Red Moon Rising

“The writing is fast-paced and crisp, the stakes high and the tension palpable from the first pages of this high-flying account of the early days of the space race…. Yet even more than his absorbing narrative, Brzezinski’s final analysis has staying power.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Matthew Brzezinski explores both sides of this hardboiled Cold War conflict in a taut chronicle… [that] reads more like a spy thriller than a history book.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“In our fear of terrorist attacks, we forget there was an even more panicky time—when Russia’s Sputnik first sped across the night sky in October 1957, signaling that the Soviet Union could launch nuclear-tipped missiles at the United States. By plumbing Russian as well as American sources, Matthew Brzezinski has given us a vivid, insightful account of that paranoid age.”

—Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and coauthor of The Wise Men

“Matthew Brzezinski’s Red Moon Rising fills a significant hole in our understanding of the Cold War. Using the Sputnik launch as his centerpiece, Brzezinski brilliantly flashes back and forth between Washinton, D.C., and Moscow. A truly gripping, important book.”

—Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge and The Boys of Pointe du Hoc

“Matthew Brzezinski’s reportorial skills and smooth writing propel the narrative forward at the perfect pitch. Red Moon Rising is a combustibly entertaining mixture of scientific daring, politics, Cold War duels, and big-time personalities.”

—Neal Bascomb, author of Red Mutiny

“Matthew Brzezinski has crafted a dazzling account of the people and events that led to the world’s first earth satellite. It is one of the most important stories of the twentieth century, and Brzezinski tells it supremely well. His account not only tells us how the Russians did it, but how the Americans, bewildered at first, finally got going with their own space program. It is historical storytelling at its finest, and I thoroughly enjoyed every page. In a word: Prodigious!”

—Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys (October Sky)