History Literature / Voyage

The alternate 1960s pass mostly in a vein similar to our own history, but subtle little divergences keep popping up. The final, major divergence of the timeline occurs after the first Moon landing in 1969. The now-retired president Kennedy is allowed a few moments of radio contact, in order to do a little congratulatory speech to the Apollo 11 crew. To everyone's surprise, Kennedy very blatantly hints at the need to focus on making a similar landing on Mars in the coming decade. This eventually forces NASA to cave in to popular pressure from people that were moved by Kennedy's speech. In about two years after the first Moon landing, the history of American astronautics starts taking a rather different route than the one we know...

''Voyage'' is a 1996 AlternateHistory novel by British science fiction writer Creator/StephenBaxter. It is set in a timeline with [[ForWantOfANail a simple divergence from our history]]: Lee Harvey Oswald didn't manage to assassinate US president UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy and, by accident, shot his wife instead.

* MeaningfulName: While it is based mostly on modified Apollo program hardware and its derivatives, the spacecraft to Mars is christened "Ares" - [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming after the Greek god of war]] [[Myth/ClassicalMythology that the Roman one was based on]]. In a minor instance of NamesTheSame, the name "Ares" [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_%28rocket%29 has been pretty popular for various proposed rockets and spacecraft from our history]].

* GoneHorriblyWrong: [[spoiler:The test flight of the NERVA-style Mars spacecraft in the late 70s ends in complete fiasco. The entire crew is killed and the fallout - both figurative and ''literal'' - creates a massive HypeBacklash against the project and casts a shadow over NASA as a whole.]] But the situation improves, NASA gets its act together and launches a replacement Mars mission within less than a decade.

''Voyage'' is a 1996 AlternateHistory novel by British science fiction writer Creator/StephenBaxter. It is set in a timeline with [[ForWantOfANail a simple divergence from our history]]: Lee Harvey Oswald didn't manage to assassinate US president John F. Kennedy and, by accident, shot his wife instead.

* {{Expy}} / CaptainErsatz: Joe Muldoon instead of Buzz Aldrin. Baxter [[ShrugOfGod never adequately explains]] whether Muldoon is Buzz Aldrin with the SerialNumbersFiledOff or whether he is meant to be a wholly fictional character (though one that is similar to Aldrin personality-wise).

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Neil Armstrong, John Young and many, many more...
* InSpiteOfANail: The novel's alternate 1960s [[CloseEnoughTimeline aren't that different from ours]] (much of NASA's program is the same, there is still a Vietnam War, etc.), but the geopolitical and spaceflight divergences start to gradually stack up after the early 1970s. It is stated, however, that Apollo 13 still had its mishap

* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: So hard, it ''physically hurts''. The most impressive thing about the spacecraft described in the novel is that it is built purely from existing spaceflight technology that was feasible and not overly expensive already in the 1970s and 1980s, both in our timelines and the alternate one. It's not even much of a classic science fiction novel, but more like a novel about spaceflight events that hadn't occurred yet.

* InSpiteOfANail: The novel's alternate 1960s [[CloseEnoughTimeline aren't that different from ours]] (much of NASA's program is the same, there is still a Vietnam War, etc.), but the geopolitical and spaceflight divergences start to gradually stack up after the early 1970s.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Baxter's works often have a skeptical and cynical outlook on humanity, especially its tendency for short-sighted apathy towards science. While this novel [[AuthorFilibuster does highlight some of the failings of spaceflight programs and attitudes towards them in both our and the alternate timeline]], the conclusion and final message of the novel [[EarnYourHappyEnding is essentially optimistic]]. [[spoiler:The crew successfully land in Mangala valley on Mars and Natalie, to her surprise, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming is given the opportunity to be the first human being to walk on another planet]]. She hesitates, but accepts and casts the first footprints in the red soil. After a silent stroll in front of the cameras, she [[UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking hesitates over what to say]]. As a geologist at heart, she feels humbled by the Martian landscape. Finally, she exclaims a happy [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "I'm home."]].]]

Voyage is a 1996 AlternateHistory novel by British science fiction writer Creator/StephenBaxter. It is set in a timeline with [[ForWantOfANail a simple divergence from our history]] : Lee Harvey Oswald didn't manage to assasinate US president John F. Kennedy and, by accident, shot his wife instead.

