Moonfire: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11 Hardcover – June 1, 2010

This book is simply spectacular. It's astounding to me that Taschen issued it at $39.99...I've paid near twice that for far less impressive books. The quality of production is such that many illustrations seem almost three-dimensional. The only other book on the subject I can think of even approaching this aesthetic and reproductive quality is Michael Light's Full Moon.As for the prose (and this is aside from the in-depth, informed captions accompanying every illustration), I will say first of all that I am not, generally speaking, a fan of Mailer as a writer. I've read several of his works besides Of a Fire on the Moon (from which this text is excerpted), and I tend to find his writing egotistical, self-indulgent, meandering, and freighted with all the stylistic and ideological baggage that characterized the New Journalism of his peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s (though it should be remembered that the same school also gave us The Right Stuff).Thankfully, the text reprinted in Moonfire has been stripped of most of that baggage, which made Of a Fire on the Moon such a morass through which one had to wade to find insight. Instead, the text of Moonfire showcases Mailer's strengths: His undeniable prescience and powers of observation, and his gift for giving resonance to both the most minute details of his experience covering the flight of Apollo 11, and conveying the "epicness" of the whole endeavor. His account of the crew's press conference, and his impressions of their personalities, are so piercing that you feel you're right there watching and listening. And I would defy you to find another more powerful account in print of the experience of the launch of Apollo 11 than Mailer's. It is, as his narrative surrogate Aquarius might say, appropriate to its measure.If you want a visually sumptuous, narratively compelling, and culturally significant print tribute to the triumph that was Apollo, buy Moonfire.*A couple of notes: First, to be clear, my review refers to the mass-market hardcover issue of Moonfire, not the "big" limited edition or the boutique lunar meteorite production. Also, if you're considering purchasing this book, please note that the gaudy Taschen 30th Anniversary band shown on the Amazon page for Moonfire is not part of the dust jacket artwork, but a cardboard insert that comes off with the shrink wrap.

First, a word about the photographs, which compose most of this heavy tome. The clarity of nearly every photo makes you feel the snapshots were taken in the 21st century - not in outer space using 1960s era cameras. I have no idea how the quality of the photos can be this high, but they are, and they nearly overshadow the stunning essays interspersed between lunar terrain.I'm not sure where to begin with the essays. I assumed that I had thought as deeply as necessary about the moon landing. I was wrong. Mailer captures not only what transpired in and around that week, but contextualizes the event in a way that underscores just how awesome it is for mankind, what it says about the nature of modern life, what it says about god and nature and man. He finds the most elaborate, brilliant themes encoded within the Apollo 11 mission and ties them to everything from good and evil, politics, race relations, and even Mailer's personal life.This book is astonishing. I don't know where journalism like this went - perhaps it's hiding in some shadowy blog - but this book has reawakened my appreciation for just how staggering it is that we were able to send human beings to the moon. As much as we revere our cellphones and Kindles, the Apollo 11 mission operates at an entirely different level of technology and human achievement, even though our handheld gadgets contain more computing power than every motherboard at NASA in 1969.You think you appreciate Apollo 11, but you haven't even scratched the surface until you've dug into MOONFIRE. Stop what you're doing and get this book.

I probably own over a dozen books on the Apollo program, including the original Life magazine, and without a question this is the best of all. Making it easy for me to hold and read it while in the bed, without a fear to bend or spoil its beauty, this book carries a lot of photos that I had not seen before. A must read for any Lunar buff.

I got this book from Amazon (and was thrilled to get a copy as high up as number 216!) because I wanted my kids to have a way of remembering one of mankind's greatest accomplishments. Its hard to believe that it is now over 40 years since we went to the moon, and have yet to go any further. It is also hard to imagine us doing anything like that today, which makes it all the more important to remember what this country was once capable of. This book is a magnificent tribute to the entire Apollo program. The book is immense in size and weight and extremely well made. The photos are outstanding and particularly well printed, the paper is very heavy stock and the book is superbly bound with needle and thread. The plastic box that the book is placed in may be a bit of a gimmick, but it does make it stand out. The icing on the cake is the accompanying framed photo, one of the most famous of all time. It is so well reproduced that it seems to glow, and having it signed by Buzz Aldrin makes it something special. It is great to be able to tell my kids that the person standing on the moon in the photo is the same person who signed the picture on the back "just for them". Given that this edition is limited to just 1957 copies and that Amazon discounts it by 20%, this is a remarkable bargain. I highly, highly recommend it. Grab it while it is still available.

Excellent photos of the Apollo space program and Mailer's excellent text from all Fire on The Moon