Presenting the Paperback Cover!
I am thrilled and honored to present the cover for the paperback edition of THE MISSION, which lands in bookstores on January 25, 2022! It is now available for pre-order at your local indie bookstore, or on Amazon.
I am thrilled and honored to present the cover for the paperback edition of THE MISSION, which lands in bookstores on January 25, 2022! It is now available for pre-order at your local indie bookstore, or on Amazon.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve done scores of interviews for THE MISSION. Here are a few of my favorite, though there were many, many more, and I will add them as I find them.
NPR 1A, hosted by Jennifer White on National Public Radio. We discussed THE MISSION, Mars and Europa, creative nonfiction and literature, and a second Genesis (third, if we count the band) in our solar system. Jennifer is masterful—brilliant and quick-witted, asking one informed question and follow-up after another. Speaking with her was the thrill of a lifetime.
NPR Conversations, hosted by Dan Skinner on National Public Radio. We talk Europa, creative nonfiction, human exploration of Mars, and the politics of spaceflight. Dan is a first-rate interviewer and asked probing, lettered questions. It was an honor to join him and I hope to do so again very soon. What a pleasure this was.
Scientific American, interviewed by my friend, the inimitable author Lee Billings, wherein we discuss the state of planetary science, Mars, the future, and writing books about all this stuff.
Houston Chronicle, interviewed by Andrew Dansby, in which we discuss building tension into stories, writing with a large cast of characters, recurring motifs in a narrative, and how I (hopefully!) pulled all those things off.
Universe Today, interviewed by Fraser Cain, probably the best space blogger in the business, and one of the friendliest and most generous people I’ve ever met. (Embedded above!)
Two months ago, my book, THE MISSION, hit bookstores in the United States. This week, it was released in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. This book is the culmination of my life’s work. Seven years of my life went into it, and I can honestly say that every single word in its pages is literally the best I could do. And I am very proud to report that the response has been incredible. It was a book of the month for The Wall Street Journal and BBC Science Focus. In addition, here is a roundup of the big national reviews of my book that I’ve seen so far. If you find others, please let me know!
“An enthusiastic account of an interplanetary probe to a distant moon. ... NASA continues to accomplish great feats, and more are in the offing, including this book’s subject: the 2024 launch of a multibillion-dollar spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. ... Brown engagingly describes the cutthroat NASA political landscape. ... A delightful slice of NASA life.” — Kirkus (STARRED review)
“Brown brings to vivid life the 17-year effort to put together a mission to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. … Brown skillfully braids biography, science, obsession, and accounts of bureaucracy-wrangling into this mesmerizing tale of “good, bare-fisted science.” Salted with pop culture references and humor, Brown’s fascinating outing will entertain anyone curious about space exploration.” — Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)
"Scientists believe that any extraterrestrial life in our solar system would most likely be found on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. This book chronicles the work of a tenacious team of researchers who have spent decades investigating that possibility, despite obstacles both bureaucratic (NASA’s long-standing preoccupation with Mars) and physical: Europa lies within a 'pulsing, rippling' belt of radiation and is covered by an ice shell 'kilometers thicker than any hole ever drilled on earth.'" — The New Yorker (OH MY GOD I RECEIVED A NOTICE IN THE NEW YORKER)
“Brown is a nimble, gifted writer, downright Dickensian in his pointed descriptions and irreverent humor… Brown’s language drew me in to the world of interplanetary science and made me a part of it. The Europa Clipper mission is scheduled to launch in 2024 and, thanks to The Mission, I will be looking up, dreaming of Europa’s oceans, and those plumes, and waiting for news of what we find there.” — Air Mail
“Brown leaves no door closed as he covers the science, logistics, personalities, and politics of this extraordinary NASA mission. His extensively researched, humorous, raucous, dramatic, and pop-culture-and science-fiction-laced immersion in planetary science will have readers hanging on every word.” — Booklist
“This inspiring story provides a look into some of the characteristics needed to make change in a large industrial complex. Extensive notes are provided for further research. … An engaging read for all, especially for anyone curious about the details of space exploration.” — Library Journal
Brown spent seven years interviewing these folks, and it shows in the way he vividly captures the challenges, triumphs and disappointments they have confronted, including the 20 years it took to convince NASA to sanction Europa Clipper. … Brown’s experience writing for publications such as The Atlantic, Scientific American and Smithsonian also shines through as he provides context about the vast distances involved in space travel and explains the hardcore science in layman’s terms while adding a humorous tone. He writes with descriptive prose, such as when he coins Sun’s beginning as ‘a swelling union of dust and hydrogen . . . its rapacious core inhaling everything available.’ Combining science and technology with the emotional human experience, The Mission is a fresh look at the future of space exploration.” — Bookpage