The novel then follows - both in chronological and anachronic order - the various spaceflight developments of the 70s and 80s, through the eyes of a diverse cast of primary and secondary characters (some historical, some fictional). In the late 1970s, NASA launches a test flight of a promising and much-touted Mars spacecraft. However, things go awry... The American space programme is then forced to work quickly on a new solution for the Mars mission, or else it's curtains...

Eventually, in March 1985, a semi-improvised mission dubbed ''Ares'' is finally launched from Cape Canaveral. Aboard are three carefully picked astronauts : Phil Stone, Ralph Gershon and Natalie York. And the [[TitleDrop titular voyage]] to Mars begins...


The novel won the 1997 Sidewise Award for Alternate History and was nominated that same year for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Also in 1997, BBC Radio 4 had adapted ''Voyage'' into a five-part abridged radio play (since then, it has been rebroadcast occassionally, last time in 2009).

!! This novel contains examples of :

* AllohistoricalAllusion: The author has fun with {{Shout Out}}s to the names of the Space Shuttle orbiters from our timeline (which weren't built in this one due to the changed priorities of the US space programme) :

** The habitation module of the ''Ares'' spacecraft is dubbed ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endeavour Endeavour]]'', in honour of James Cook's most famous exploratory vessel. You probably know already which [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Endeavour spacecraft from our timeline]] received that same name...
** The Mars landing module, built by the fictional company [[UnderdogsNeverLose Columbia Aviation]], is christened ''Challenger''. The first Mars landing occurs in spring 1986. In our timeline, a major spaceflight accident occured in January 1986, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster concerning a certain Space Shuttle during its take-off]]... The name of the Mars lander might also be a reference to the lunar module of Apollo 17, also named ''Challenger''. [[spoiler:Since Apollo 17 is cancelled in the novel's timeline, the name of the module could still remain unused and seem novel to the alternate NASA's staff.]]

* AnachronicOrder : The main narrative strand of the novel is the flight to Mars itself aboard the ''Ares'', following the three main characters (Phil Stone, Natalie York and Ralph Gershon). However, each chapter of the main narrative is intercut with a flashback chapter that focuses on the past careers and experiences of the main and secondary characters, in a time span of an alternate quarter century (from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s).

* ExecutiveMeddling: Occurs in-universe both in a negative and ''positive'' sence. The main positive example would be [[{{Determinator}} Kennedy's congratulatory speech to the Apollo 11 astronauts]]. He deliberately peppers it with openly provocative hints of "We need to follow this up with a flight to Mars ASAP !". He does it partly to help promote the importance of continuing US manned spaceflight past the end of the Apollo programme and partly because he wants to {{troll}} president Nixon in a FriendlyRivalry kind of way...

* ForWantOfANail: President Kennedy survived the Dallas assasination attempt and further influences NASA's decision-making throughout the following decade. An early hint of the alternate history aspects of the novel comes from the otherwise throwaway mention of the "Jacqueline B. Kennedy Space Center", instead of the John F. Kennedy Space Center of our timeline.

* InSpiteOfANail: The novel's alternate 1960s [[CloseEnoughTimeline aren't that different from ours]] (much of NASA's programme is the same, there is still a Vietnam War, etc.), but the geopolitical and spaceflight divergences start to gradually stack up after the early 1970s.

* MeaningfulName: While it is based mostly on modified Apollo programme hardware and its derivatives, the spacecraft to Mars is christened "Ares" - [[ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming after the Greek god of war]] [[Myth/ClassicalMythology that the Roman one was based on]]. In a minor instance of NamesTheSame, the name "Ares" [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_%28rocket%29 has been pretty popular for various proposed rockets and spacecraft from our history]].
* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: So hard, it ''physically hurts''. The most impressive thing about the spacecraft described in the novel is that it is built purely from existing spaceflight technology that was feasible and not overly expensive already in the 1970s and 1980s, both in our timelines and the alternate one. It's not even much of a classic science fiction novel, but more like a novel about spaceflight events that hadn't occured yet.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: [[ZigZaggingTrope Mostly averted, but also played straight in a few instances]] - particularly with replacing Buzz Aldrin with a certain Joe Muldoon. Also, while the trio of main characters is fictional, some readers have suggested they're based (to varying degrees) on these three RealLife astronauts :

