First Cosmic Velocity
Zach Powers
Aug 2019 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Ari Fliakos
3.7star
3 reviews
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Audiobook
10 hr 53 min
Unabridged
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Eligible
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About this audiobook
A stunningly imaginative novel about the Cold War, the Russian space program, and the amazing fraud that pulled the wool over the eyes of the world.
It's 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space program is a sham. Well, half a sham. While the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, the Chief Designer and his team have never successfully brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they've used twins. But in a nation built on secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is about to unravel.
Because there are no more twins left.
Combining history and fiction, the real and the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the last of the twins. Taken in 1950 from a life of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identity, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid has launched to certain death (or so one might think...), and the other is sent on a press tour under the watchful eye of Ignatius, the government agent who knows too much but gives away little. And while Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful project, the Chief Designer must scramble to perfect a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like dog for the first canine mission.
By turns grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping novel of the heights of mankind's accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the people--and canines--with whom we create family.
It's 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space program is a sham. Well, half a sham. While the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, the Chief Designer and his team have never successfully brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they've used twins. But in a nation built on secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is about to unravel.
Because there are no more twins left.
Combining history and fiction, the real and the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the last of the twins. Taken in 1950 from a life of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identity, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid has launched to certain death (or so one might think...), and the other is sent on a press tour under the watchful eye of Ignatius, the government agent who knows too much but gives away little. And while Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful project, the Chief Designer must scramble to perfect a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like dog for the first canine mission.
By turns grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping novel of the heights of mankind's accomplishments, the depths of its folly, and the people--and canines--with whom we create family.
Ratings and reviews
3.7
3 reviews
jon langley
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October 20, 2021
Brilliantly wry account of the Soviet space program. Very funny in a serious way! Extremely clever idea, well thought out and written. Narrator does a pretty good job, though he wouldn't have been my first choice. Voice can be a little grating at times, but his delivery also adds to the delightful story at others. Interestingly set during the Khruschev era, I think its well researched too, capturing the essence of the time and place. Despite the obvious lies and loss of life there remains a kind of innocent optimism .
David Reed
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April 26, 2023
This novel is exciting, fun, and eventually deeper and more moving than I expected. It’s set in an alternate history of the Soviet space program. The action shifts back and forth between Russia in 1964 at the height of the space race, and a Ukraine village in 1950 in the agony of a famine reminiscent of the Holodomor of the 1930s and the Soviet famine of the 1940s. To me, the book was about people making their lives as meaningful as they can through hope and love, even as they are constrained by lies and evil.
About the author
Zach Powers is the author of Gravity Changes, which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize, and his work has appeared in such places as American Short Fiction, Black Warrior Review, The Conium Review, and the Tin House blog. First Cosmic Velocity is his first novel.
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