Review: One Giant Leap by Kay Simone

Title: One Giant Leap

Author: Kay Simone

Length: 400 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: Simone’s narrative choices are a stand-out element that make this storyline feel topical and relevant. In the end, it all coalesces into a lovely work of fiction.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: Houston we have so many problems…

Curtis “Launchpad” Larkin’s career as an astronaut has had its share of ups and downs.

Alternately lauded as the single-handed savior of NASA and condemned as a reckless, hot-headed bully, Curt has been through the wringer of public opinion and come out on top. When he embarks on his final mission with NASA, Curt figures there’s no curveball that life has left to throw him.

But when the role of spacecraft communicator is passed to a young engineer back in Houston who he’s never met, Curt’s mission takes on a new trajectory.

“CAPCOM to commander. Do you read?”

Patrick Harte’s life is turned upside down when he’s called to fill in at mission control, working directly under his hero, Curtis Larkin.

Falling for Curt is just a small step for Patrick — but it’s one giant leap to think that the astronaut could ever return his feelings.

“The more I talk to you, the more I know that we understand each other.”

After Curt connects with Patrick from worlds away, he can’t imagine life on earth without the other man… Despite the fact that he’s never laid eyes on Patrick. And their problems won’t stop once he’s cleared for landing.

The bad-boy astronaut is no stranger to controversy — but will the genuine and soft-spoken man of his dreams be able to keep up with the trouble Curt seems to stir everywhere he goes?

Review: The sheer number of hours of research that must have gone into the writing of this novel is evidenced by the author’s stunning and intricate detailing of the inner workings of NASA and a manned space mission. Precisely detailed but never, ever boring or overdone, author Kay Simone tells the story of a washed-up astronaut who, with a lot of help from a mobilized group of inspired civilians, saves the American space program from a massive governmental budget cut that would have essentially sent it into extinction.

Curtis Launchpad Larkin has the distinction of being the youngest astronaut to ever go up in space, at the tender age of twenty-three. Now, on the cusp of turning forty, Curt has flown multiple missions and achieved a degree of celebrity (not all of it flattering), but his fondness for the bottle and a reputation for being prickly has finally caught up with him. In a matter of minutes, one drunken mistake ends an illustrious career.

Curt has lost his way, doesn’t feel at home on planet earth, and is spiraling downhill fast. It’s a chance drunken monologue caught on video which then went viral that instigated Curt’s return to the headlines. Commanding another mission to, among the scientific research gained from the manned flights, deliver an astronaut as well as a civilian teacher to the International Space Station, Curt is back where he loves to be—off planet earth. Out amongst the stars, seeing the world through Curt’s eyes from a perspective so few people have witnessed, or ever will, gives this story such a unique tone. This is not a sci-fi novel, it reads very much as science fact, and yet, when Curt gazes from the shuttle observation bay window down to the earth, there’s a sense of ‘other’ that was impossible not to feel in its magnitude and realize how small in scope humanity is in relationship to the universe.

When a communication between Curt and his long-time CAPCOM, Jeanne—who is more family than co-worker to Curt—catches Jeanne in the midst of a health crisis, it sends Curt reeling. Feeling untethered under the weight of his fear for her, being millions of miles away and unable to make contact with Jeanne’s doctors, Curt isn’t exactly hospitable to the new CAPCOM brought in to cover the remainder of the mission’s communications tasks. One of the most striking elements Simone gets across here is precisely how important the earthly connection is for the astronauts to help stave off the stir crazy of such close quarters. It’s through this integral bond that the relationship between Curt and Patrick morphs and solidifies.

Patrick Harte is vomiting terrified, literally, of the job he’s been commanded to perform. It’s not that Patrick is unfamiliar with the equipment or the responsibilities of the position, but that he suffers from a near-crippling case of doubt in his ability to perform the duties of chief communications officer. Especially when the man commanding the mission is someone Patrick has idolized since he was an adolescent with his own dreams of becoming a space cowboy—an unrealized dream, though Patrick went on to establish a career with NASA in spite of the setbacks that derailed his original goals. In fact, he designed the communications system that’s so integral to the astronauts’ safety, and while things start off a little rocky between him and the crew, it takes just one kind and thoughtful gesture to melt the ice between him and Curt, and then readers are gifted with a romance that begins through communication, a connection that deepens through days of conversation and strengthens through a longing across the miles for Curt just to hear Patrick’s voice. Because the visual is only a one-way transmission, and the only thing Curtis Larkin knows about Patrick is that he’s thirteen years younger, the beauty of the love that blossoms between them is the very definition of ‘more than skin deep’.

The relationship between Curt and Patrick grows quickly, over a matter of days, but the fact that it grew from their hours of conversations rather than the insta-love/lust at first sight trope worked for me, even if Patrick was more than a little lusty for Curt all those years, which is sweet and believable in a hero worship way. It’s what happens when that worship turns to knowing and liking the real Curt that matters, and the fact that the feelings were mutual counted too. The big moment, the moment Curt was back on earth and would finally be able to see Patrick for the first time, was a lovely bit of romantic suspense that culminated in a joyful and beautiful thing to witness. And what happens after they are finally able to spend time with each other is beautiful too. Curt’s absolute commitment to his feelings is what Patrick needed so much to help him overcome his doubts about his limitations, and I adored them both.

The balance between the components of the mission, the brilliant narrative elements that allow readers to feel and form a necessary mental-visual, the entire cast of characters involved (including some thinly veiled, and not-at-all veiled, references to real people), and the budding relationship between Curt and Patrick, is seamless. The relationship between astronaut and the love of the job is even so clearly absorbed within the whole of the story that its presence adds a secondary romantic element. Simone’s narrative choices are a stand-out element that make this storyline feel topical and relevant. There is so much showing that the telling added a nice change to the pace of the story, and the flashbacks in particular worked to enhance the present tense narration. It gives the book a sort of documentary feel with a shot of romance that, in case it isn’t obvious, I loved. In the end, it all coalesces into a lovely work of fiction.

You can buy One Giant Leap here:
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