“This book cannot answer the question of what—if anything—lurks in Europa's dark abyss, but it masterfully reveals with remarkable clarity what lies within the hearts of the men and women determined to find out.” — Scientific American
“The Mission is fascinating. … Poetic.” — The Times
“The Mission reads almost like a novel. Brown immersed himself in the lives of his characters and their work, coming away from his research with a richly realized story about fascinating characters." — The Houston Chronicle
“Written in a smooth, fluid style that offers a tip of the hat to Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, this beautiful book is a gem of an introduction to our Solar System and how, over decades, human minds and robotic spacecraft have learned more about it. … Brown’s prose is refreshing and demonstrates his credentials as a superb wordsmith, handling complex issues of science, technology and politics with stylistic flair.” — BBC (5 stars out of 5)
“This is an exceptionally absorbing and thrilling work, thanks to the narrative skills of its author and his various inspired choices. … Even when a story is exciting and gripping, you need a good narrator to translate it into writing, and this is what you get here. The spirited style of Brown balances levity and drama skillfully, and keeps the attention of the reader throughout the book without losing the thread. … The story up to here is worth being told, and The Mission does it masterfully.” — Nature Astronomy
Thank you to all of the critics who spent their columns writing about my book, and to all of the readers who traded their time and hard-earned money to take part in this journey. It means more than I can ever say. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
On December 31, I handed in my manuscript for ONE INCH FROM EARTH. From start to finish, genesis of an idea to a 180,000 word manuscript, took four full years. The first eighteen months were spent researching and writing what became a book proposal. After Geoff Shandler of Custom House bought the book in a preempt, it was off to the races. I’ve never worked so hard on anything in my life. The final two months, in particular, nearly killed me. I spent years fantasizing what I would do the moment the manuscript was completed. Here is what I did. I hit “send” on the email to Geoff and Stacia Decker, my agent, and promptly—literally within the hour—fell into terrible illness. My family and I had a celebratory dinner at a local favorite restaurant, and not even the champagne could rescue the event. I was absolutely sick and exhausted, as though my body had been holding it all in, worked for me, fought diligently to keep me going, succeeded, and promptly surrendered. I survived, more or less, though it was tough going for a few days.
Once edits conclude and the book is released in 2020, I hope the world agrees that it was worth the effort. Now I begin work on the next proposal. Long book projects are very lonely endeavors, but ONE INCH FROM EARTH was worth every second of it. My next one will be pretty exciting, too.
My freelance work fell largely by the wayside over the last couple of years, though recently of note: I embedded with the OSIRIS-REx team during the final approach of Bennu for the first spectral observations, and wrote about it for Scientific American here. (This is part of my ongoing coverage of OSIRIS-REx, one of the best missions NASA has ever launched.) Lee Billings gave the piece a sublime edit. I also wrote a nice piece for Smithsonian on sample return missions. Jay Bennett there was also a dream to work with, and I will be covering the 2019 Lunar and Planetary Science conference in March for him. That’s a good update of where I am at today. I will hopefully have more to report later.
It has been very difficult keeping this news a secret. Thankfully, it has now been reported in Publisher's Marketplace, so here is the announcement:
Brown Gets Close to “Earth” at Custom House
For HarperCollins’s Custom House imprint, Geoff Shandler preempted world rights to David W. Brown’s One Inch from Earth. Brown is a contributor to the Atlantic and the book, which Dunow, Carlson & Lerner’s Stacia Decker represented, is about NASA’s Europa mission (established to launch a spacecraft into the orbit of Jupiter). Custom House said the book features “persevering scientists as its heroes, the planet Mars as the villain, and an unlikely savior in the form of a Tea Party congressman on a mission to find a second Garden of Eden on Jupiter’s moon.”
A lot of hard work went into this. The proposal took a full year to write—longer, in fact, than my last book—and involved more research, interviews, travel, and luck than I ever could have imagined. (There are no shortcuts when doing good work.) Of course, the hard part is yet to come.
My agent, Stacia Decker of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency, is one of the most competent, sharp, and fabulous human beings I've ever had the good fortune of knowing, and she parlayed the proposal into an tremendous book deal with the most exciting imprint in publishing today. (At lot of adjectives in that previous sentence, and every one is accurate.) I am over the moon at the idea of working with Geoff Shandler, who previously edited some of my favorite books ever, including Into the Beautiful North, a masterpiece by Luis Urrea.
Finally, I am honored to write this book and to tell the story of men and women whose work will transform science, philosophy, religion—you name it. One day we will all know their names, and it's a privilege to do my part in making that happen.
(I know this reads like an Oscars speech, but it's a pretty big moment for me, and I intend to live up to expectations.)