 The books authors are both men with extensive space flight experience, Leonov was, amongst other things, the first man to walkin space & the commander Soyuz craft that docked with the American vehiclein the historic 1975 joint mission. Scott went into orbitin Gemini 8 with Neil Armstrong & also made a landing & walked on the Moon as commander of Apollo 15.
The format of the book is that periods from 1965 to 1975 are split into arbitariry portions & each astronaut/cosmonaut writes anything between a couple of paragraphs & several pages on subjects such as eventsin his personal life, his country but mainlyin his countries space programme. Because of the format used the book is very easy to read & can skip effortlessly from USA to the USSR & back again without losing any momentum or it feeling forced. All the main characters & events are covered from a personal perspective, the first satellite –Sputnik, Korolev, von Braun, Gargarins first space flight, the death of Komarov, Americas initial problems getting a reliable launch vehicle, the tragedy of Apollo 1, the USSR/USA casualties that occurred during training/preparation for flights as well as all the successes of the various missions & the men behind them. Fascinating stuff.
The only slight disappointment for me camein the Epilogue where Scott uses it for a bit of gloating/ political tub-thumping over America getting to the Moon first. It’s nothing too major but I goes so much against the spiritin which the rest of the book is written that it’s really noticeable & a bit puzzling.
In short, one of the best books I’ve read on the subject. Recommended.
USA -V- RUSSIA RESULT SCORE DRAW - By: ANDREW J ROBERTS, 07 Feb 2005 There are very few books left by any of the Mercury-Apollo astronaughts that I have not read, so I had a good idea of what to expect. However, these two early explorers attack thier subjectin a very refreshing manner that makes this an enjoyable read.
I had anticiapted that Dave Scott would use the book as a chance to bite back as some NASA officials for making him & his crew scapegoat for selling spaceflight memrobillia. I guess this had always been a minor perk with most US astronaughts when they put their neck on the line, sitting on top of a balistic missile. However, Scott comes across as one of the less arrogant astronaughts & deals with the issusin a fair an practicle way (which others do not)
Leonov & Scott come across as the type of guys you would be happy to sit down & share a beer (or vodka) within a bar. A good book & a worthy addtion to my colletion .
Exceptional - By: Daryl Barnes, 29 Jun 2004 I bought this book because I like space related titles, however this book also provides a real (scary) insight into the workings of the US & USSR at the height of the cold war from the people at the front provided from both sides.
Two amazing men who are real explorers of the 20th Century
