Voyage is a 1996 science-fiction novel written by Stephen Baxter. This is part of Baxter’s NASA trilogy which asks how could the space race have been different with a few small changes to history.
VOYAGE BY STEPHEN BAXTER
SUMMARY
What if John F. Kennedy survived? President Nixon, with the help of former president JFK, has just green-lit NASA’s first manned expedition to Mars. Aboard, Natalie York, a geologist who risks everything she loves for the chance to go to space; Phil Stone, former X-15 test pilot; and Ralph Gershon, a Vietnam War hero intent on being the first African American to reach another planet. Exploring mankind’s presence in the extra-terrestrial expanse.
MY THOUGHTS ON VOYAGE
Voyage is one of those books that take a while to get into. I didn’t truly start enjoying it till nearly 200 pages in. But when I did finally get it, it was like one of those moments where you realise you are in love with a book and it just takes a while for your brain to catch it. It actually got to the point where I wanted to take my time and just enjoy the experience. I think we’re now at the point where this is my favourite book of the year.
Voyage is an alternate history, to be more specific it asks what might have happened to NASA if Kennedy survived the assassination attempt in 1963. In fact you could almost read Voyage as a sequel to 22/11/63 by Stephen King (I will admit I haven’t finished that book yet but I’m assuming it ends with Kennedy not dying). The result of Kennedy not dying is he encourages NASA to continue on after landing a man on the moon and send a mission to Mars.
AN ALTERNATE NASA
Voyage is an alternate history, to be more specific it asks what might have happened to NASA if Kennedy survived the assassination attempt in 1963. In fact you could almost read Voyage as a sequel to 22/11/63 by Stephen King (I will admit I haven’t finished that book yet but I’m assuming it ends with Kennedy not dying). The result of Kennedy not dying is he encourages NASA to continue on after landing a man on the moon and send a mission to Mars.
The thing I love about this is that sending a crew to Mars isn’t easy, and Baxter makes it quite clear how not easy this is. And I don’t mean just the science and technological advancements that need to be made. I mean the whole politics and stuff that happens back on Earth. In fact I would say that the parts of the story which take place on Earth is more fascinating than the parts in space. Because you get to see all the behind the scenes details of what it’s like to work at NASA.
I love that Baxter went into the tiniest details of what would have changed because NASA went to Mars. Even even noted at one point how Gene Roddenberry was working on The Next Generation and decided to go in a whole new direction because of what was happening at NASA (hey any authors reading this, one sure fire way for me to love your book is to mention Star Trek, just saying).
WOMEN IN SPACE
But I think the best thing about this book is the main character. It is a female Geologist who joins NASA to become an astronaut. And this is important because it sort of blew my mind when I realised. This book is really about all the changes that had to happen as NASA for a female astronaut to become the first human on Mars.
I have read a lot of science-fiction and even now sci-fi is really a male dominated genre. The books are mostly about male protagonists. It was so refreshing to finally find a book about a female scientist. It details all the misogyny that she had to overcome to be allowed on that mission.
And it wasn’t even like she was put on the mission because she was a female. In fact at one point York is told she won’t be on it specifically because she is a female. But eventually through hard work she gets it and yeah. I liked that.
I want to point out this isn’t a spoiler. We learn very early on that York is put on the mission. The story from leaving earth to standing on mars is told at the same time as going from landing on the moon to setting out to Mars.
It gets really confusing at some points. Especially because there are no true chapters which means the story feels like it jumps around quite a bit. It’s still enjoyable but you really need to pay attention. My other complaint about this book is the large number of characters. But yet again that may be my fault rather than the books (I’m not good with names).
Basically if you like hard sci-fi read this book.
The Paper Kind 
17 responses to “Voyage by Stephen Baxter”
Well written, my lady!
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Thank you!
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Sounds interesting, Emma. I do love a bit of counterfactual – the ‘this happened’s are always less interesting than the ‘but what if this happened instead’s? I know it’s not really your genre, but I did love Fatherland by Robert Harris for that – the whole ‘what if Germany had won the war’ thing. Frightening, but fascinating.
Great review and one to watch for. Sounds like a good premise for a movie …
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That sounds a bit like The Man In The High Castle which I’ve been meaning to read for a while so maybe I’ll have to read both. It does sound like a good premise for a movie though I don’t see it happening. Even considering how well space movies are doing just now.
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Yes, similar idea to Man in the High Castle, you’re right. Fatherland is a great read – highly recommend it. Not read MITHC and though the Amazon adaptation was okay-ish. I’ll be interested to read your reviews of both, though 🙂
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I love alternate histories, I love NASA and space, and I loveeeee gender politics. I might have to pick this one up soon.
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Yeah you definitely need to read this 🙂
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I just found this book in the library, and now it’s in my reading list. Looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the tip.
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Hope you like it!
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I’ve been lately trying to get into reading more science fiction. When I was still in college, I took a science fiction literature course and it really opened up my mind to new books for me to read. It wasn’t that I wasn’t into them before. I’d just never really stumbled upon any science fiction books and needed somewhere to start. So that course really helped me and made me even more interested in reading books like this one. This definitely sounds very intriguing, will definitely put it on my to be read list.
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You should defo read it! I just got into Stephen Baxter’s books but I’ve been really enjoying them. They are all very very good hard sci-fi books. I’m currently on the second book in the Manifold series and I just started the second book in the NASA series.
And I know you really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover but a lot of his books have recently been republished with super super nice new covers and they are a big part of why I bought his books in the first place.
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Okay, cool. I’ll definitely have to look into those books, for sure. I’m always up for reading anything. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting a book with a good cover. I know judging by a cover isn’t the best thing to do, but sometimes we can’t help it. Usually that’s what gets readers to read a book anyway.
I actually started reading Armada recently. I stopped because I got strep throat, but I’ve been meaning to pick it back up. And before that, I was also reading Ernest Cline’s other book Ready Player One. So I completely understand when you get in the mood to read a particular author too.
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Did you like Armada? I found it was way too similar to Ready Player One. Almost like he was trying to write another version of that instead of doing something new.
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I didn’t really feel that way when I read it. It was personally more relatable to me because I know what it’s like not having that father figure in your life. I actually enjoyed it more because to me the story flowed together better. I didn’t like the ending though, to be honest. Just left me with more questions than answers.
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Yeah the ending wasn’t that great. I think I was just disappointed with it after loving RP1 and waiting so long for his next book.
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Yeah. The ending made me really angry, honestly. But I really loved the rest of it. More so than I did RP1. But that’s okay because both stories were great to me overall. Just can’t get over how he decided to end it all.
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Thanks for the review. This is one to make my reading list. It’s rare to find good hard science fiction.
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