Interesting book but a little diffuse.

There are a great deal of interesting facts in this book, however, the connection between some of them and the Apollo spacesuits are rather tenuous. That said, where the narrative relates more closely to its subject the author gives a new slant to the story of the design and development of the Apollo suits, why the soft shell Playtex produced suit was superior to the hard shell competition and so-on.

Those parts of the book were fascinating, unfortunately the other parts, whilst interesting, just didn't grab me so much. My other disappointment was the lack of detail on the actual makeup of the suits themselves. The fact they had 21 layers is right up there but what is never discussed is what most of those layers were and what their function was. I'd have liked even a quick run through as a minimum.

That said there were some stand out moments in the book not the least of which was one of the pitches Playtex made, no paper, no slides, just a short film of a man in one of their suits running around a football pitch alongside an unsuited man, throwing a ball, jumping, etc and generally doing things a man in a hard shell suit could never hope to manage.

Overall, a good book but could have been a great one. The narrator on the other hand was excellent!

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Surprising history & production of a space suit

This title has a contrivance at its heart - the chapters are set out in the same number as the layers in the titular suit and there are some pretty theoretical bits of social and design theory.

However, if you are interested in Apollo, the space race, science and technology or the complexities of complex technical garment design and production, this title will have something for all of you.

I found it generally fascinating and even the slightly heavy going bits couldn't put me off. It covers the technical landscape of the time - looking at contemporary design theories, the NASA environment,, the bureaucracy, the testing challenges and other manufacturers approaches, the inspiration of design, the persistence of Platex (who actually made the suit - which I wasn't aware of) and their completely different philosophy which made their suits so successful.

It is well narrated and I found it a mostly easy listen while travelling and walking to work. I learnt a lot, and while it could have been written in a more popular science style, some of the depth and breadth would have to be left out. Stick with it and you'll learn a lot (at least I did).

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Pleasently Surprised

I am over half of the book, the book's timeline is per topic, and doesn't follow the chapters necessarily, but that's not a bad thing, as a capable listener, you'll be able to piece in the parts to create a full image, the craziest idea was developing cyborgs to travel to space, yes, NASA wanted to cut people up and modify them to become cyborgs, it is intense to just develop the technology for space travel, nevermind the actual spacesuit design.

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