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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
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
378 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1964
4 people are currently reading
184 people want to read
About the author
Martin Caidin
192 books81 followersMartin Caidin was a prolific and controversial writer. Most of his work centered around the adventures of pilots and astronauts. A number of his books were notable for their reasonable, realistic predictions of then-futuristic technology.
Caidin's body of work was prolific and varied, ranging from additional speculative/SF novels such as Marooned, which was made into an acclaimed film and considered a harbinger of the Apollo 13 accident, to a novel based upon the character Indiana Jones. He also wrote many non-fiction books about science, aviation and warfare.
Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel is Cyborg, which was the basis for "The Six Million Dollar Man" franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history, especially concerning aviation.
In addition to his writing Caidin was a pilot and active in the restoration and flying of older planes.
Caidin's body of work was prolific and varied, ranging from additional speculative/SF novels such as Marooned, which was made into an acclaimed film and considered a harbinger of the Apollo 13 accident, to a novel based upon the character Indiana Jones. He also wrote many non-fiction books about science, aviation and warfare.
Caidin began writing fiction in 1957. In his career he authored more than 50 fiction and nonfiction books as well as more than 1,000 magazine articles. His best-known novel is Cyborg, which was the basis for "The Six Million Dollar Man" franchise. He also wrote numerous works of military history, especially concerning aviation.
In addition to his writing Caidin was a pilot and active in the restoration and flying of older planes.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 14, 2025
Marooned was Caidin's second most famous novel (following Cyborg, basis for The Six Million Dollar Man.) It's a high-tech suspense thriller and is a good page-turner. It was filmed in 1969, to coincide with the Moon landing, and was a very good movie, too, with a cast including Gregory Peck, David Janssen, James Franciscus, Gene Hackman, and Mariette Hartley. The screen play was written by Mayo Simon, and Caidin revised and updated his novel to reflect changes both from the script and technological advances. (I did not read the original version of the novel.) Ironically, it was a hard science fiction book when it came out but now must be seen as a historical novel. Shades of Apollo 13! It's an excellent story in either category. (Note: purely by coincidence I just noticed that today (9/14/25) would have been Caidin's 98th birthday. This is a good one with which to mark the day!)
February 17, 2010
I read this one before starting secondary school, probably during the period of the Gemini program, but not long after publication and the end of the Mercury program. Being a news, particularly space exploration news, junkie, I found this story of a marooned Mercury astronaut and his rescue by combined USSR/USA efforts not only exciting and informative, but heartening. Now it would be quite dated, so I wouldn't recommend it, or its 1969 reissue, to anyone beyond a specialist in the history of space exploration culture.
July 21, 2009
There are two versions of this novel. The earliest, written during the space program's infancy, the stricken ship was a Mercury, the rescue vessel Apollo.
When they made the film version a few years later, they updated and Caidin rewrote the paperback movie edition to coincide with the movie. This time Apollo was the stricken ship and a new, advanced model rescued them.
I read both versions.
When they made the film version a few years later, they updated and Caidin rewrote the paperback movie edition to coincide with the movie. This time Apollo was the stricken ship and a new, advanced model rescued them.
I read both versions.
July 25, 2014
Loved the book, loved the movie, both a long time ago.
August 15, 2025
Martin Caidin's 1964 Marooned tells the story of a very tightly constrained soon-to-be then-near future of the 1960s as Major Dick Pruett, pilot of an extra final Mercury mission shoehorned in before the first Gemini flight--which in the real world ended up being in 1964 for uncrewed tests, with live missions starting in 1965--ends up stranded...er, marooned, one might say, in space by failed retrorockets and hence seemingly fated to run out of oxygen before the drag of the upper atmosphere otherwise would bring the capsule down.
The retrorocket "system was foolproof," concludes the third-person narrative after spending a full page describing its location and design. "It had so many redundant features that even the backup systems had their own backup systems. It was foolproof." Of course... Well, nevertheless, "[i]t had failed" (1964 Hodder and Stoughton hardcover, page 17).
