Final Orbit

Hadfield (The Defector) delivers a pulse-pounding adventure about a 1975 U.S.-Soviet space mission that devolves into a battle hundreds of miles above Earth. All goes well until the Apollo and the Soyuz try to dock to each other, when a critical error kills two astronauts, one cosmonaut, and destroys the Russian ship. At NASA's direction, the remaining crew diverts course to the U.S.-controlled Skylab orbiting nearby, where the bodies can be stored temporarily. When the crew, led by pilot Deke Slayton, reaches Skylab, they discover a Chinese craft already there and in the process of stealing a secret laser weapon the U.S. left behind on a previous mission. Suddenly, what began as a peaceful endeavor meant to embody cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union turns into a violent confrontation with Chinese forces involving gun- and machete-wielding space explorers. A former astronaut himself, Hadfield crowds the narrative with an abundance of technical jargon, and a few of the earthbound subplots are undernourished, including the kidnapping of NASA flight controller Kaz Zemeckis in Houston and a presidential assassination attempt by the Weather Underground. Still, Hadfield maintains steady momentum from the book's opening pages, and the crackling finale is well worth the wait. This should satisfy the author's fans. Agent: Rick Broadhead, Rick Broadhead & Assoc. (Oct.)