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Baxter's works often have a skeptical and cynical outlook on humanity, especially its tendency for short-sighted apathy towards science. While this novel [[AuthorFilibuster does highlight some of the failings of spaceflight programmes and attitudes towards them in both our and the alternate timeline]], the conclusion and final message of the novel [[EarnYourHappyEnding is essentially optimistic]]. [[spoiler:The crew succesfully land in Mangala valley on Mars and Natalie, to her surprise, [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming is given the opportunity to be the first human being to walk on another planet]]. She hesitates, but accepts and casts the first footprints in the red soil. After a silent stroll in front of the cameras, she [[UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking hesitates on what to say]]. As a geologist at heart, she feels humbled by the Martian landscape. Finally, she exclaims a happy [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome "I'm home."]].]]
* SmallReferencePools: Averted in regards to the planned landing site of the Mars mission. The landing is supposed to take place in the valley of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangala_Valles Mangala Valles]]. While known, it is certainly not one of the Martian geographic features that are considered as highly iconic in the popular imagination.

* SingleBiomePlanet: Justified in the case of Mars, given how, from an Earthtling's point of view, it's an entirely inhospitable rocky alien desert planet. Subverted in that, outside of Earth, Mars has some of the most varied surface geography of any planet in the Solar System.

* WhatIf: What if NASA had pulled off a manned mission to Mars already in the mid 1980s ? Also, "1960s-1980s astronautics what ifs" in general...
* WishFulfillment: ''Subverted massively'', since Baxter [[GenreSavvy was well aware]] of the limitations of supporting a large-scale space programme, even in an alternate timeline. His ultimate point seems to be : [[NewTechIsNotCheap "If you want to go to Mars in the 70s or 80s, fine. But you'll have to make some harsh sacrifices."]] Yes, the Apollo programme hardware is further expanded upon and is eventually used for a manned flight to Mars. Yes, research into NERVA rockets gets further than in our history due to increased funding. ''But'', on the downside : The Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions are cancelled, the Space Shuttle project is completely stillborn, and worst of all, most of the useful planetary space probes from our history were cancelled in this timeline. The American space station projects are expanded though. This is all done so the manned flight to Mars can profit from a larger budget and more astronauts experienced in above-orbit spaceflights. The lack of sufficient space probe exploration in ''Voyage'''s timeline (no ''Mariner 10'', ''Pioneer'', ''Voyager'', ''Viking'' probes) eventually leads to an unfortunate consequence : Astronomers, common people and even the crew of the Mars mission know far less detailed information about the planets of the Solar System than people in our timeline knew during the same historical period. ''This includes Mars'', due to the cancellation of the ''Viking'' missions. BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor ''[[TakeThatAudience indeed]]'' !

!!Adaptations of the novel :

* The aforementioned 5 part radio play, presenting a somewhat abridged adaptation of the novel. Produced in 1997 by BBC Radio 4.
* GameMod: The novel has enough of a following among the AlternateHistory and ScienceFiction fandoms that it didn't take long for a mod based on the novel to appear - as an addon for the ''{{VideoGame/Orbiter}} Spaceflight Simulator''. You can find it [[http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3393 here]]. There's also [[http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=3865 an addon]] that roughly adapts the [[spoiler:ill-fated]] NERVA-style spacecraft from the novel.

* XMeetsY: ''Series/FromTheEarthToTheMoon'' meets ''Film/CapricornOne'' [-[[RecycledInSpace BUT IN BOOK FORM, WITHOUT THE CONSPIRACY IN THE SECOND WORK AND SET IN AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE]]-]!

* AcePilot: Ralph Gershon is a ground attack ace who served in [[TheVietnamWar Vietnam]]. Phil Stone is a subversion, since he's a retired [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korean War]] ace that moved on to being a test pilot of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15 X-15]] suborbital spaceplane in the 50s and 60s.

* UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}: The main goal of NASA in the novel's timeline is a manned mision to Mars, complete with landing, three weeks of surface exploration and a succesful return trip to Earth. [[spoiler:There is a lot of tension on whether the goal will be achieved, but in the end, the crew lands, carries out their mission and it's implied [[DistantFinale they return back to Earth in one piece]].]]