Customer Reviews
A Big Book About a Big Man - By: John G. Millar, 17 Oct 2008 
In two hundred years time very few people now alive will be routinely known & their names & deeds recalled. Only historians will be be familiar with the names of pygmies such as Bush & Blair. However, we livein a culture which immortalises great explorers - Magellan, Columbus, Cook, Amundsen, Hillary & Tenzing Norgay & many others. In our time Neil Armstrong joined this exclusive group along with Yuri Gagarin.
I would go so far as to say that the Apollo mission to the moon was the defining cultural statement of identity made by mankindin the second half of the twentieth century. It was our equivalent of building stonehenge, the great wall of China, the Egyptian pyramids, the great mediaeval cathedrals, the voyages of discoveryin small wooden ships & the great Victorian engineering achievements. It set down a mark for future generations to get a measure of us. It was as if we were saying to posterity 'look at this & wonder at us that we could do thisin our time. This is the most difficult thing we can do at this time. Judge us by this.'
Whilst Apollo was an immense engineering & scientific project it was also one of the greatest human adventures of modern times. And at the centre of this adventure was an enigma, Neil Armstrong. Armstrong is a quiet man from Ohio who developed an early interestin aviation that takes him into the military & the Korean war. Later he becomes a brilliant test pilot & this leads to his involvement with the space programme. It is extraordinary that this is the first full biography that has been written about Armstrong with his co-operation. It is quite amusing thatin an extrovert nation such as the US, which seems to like its super heroes to be big, loud, brash &in your face, Armstrong comes across as introverted & self-contained with no interest at allin celebrity or fame. He has spent most of his post Apollo life living quietly on a farmin Ohio.
I admire the author's perseverancein persuading Armstrong to co-operatein the first place as this was evidently not easy. Despite all the difficulties he has produced a big & worthy book. It's clear, reading between the lines, that Armstrong was not the easiest man to work with & his co-operation was less than total. Nevertheless, this is the best book you're ever going to get about Neil Armstrong. If you are interestedin his life & remarkable achievements this is the one to buy.
Good but perhaps not perfect - By: "Smith" Reader, 17 Oct 2007 Having looked forward to a 'life of Neil Armstrong book' for most of my life being a real Apollo fan. I did enjoy reading First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong. This book is well researched, has some good pictures & for the first time the reader can learn about the 'real Neil Armstrong'. There is much more to Mr.Armstrong than being the first man on the moon.
A great read - will be liked by space buffs, maybe a little dry for those who are not!
This should be a fascinating book... - By: G. Riley, 08 Aug 2007 
...but is by far & way the worst written book I have readin years. I cannot fathom how anyone can make the story of travelling & landing on the moon so uninteresting. There is page after page after page of irrelevant data which leaves you feeling cheated of precious time.
I have no doubt this is an incredibly well researched book, but so is an encyclopedia & I have no interestin reading one from cover to cover.
Award Winning! - By: C.L.B., 30 Dec 2006 
This book has just earned the title of "Outstanding Academic Book" of 2006, awarded by CHOICE magazine & the American Library Association. It has also won the top book award of the American Astronautical Society & the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics. As Walter Cronkite says on the cover of the book, it is "a book for all time."
Plane Spotter's Delight - By: Apollo, 09 Dec 2006 Neil's forebears came from Scotland, but none was William Wallace or Robert the Bruce, or Bonny Prince Charley.
When Neil was at Primary school it is thought that, on occasions, he may have got a gold star. But there is no documentation on the matter.
A nasty man called Yeager wrote some stories about Neil but they were probably not what occurred.
A chap called Wolfe wrote a book which exaggerated a lot of things & some of them weren't how Neil remembers them.
Neil flew a lot of state of the art planes, sometimes for hours on end, & he did a lot of take offs & landings, & all his bosses thought he was an OK guy, most of the time.
If you are a plane spotter or an insomniac you will love this book.
