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The I Index

Bottom of the pile

7

/100

I Index Overall Rating

Readers

11/100

Critics

2/100

Scholars

N/A

Author:

Andrew K. Amelinckx

Publisher:

Counterpoint

Date:

March 21, 2023

Satellite Boy reveals the unlikely connection between an audacious bank heist and the 'other Space Race' that gave birth to the modern communication age.

What The Reviewers Say

Howard Schneider,
The Wall Street Journal
Mr. Amelinckx... tries to portray Lemay as charming and clever but only makes him seem odious and ruthless, a villain more lucky than smart. The author also fails to show that the attenuated intersection of Lemay’s and Rosen’s lives says anything consequential about the tempestuous ’60s.
Harry Charles,
Library Journal
The book is entertaining and colorful; it reads like an expanded magazine article.

Kirkus
Amelinckx delivers two separate books that are thinly joined by that happenstance. In doing so, he makes some good points: Rosen certainly deserves more credit than he gets for having revolutionized satellite technology, for one, allowing the U.S. to pull ahead of its Soviet rivals in the space race, and Lemay makes for an interesting case who ought to have been put away for much longer than he was.

Publishers Weekly
Colorful yet unconvincing.