Marooned

Mr. Caidin has invented a new literary form: the electronic novel. He substitutes communications devices, computers, guidance systems and launching specifications for those homely old paragraphs of food, love and labor that used to hold our interest. What he has done is to create a melodramatic situation that allows him to exploit, mention and catalogue every fuel line, transistor and operation in ... More Project Mercury. Major Richard J. Pruett, USAF, on detached service with NASA, is hanging just outside the atmosphere in a space capsule whose retro-rockets won't fire and get him back to earth. He's our fifth astronaut and quite likely first casualty (only three days of oxygen left). Cape Canaveral starts mysterious preparations but before they can be completed the Russians launch a rocket which attempts to rescue Pruett for a propaganda feat. The Russian cosmonaut adjusts his orbit to the American's and tells him he'll pick him up, but meanwhile Pruett's best friend has taken off in a missile to beat the Russian. Though the Russian is satisfied that he could perform the rescue, he aids the best friend to rescue Pruett. Each detail of this story is patiently particularized, with the slow-motion climax of a launchpad cavalry charge to save a white man from the Reds. [Kirkus via GoodReads]