In the same league of hoax making with deleterious consequences as writing about North Korean footballers failing to win in the World Cup of 1966 in England and being sentenced to death. You may hate or fear 'Reds', but don't think they fools or cannibals. The real footballers actually continued their careers at home, while no one in the USSR would be mad enough to land such a prolific ace in GULAG around the Polar circle. At maximum he will be made a flight instructor to pass his superior skills to cadets. But in real life he'll be lauded in lifetime, kolhozs and schools will be named after him upon his death. The USSR was strong enough to keep its best in service, and definitely wouldn't be afraid of a scandal, grounds for which are hard to prove anyway.

NOTE: This review originally appeared on goodreads, so the reference to "reviews below" is to goodreads users, not LibraryThing users:

Judging from many of the reviews below, other people clearly got something out of this book, but it didn't really work for me - even though I felt that I should've liked it from the descriptions of what it was about.

In some places it has been described as a kind of "Right Stuff" done from the Soviet point of view, but if you are expecting Tom Wolfe (I wasn't) you will definitely be disappointed - stylistically this is very different. Where it is similar to "The Right Stuff" is in its subject matter (pilots and the space race) and its close referencing of real events (particularly in the Korean War section) and real people (lots of US astronauts are name-checked, almost obsessively so - as many fought in the Korean War). This gave me a strong sense that I was reading faction rather than mere fiction - but for me that aspect became increasingly irritating because the more the author did it, the more I wanted to know how much of the story was in some way based on real events. The author refuses to say though and it's not that easy to find out about, whereas in "The Right Stuff" most of the key events described are well known matters of public record.

I could've lived with this if the novel had worked better for me as fiction but I didn't really care what happened to the central character, nor did I find him unsympathetic yet compelling. As a result, the main thing keeping my interest in the latter stages was how far this novel was based on fact - and to the extent that it wasn't, how plausible it was as a counterfactual. To avoid spoilers, let's just the say that the last part appears to have much less basis in fact that the earlier parts and I had guessed how it was all going to finish up, so for me there was a lack of suspense too.

If you are in interested in the Soviet Union during the period covered the novel, try Francis Spufford's "Red Plenty" - which for me was a much more successful fusion of fact and fiction. For more on that and a more detailed review of Ascent, see: http://www.paulsamael.com/blog/faction-or-fiction ( )

I personally file this book under the category of "how did this get published". The premise is a great idea, what if the Soviets beat the Americans in the race to put a man on the moon? A simple enough idea, but one that I feel that Mercurio missed the target in delivering.

We are presented with Yefgeni Yeremin, an orphan of Stalingrad who manages (through deeds and action) to get into the Soviet air force. Sent to Korea along with other pilots to secretly fight the Americans, Yefgeni becomes the greatest Ace of the war, but after the war he is relegated to obscurity and exile for disobeying the State. But in the 1960's he is pulled from obscurity (sort of) to be a cosmonaut and through luck and stubbornness is selected to be the man to be the first to land on the moon.

A simple plot with a lot of possibilities, but one that totally falls short. Yefgeni is an obdurate, self-centered, self-absorbed man who cares nothing about anybody else and only on perfecting himself. This man marries a woman who was widowed during the Korean War, and has two children with her, but throughout the narrative she is only ever referred to as "the Widow" and his children as "the boy" and "the girl". Really? There was no development to Yefgeni's character to the point that when events at the climax of the story unfold, I knew what actions he would take (the wrong ones) because the story was entirely about his achievement, and not about how his actions or decisions would affect others (those that loved him, the State, etc.).

The book is moderately good on the technical details of combat flying and space-flight, but is lacking considerably in character development. By the time Yefgeni was racking up his amazing (I thought absurdly unrealistic) kill totals as a fighter pilot in Korea I had lost interest in what happened to him. If you want a decent technical read about what might have been in the Soviet space program, then give Ascent a try. If you are looking for a compelling character to be engaged with, complete with growth and development, then steer clear. ( )

Very Good

About a Russian jet fighter pilot who becomes a cosmonaut

Yefgenii Yeremin becomes a fighter pilot in the Korean war in a secret Russian squadron who are not officially there. The book is divided into 3 sections. During the Korean war the exploits of the aces and “Ivan the terrible” are recounted in a breathless adventure style. The middle section, which drags a little, Yeremin is assigned to an obscure Arctic post and the last section Yeremin is chosen for the Cosmonaut program. There are problems here, the first part starts with Yeremin as an orphan in post WW2 Stalingrad and this is pretty grim, with a bit of a gratuitous rape scene. The middle section drags, as I mentioned and some of the lst section are a little unbelievable. However saying that it kept my interest throughout and the first section is very very good.

Overall – uneven but still worth checking out

There is a GN version of the book which may be better as it may work better in such a format ( )

I enjoyed this books immensely even though I am not at all interested in descriptions of war and fighting. But this one is written in a way that makes reading pure pleasure. Our hero Yefgenii becomes a legend in the Korean war by shooting down more American jets than anybody else. But Russia's involvement in the war must be kept secret, so Yefgenii is exiled to a remote Arctic base. In 1964, he gets recruited into the space programme.... It is an intriguing story, yes, but what makes this book so interesting is the way the author uses language and grammar. Short sentences, fast pace -and the most fascinating bit is the last third of the book, written completely in the present tense, letting you be part of the actions as they happen. The way the author tells the story makes you feel as if you are in a race to get to the end, every sentence drives you to the next one, every end of a chapter throws you into the beginning of the following one. I loved it! ( )