Rocket Girls - Book Review [Viz Media]

Looking at the possibilities of modern space travel, a translated sci-fi novel of a girl who is not an astronaut that simply maintains the right weight and size with an acceptable intelligence level is the next step in commercial space flight. Like all new forms of transportation, the key is to be safe and cheap without blowing yourself up.The novel in question, "Rocket Girls" [Housuke Nojiri/Viz/200pgs], takes into account, like in the movie "Contact", that two are made of everything on a far away South Pacific island. While alot of the perceptions including body tight spacesuits and the aspects of the media interaction are true elements, the perceptions of Yukari, the would-be astronaut simply interconnects with her thoughts of finding her father who left her mother to become a polygamist chief on an island. In discovering him during a training mission, Yukari finds her half sister who becomes her backup on the trip (because of their similar body shape). The eventual blast-off into orbit carries its interesting moments of heightened drama (and comedy for that matter). The eventual structure in terms of G forces as a resolution after an accident forces an extreme return to Earth strains credibility to the max but as a young adult novel, it does reinforce interest in the space program."Rocket Girls", in being a blend of some hard science elements with wish-fulfillment, balances fairly well in the idea that these questions and challenges might soon be part of our everyday life as technology continues to develop. The book has been slightly updated from its original printing to reflect this and delivers a swift read while not overwhelming the reader with two much unnecessary exposition. It is the story of a girl trying to find herself in the midst of a family that is broken. What could be more real than that?C