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Strange Angel
- The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
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Strange Angel
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Summary
Now a CBS All Access series: “A riveting tale of rocketry, the occult, and boom-and-bust 1920s and 1930s Los Angeles” (Booklist).
The Los Angeles Times headline screamed: ROCKET SCIENTIST KILLED IN PASADENA EXPLOSION. The man known as Jack Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform a derided sci-fi plotline into actuality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of the city’s occult scene.
Fueled by childhood dreams of space flight, Parsons was a leader of the motley band of enthusiastic young men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a cornerstone of the American space program. But Parsons’s wild imagination also led him into a world of incantations and orgiastic rituals - if he could make rocketry a reality, why not black magic?
George Pendle re-creates the world of John Parsons in this dazzling portrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. Peopled with such formidable real-life figures as Howard Hughes, Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert Heinlein, Strange Angel explores the unruly consequences of genius.
The basis for a new miniseries created by Mark Heyman and produced by Ridley Scott, this biography “vividly tells the story of a mysterious and forgotten man who embodied the contradictions of his time . . . when science fiction crashed into science fact. . . . [It] would make a compelling work of fiction if it weren’t so astonishingly true” (Publishers Weekly).
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What listeners say about Strange Angel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 01-09-22
Tony lawless
Good history, covers a lot of characters, Alister Crawley, L Ron Hubbard even Howard Hughes and all the space rocket history, intend to listen again sometime,
nice to go back in time theses days .
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bookish
- 17-10-21
Uncomfortable narration
Refreshing to hear a pleasant English voice but the narrator’s intonation and inflection did not reflect what he was saying and was almost unbearable! That, along coupled with my own disinterest in the technicalities of rocket propulsion caused me to tune out for large chunks of the book. I enjoyed the personal story of Parson’s life although it seemed to lack depth and I felt that I had only a vague understanding of the man himself.
Given that Parsons was such an unusual character and lived such an extraordinary life the story was not that rich or exciting. I suspect that maybe that was down to the narration but I won’t buy a hard copy to find out.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bretonista
- 06-06-22
A very enjoyable listen!
This is a fine account of a truly extraordinary life. Jack Parsons was a genuine one-off, and Pendle's book neatly captures the many twists and turns his life seemed to take, weaving the story of his scientific career together with his occult and philosophical passions. The performance is lively, and the whole thing is well produced. A real pleasure.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 03-07-22
It makes you carry on listening
For me its worth a listen, very good some times you have to go back.
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