Questo fumetto racconta la storia della conquista della Luna (l'ora T: le varie date sono misurate come in un conto alla rovescia) con la corsa parallela russa e americana. L'accenno, più che agli astronauti, è posto sulle persone che sono state a capo dei rispettivi programmi, Sergej Korolëv da una parte e Max Faget e Caldwell C. Johnson dall'altra. La storia è interessante soprattutto per il lato russo che come sempre per noi occidentali è meno noto, ma mi ha lasciato un po' deluso: il tratto dei disegnatori Zander e Kevin Cannon è poco incisivo, e la scelta (italiana?) di un lettering diverso quando parlano i russi, con "a" ed "e" minuscole e И al posto di "N" diventa presto stancante. Niente da eccepire invece sulla traduzione di Stefano Visinoni. ( )

The graphic novel "T-Minus: The Race to the Moon" pleasantly met and exceeded my expectations. Set during the decade building up to the Apollo 11 moon landing, the book is a well-researched account of the tremendous scientific advancements of the 1960s.

A huge reason for the book's success is the decision to cover both the American and Russian space programs, rather than exclusively focusing on NASA's achievements. The competitive atmosphere of the 'space race' give the book excellent tension and focus. Writer Jim Ottovani, and the artists Zander Cannon and Kevin Cannon are celebrative of the achievements of the both sides of the space race.

"T-Minus" is appropriate for readers of all ages, though perhaps might be a little too high-level for children aged beneath 12 to read on their own without interpretation. ( )

A good follow up to The Martian, especially with the similarities between the Apollo missions and the Ares missions.

PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge | Task 19: A book based on a true story ( )

Because of T-Minus, we know the history of the space race does not suffer when told in graphic novel format and aimed at kids. True, many events or people had to be condensed or left out for the story to fit into 125 pages of mostly images. But, Ottaviani does an excellent job conveying information in the brevity demanded by the form and in a way that can be understood by the intended age group. In fact, just how much information Ottaviani can convey in this format is a credit to graphic novels. He uses side panels to tell us about successful and failed launches from both the US and the Soviets that happened concurrent to the action going on in the panels. Although it's true that it is difficult to tell some characters from another, a reader can tell if we're in the USSR or the US by how the text appears. (The USSR dialog is done in a style that is similar to the Cyrillic script). There is one admission that seems curious. The terrible death of Laika is brought up, but not the unfortunate ends of the primates the US sent into space. Still, an excellent piece of history for 8-12 year-olds and possibly a sneaky way for reluctant readers to engage in nonfiction. Highly recommended for public and school libraries. ( )

A really neat book about the competition between Russia and America for outer space (and technological) dominance. It's like a comic book version of "The Right Stuff" but gives us so many more details. You'd have to read it three times to absorb all the information. The bulk of the story is about the engineers and scientists behind the scenes. A great book.