Island of Clouds
The Great 1972 Venus Flyby
April, 1972. Three legendary astronauts embark on mankind’s boldest space voyage yet—a yearlong mission to fly past our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus. What follows will be a journey more harrowing than any of them can imagine.
Island of Clouds, the first full-length novel in the Altered Space series, is a gripping space epic based on NASA mission proposals from the late 1960s. Touching on literary influences ranging from Borges and Bukowski to the Book of Job, this story of exploration also offers a literary probing of the dark reaches of human nature: alcoholism, capitalism, authority, fatherhood, and the ephemeral nature of desire.
The titles in the Altered Space series are wholly separate narratives, but all deal with the mysteries of space and time, progress and circularity. Each one is an ensō of words in which orbits of spacecraft, moons, planets, and people allow us fresh perspectives on the cycles of our own lives.
Mr. Brennan earned a B.S. in European History from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. He's the author of Resistance, and a series of space books including Zero Phase, Public Loneliness, Island of Clouds, Infinite Blues, and the forthcoming Alone on the Moon. He's done extensive original research for his space titles, including interviews with former astronauts (some of whom have walked on the moon) and technical consultation with retired NASA engineers, but budgetary constraints have prevented on-site outer space research. (So far.) His writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Hypertext Magazine, The Good Men Project, and Innerview Magazine. He's the founder of Tortoise Books; he's also been a frequent contributor and co-editor at Back to Print and The Deadline. He resides in Chicago.
Follow him on Twitter @jerry_brennan
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