The X-15 Rocket Plane

A Facinating Topic But Mediocre Presentation

Is there anything you would change about this book?

First, let's address the material. If you are expecting a chronological history of the design, development, testing, and implementation of the X-15 planes & program you'll be disappointed. I was. Missing here is virtually anything on where the idea came from, how the planes came to be on the drawing board, details of constructing the three aircraft and of the various rocket motors used. This would have been fascinating material to have included in the book. When you think about it, with 199 flights, each lasting only about 10-15 minutes each, that's only roughly about 40 total hours of flight time for all three planes combined.

Don't get me wrong, the flights themselves are fascinating and a crucial part on any look at the X-15 program. It just seemed like there was too much other "filler" that could have been spent on the actual engineering, construction, and modification of the planes. But, perhaps understandably, the author's focus was more on the human interest side of the program.

What you do have is an overview of the careers of the X-15 pilots and the test flights each of them made. That's fine, but still, not in chronological order. What the author does is take each pilot one-by-one, starting from the first to the last, and lays out their careers and details many of the test flights that they participated in. Since each chapter focuses on one pilot alone the narrative often overlaps with material in other chapters. Naturally, this approach also means that there is quite a bit of leaping back and forth from one time frame to another as a new chapter begins. This took a while to get use to and was very confusing at first because I was frequently getting lost in what year we were in while listening. Also, this style, in a way, spoils some of the potential drama later in the book, and one event in particular near the end could have been more dramatic except for it being completely spoiled by a reference to it earlier in the book.

Now to the narration. Yes, as others have observed, this was not the best choice in narrator. The voice was so monotone, droning, and slow (I mean SLOW!) that I had to increase the play speed to 1.5X just to make the listening experience more interesting and lively. That actually made the the material quite listenable.

Just before the book was finished yesterday I adjusted the speed back to 1X just to see if I was exaggerating. No! I couldn't believe how plodding the reading was and how accustomed to 1.5X I had become. I would never have made it to the finish at normal speed. It really made it hard to concentrate and I was missing key dates, names, and locations because the reading was sleep inducing. Running it at 1.5X was much better.

All of this might seem like a negative review, but that's not entirely the case. Overall, I did come around to enjoying the book. But the material and presentation could have been much better except for the aspects I mention above.

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

See Above

How did the narrator detract from the book?

See Above

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Possibly

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Great detailed history of the X-15

Very detailed history and breakdown if each pilot. I just found the reading very monotonous, like a reading of the phone book. I had to stop many times and come back to it, it kind of droned on.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Wealth of knowledge

It's long but it's an amazing in-depth book on an aircraft that most people never knew existed. Michelle tells the story of each of the X-15 pilots with great detail. The amount of research she put into this book is staggering. I've had the pleasure of seeing Michelle give talks about the X-15 and if you ever have the chance, I highly recommend going to see her. One tip for this audiobook, though, is speed it up 10% so the narrator talks at a more normal pace. He does a great job changing his voice for the different people but he's just way to slow for me. Overall this was a great book and I definitely recommend it if you're interested in the people behind this awesome aircraft.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Painfully Boring

I love aerospace technology and stories about it but cripes, this will put you to sleep. It's 67 biographies of the people who worked on the X-15 and reads like VCR repair manual read by your most boring Uncle. There is no big picture view of how this factored into the Cold War; No implications of the technology for research or aerial warfare; No info on what the Russians were doing in response. No, instead you get stories about the chief mechanic's upbringing in Nebraska. Its no surprise that author's only other work is about the Texas court system. (*Yawn*) I wanted to quit this half way through and only suffered it to write this review to warn others that this is the perfect substitution for sleeping pills.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Most thorough and honest book on X-15 you'll find

If you have any sort of substantial interest in the X-15 you'll want to read this excellent book on the program. While the primary focus is on the pilots, Evans succeeded in getting a truly wide array of those involved in the project on every level to reflect deeply, and talk honestly, about the successes and failures of the program, both in terms of hardware and the very real humanity of the participants. It's very well written and truly brimming with information and insights, large portions of which I had never encountered before.

As it follows the careers of the pilots you'll find triumphs and tragedies (sorry about the cliche) on personal as well as professional levels. Because Evans looks at entire careers there is also quite a bit of information about the manned space program. People name names in their often pointed observations and even outright criticisms. But the book is not gossipy or prurient.

I found the reading uneven and sometimes bothersome. Seeing as how the author is a woman I would have preferred a female reader. The performer had, I thought, an odd cadence and unusual inflections that I found off-putting at times. But these are quibbles.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely search for other works by Michelle Evans.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

This narrator really stunk up a wonderfull story

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend that they read this book instead of listening to it.... .because the narrator pauses.... in places that don't...... make sense. Very distracting to the story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This..... narrator pauses.... often, and in very unusual places.

Did The X-15 Rocket Plane inspire you to do anything?

The X-15 Rocket Plane inspired me to write a review as the the narrator detracted so noticeably from this amazing story.

Any additional comments?

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Great book, poor presentation

Would you be willing to try another one of Gary L. Willprecht’s performances?

No.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It's too long for that.

Any additional comments?

The reader inserts pauses and emphasis in inappropriate places. The use of pauses and stressing of words should be consistent with, and support the text. In this book, they detract from it. I'm only half way through the book, but I'm considering abandoning it because I find the presentation so distracting.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

An informative and exciting read.

This is a great book FULL of facts and history. A very exciting and informative dive into the X-15s and the people that made this historic and groundbreaking project go. A must read for any space and or aerospace buff. The reading was very bad and the voice affect on quoted lines was hilarious and tedious at the same time. I finally dialed up the speed to 1.25 and it became tolerable. The information, stories and insight are WELL worth the trek.

Interesting bits, but..

The parts about the X15 are great. Unfortunately the story drifts too much and contains the author's rant about gay politics.

wonderful bird

The X15 was an aircraft that taught us so much. I have had to the honor of seeing an X15