THE CAPE

All things being relative -- this is better than Caidin's farther, outer space fiction -- and related -- there's a definite resemblance to Frank Slaughter's Countdown -- it's back to the J. F. Kennedy Space Center and the liftoff of Skylab, an orbiting space platform. Along with the big hardware, there are other projectiles: ""Goddam those people. . . . They've got the whole goddamned moon and the world in their hands and they can't keep their pants buttoned."" In fact they don't and there are many other problems -- drugs, an explosion, the Russians competing and subverting, etc., which keep it crash pad-ded from start to finish. Along with assorted legislators, a so-called German scientist, an astronaut, Skylab's commander, the central character seems to be the Director of the Manned Launch Operation, Ray Curtis, and he is very overworked. You might also wonder whether Caidin (cf. p. 200) ever puts the cover on his typewriter.