"...an epic tale of high-stakes action seasoned with the muddy complexities of human relationships."Publishers Weekly "Tom Clancy and Dan Brown have got nothing on Mike Jenne!"Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly "An excellent tale...[Jenne] tells a story that just about anyone can read and understand, but includes enough detail to keep even an expert entertained."The Space "It's fiction but you'd hardly know it. The settings and other details are spot on! A great read."Werner J.A. Dahm, (former) Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force "...realism that almost had me looking for my headset to start working the mission!"John Muratore, Former Shuttle Flight Director how do you use bookly app Blue Gemini: A Thriller
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. What if some roads had been taken?By Phil ParkBlue Gemini was a real concept to use the Gemini spacecraft for military applications. It did not get very far in real life, but Mike Jenne has a great imagination about what could have been. In addition to being a gift to space enthusiasts, this book has everything--space flight, political maneuvering, military special operations, espionage, balancing life with an extremely demanding calling, and the complexities of very different personalities having to work together. One of the main characters is Scott Ourecky, an Air Force engineer who calculates orbital mechanics as a hobby. He is paired with Drew Carson, a man competent in his job but impossible to work with. But as we get to know Carson, there is more to him than we realized. We discover just how brilliant another character, Drew Henson, is when he tackles a seemingly insurmountable challenge in training.You can find more about Mike Jenne's Blue Gemini online and on Facebook. Space enthusiasts will love the series. So should anyone else who likes good technothrillers.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Climb onboard, strap in, and rocket through a great adventureBy Iron DukeBuy the book. Seriously. If you made it this far, you are probably a fan of the golden era of space flight, alternate history, hard SF, or all three. Mike Jenne does a great job of combining all of this along with Cold War intrigue and some romance to spice things up in this telling of the story of a parallel space program that might have been. Be prepared for the story to grab hold of you and rocket throughout its development and ultimate conclusion. Although this is fiction, it really opened my eyes as to the grueling training demands astronauts undergo in preparation for a mission and brought back the seemingly bare bones technology that was high tech at that time. I originally purchased this on Kindle, but subsequently purchased in hardcover as it is a definite keeper to reread in the future. This was a very enjoyable read that I am very glad I took a chance on. Enjoy!2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A good "what if" regarding operational use of Gemini spacecraft.By Larry in NCThe cancelled USAF Gemini Blue, Gemini B/MOL, and NASA Gemini Applications programs are not well known. Similarly, it's not well known that unlike the Mercury and Apollo spacecraft, which used highly integrated systems to save weight, The Gemini spacecraft was designed from the start as an operational spacecraft with equipment bays that supported easily replaceable systems that could be quickly unplugged and replaced making manufacturer maintenance and checkout of the space craft much faster,simpler and economical.The Gemini flew on a man rated version of the Titan II and with approximately 150 Titan IIs scheduled to be decommissioned, a ready supply of low cost boosters would have been available to support comparatively inexpensive manned space flight for at least 20 years.The story also incorporates the paraglider concept, which was behind schedule and massively over budget when it was finally cancelled - on the cusp of becoming a workable system. In that regard Blue Gemini is a nice glimpse at not just a fictional black program, but also to an extent of what could have been.The Soviets designed the Soyuz spaceship during the same time period and with the same eye toward operational utility and it's ironic that NASA and the US Government in general threw away the most practical manned space flight capability we had when it cancelled the Gemini Programs in favor of Apollo and the I'm practical and inefficient from the start STS. The end result is that 50 years after Gemini, were hitching rides into space on a derivative of the Soyuz - a contemporary of Gemini.The 3 star rather than 5 star rating comes from the rather slow pace, the very limited focus on actual space flights, over blowing the rigors of the simulator and the tendency for each book in the series to just lead into the next one.