"You could handle just about anything in the way of an emergency," the experienced Pruett knows. "Anything--except a failure with the retrorockets" (page 37). And without retrofire, by the time his ship of its own accord finally began to "drop back into the upper fringes of the atmosphere," then even if Pruett had "used every trick in the book and invented a few new ones" to "extend the lifetime of his oxygen supply system," the pilot already would been "dead for barely more than half a day--fourteen hours--when his coffin started its fiery plunge back to earth" (page 25).
"Years of flying, much of it in experimental airplanes where mistakes and sloppiness brought only disaster, [have] created in him an unbending drive toward perfection." Still, Pruett "realize[s] that it [is] possible he could have overlooked something, some small and, at the time, perhaps seemingly unimportant item" (page 40). Thus when Mercury Control asks for him to do "a complete review...of all procedures and steps taken during [the] mission" in the hopes of "recall[ing] anything, no matter what, that might have been out of the ordinary" and thus "might give them a lead on the retro malfunction" (page 27), Pruett knows that he must "approach the problem from an oblique angle,...enter it slowly," so that no "desperate attempt to discover the error, if indeed there had been one, would...fog his thinking" (page 41).
Of course, with this oh-so handy command to, essentially, "let his thought drift idly, washing gently to and fro in the memories he knew and cherished most of all" (page 41)--with the corollary, not specified by NASA, that the "most cherished" memories must be more than simply the "almost forty-eight orbits" (page 30) from launch to planned retrofire, right?--the author sets himself up for the flashbacks that scene by scene, sometimes interspersed with the present predicament, will reveal not only the planning and training for this mission but also the personal history that led the astronaut to this point.
We will ride with the main character, therefore, up and down the timeline of his life, from the tiny capsule that is the pinnacle of American science, back to his teenaged years during the war "thumb[ing] a ride" to bum around Roosevelt Field and "get close to the planes," going for hops in the "clanking, wheezing" old ship with an older pal of his (pages 42-43). We will see the young Pruett later, after the departure of his friend, doing "odd jobs here and there" in exchange for "pay in flight time" (page 46), then graduating from high school in '43, joining up, earning his sterling Army wings, and then taking postwar tutelage under "one of the true 'old timers' of aviation" (page 50), a family friend whose teaching humbles the cocky man and ultimately keeps him alive "at 43,000 feet" in "a lousy, cold place called Korea" (page 66). We will learn the politics and technology and training regimens of the Space Race as well, with emphasis, though not solely so, on the Mercury Program and also the soon-to-be launched Gemini that will help America learn the techniques needed for the Apollo missions to the Moon. And we will meet the dame who, after witnessing a fiery crash that kills a friend "only fifty feet in front of them" (page 189), tries to make him choose between flying and her...
Martin Caidin's Marooned may be a little florid in its language every now and then, and sometimes a little over-adulatory of its protagonist, but overall it is an enjoyable and exciting tale of the early Space Age, a nail-biter that also evokes the love of flying and even something of the process of human maturation, too, and will be right around a 5-star read for anyone interested in space flight or aviation.
And if we read the version updated in 1969 for the film of that year, whose screenplay was by Mayo Simon...well, then we will find the plot updated to an early 1970s post-Apollo situation of a similar accident while returning from a Skylab-type mission, now with three crew members, one of whom is suffering something of a mental breakdown, and we will discover that the action and suspense actually are even stronger than those of the original.
The retrorocket "system was foolproof," concludes the third-person narrative after spending a full page describing its location and design. "It had so many redundant features that even the backup systems had their own backup systems. It was foolproof." Of course... Well, nevertheless, "[i]t had failed" (1964 Hodder and Stoughton hardcover, page 17).
"You could handle just about anything in the way of an emergency," the experienced Pruett knows. "Anything--except a failure with the retrorockets" (page 37). And without retrofire, by the time his ship of its own accord finally began to "drop back into the upper fringes of the atmosphere," then even if Pruett had "used every trick in the book and invented a few new ones" to "extend the lifetime of his oxygen supply system," the pilot already would been "dead for barely more than half a day--fourteen hours--when his coffin started its fiery plunge back to earth" (page 25).
"Years of flying, much of it in experimental airplanes where mistakes and sloppiness brought only disaster, [have] created in him an unbending drive toward perfection." Still, Pruett "realize[s] that it [is] possible he could have overlooked something, some small and, at the time, perhaps seemingly unimportant item" (page 40). Thus when Mercury Control asks for him to do "a complete review...of all procedures and steps taken during [the] mission" in the hopes of "recall[ing] anything, no matter what, that might have been out of the ordinary" and thus "might give them a lead on the retro malfunction" (page 27), Pruett knows that he must "approach the problem from an oblique angle,...enter it slowly," so that no "desperate attempt to discover the error, if indeed there had been one, would...fog his thinking" (page 41).
Of course, with this oh-so handy command to, essentially, "let his thought drift idly, washing gently to and fro in the memories he knew and cherished most of all" (page 41)--with the corollary, not specified by NASA, that the "most cherished" memories must be more than simply the "almost forty-eight orbits" (page 30) from launch to planned retrofire, right?--the author sets himself up for the flashbacks that scene by scene, sometimes interspersed with the present predicament, will reveal not only the planning and training for this mission but also the personal history that led the astronaut to this point.
We will ride with the main character, therefore, up and down the timeline of his life, from the tiny capsule that is the pinnacle of American science, back to his teenaged years during the war "thumb[ing] a ride" to bum around Roosevelt Field and "get close to the planes," going for hops in the "clanking, wheezing" old ship with an older pal of his (pages 42-43). We will see the young Pruett later, after the departure of his friend, doing "odd jobs here and there" in exchange for "pay in flight time" (page 46), then graduating from high school in '43, joining up, earning his sterling Army wings, and then taking postwar tutelage under "one of the true 'old timers' of aviation" (page 50), a family friend whose teaching humbles the cocky man and ultimately keeps him alive "at 43,000 feet" in "a lousy, cold place called Korea" (page 66). We will learn the politics and technology and training regimens of the Space Race as well, with emphasis, though not solely so, on the Mercury Program and also the soon-to-be launched Gemini that will help America learn the techniques needed for the Apollo missions to the Moon. And we will meet the dame who, after witnessing a fiery crash that kills a friend "only fifty feet in front of them" (page 189), tries to make him choose between flying and her...
Martin Caidin's Marooned may be a little florid in its language every now and then, and sometimes a little over-adulatory of its protagonist, but overall it is an enjoyable and exciting tale of the early Space Age, a nail-biter that also evokes the love of flying and even something of the process of human maturation, too, and will be right around a 5-star read for anyone interested in space flight or aviation.
And if we read the version updated in 1969 for the film of that year, whose screenplay was by Mayo Simon...well, then we will find the plot updated to an early 1970s post-Apollo situation of a similar accident while returning from a Skylab-type mission, now with three crew members, one of whom is suffering something of a mental breakdown, and we will discover that the action and suspense actually are even stronger than those of the original.
April 12, 2025
Read both 1964 and 1969 versions. 1964 edition I felt was a far better and more coherent story. It seemed to thread the story in a way that was believable and made more sense. The only downside was the lack of characters and I felt not everyone would enjoy the highly technical nature of the novel.
While the 1969 edition has more going on and a greater verity of characters. As opposed to the 64 version which had one main character and a number of secondaries. The 69 version felt more complete with multiple main characters with overarching story lines. At the expensive of not making as much sense as the prior version. Leading to some incoherence and reduced technical accuracy.
On a technical note. The failure that occurred in the 64 version was more believable while the failure that occurs in the 69 version was not believable. The apollo capsule had a significant amount of redundancies in which the SPS engine could've fired. As opposed to solid rocket "retros" used in the mercury capsule.
Ultimately I feel like the rarer 1964 edition is better.
While the 1969 edition has more going on and a greater verity of characters. As opposed to the 64 version which had one main character and a number of secondaries. The 69 version felt more complete with multiple main characters with overarching story lines. At the expensive of not making as much sense as the prior version. Leading to some incoherence and reduced technical accuracy.
On a technical note. The failure that occurred in the 64 version was more believable while the failure that occurs in the 69 version was not believable. The apollo capsule had a significant amount of redundancies in which the SPS engine could've fired. As opposed to solid rocket "retros" used in the mercury capsule.
Ultimately I feel like the rarer 1964 edition is better.
January 16, 2020
I read this way back in high school in the late '60s. I recall I enjoyed it as I had recently become a real space buff. I also fondly remember the movie from around 1970 when my space interest and Apollo was at a pinnacle. Me and buddies would attend launches at KSC in the '70s with the press. I recall seeing Caidin in the group a couple of times, he was kind of a crazy guy and you could tell. He lived on the spacecoast for a while and had his Junkers Ju 52 aircraft located at TiCo airport and I remember seeing it flying in the area a couple of times. His book, No Man's Land, was great as I recall reading it about 1968 or so.
January 11, 2024
Excellent page turner for hard science fiction enthusiasts. Really felt like I was there in that tiny capsule waiting to die in orbit. Moral dilemmas abound. However, I found the author’s long detailing of the protagonist’s past as a pilot irrelevant, unnecessarily choking the plot. Caiden is a jets and airplanes guy, so I get it, but not my thing.
March 13, 2021
This was not a very convincing sci fi adventure about men who are stranded in a space ship
December 10, 2013
I thought this was phenomenal. And, reading it with fifty years of hindsight, I'm amazed at how technically accurate and plausible this story was. It was fun for me, knowing that this was written during the beginning of project Gemini. That lends a historical context to me that heightened the whole narrative. This easily could have happened, and the manner in which everyone responds is easy to imagine being true. Especially when one considers that the real life version of this took place six years later with Apollo XIII. It made me appreciate the authors imagination and technical knowledge even more. I realize in the context of being 50 years old, and written before we landed on the moon, had a reusable shuttle, or a permanent manned space station that this would seemed dated and old to someone picking it up casually now. For a Space Coast kid like me, though, it was hard to put down. It was an accurate, fictional time capsule to me, with the kind of specific drama that can only go with space flight.
August 13, 2011
Note: This is a review of the original edition of Marooned depicting the failure of a "Mercury 7" mission rather than the updated version which depicts the failure of a later Apollo mission (as per the film) among many other apparent differences.
In Martin Caidin's "Marooned" we basically get an absolutely thrilling and at times, brilliantly written 60s-era novel on the very "hard" end of science fiction, whose extremely lucid depiction of aviation and the early space race (with the obligatory dash of Cold War politics) and a sprinkling of fatalism, makes me forgive any sins of technical babble (which for a lot of it is actually a necessity) and slight deficiencies in characterisation. It's a flawed masterpiece and I am forever grateful to my mother for stealing it from her high school library.
In Martin Caidin's "Marooned" we basically get an absolutely thrilling and at times, brilliantly written 60s-era novel on the very "hard" end of science fiction, whose extremely lucid depiction of aviation and the early space race (with the obligatory dash of Cold War politics) and a sprinkling of fatalism, makes me forgive any sins of technical babble (which for a lot of it is actually a necessity) and slight deficiencies in characterisation. It's a flawed masterpiece and I am forever grateful to my mother for stealing it from her high school library.
January 12, 2013
Great story covering the beginnings of the space program and a daring rescue of an astronaut trapped in orbit. While Caidin can go a bit heavy on the technical stuff at times, it's a rousing read nonetheless. Very nice to also see the Soviet space program treated fairly, with credit given to its accomplishments and capabilities.
Read
May 8, 2010Martin Caidin didn't stop writing in the late 60s, but some of his most influential work is from that period. This story of an astronaut stuck in orbit is one such. Many later writers may not even remember their debt to this book--but it's there.
Read
August 25, 2010FILM TIE-IN EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED FROM THE ORIGINAL (1964) EDITION. FILMS SCREENPLAY BY MAYO SIMON.
August 12, 2011
4-stars for the story, 2-stars for getting WAY too bogged down in hyper-detailed minutia (at times it almost reads like a technical manual).
October 16, 2016
Author is fine at writing about machines, but bad at writing convincing human characters.
September 14, 2024
A tough read. So much technical jargon about space flight you have to muscle through to get to a decent ending.
July 27, 2009
rewritten to coincide with the movie. Much material updated.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews