The Space Race narrated by Kate Mulgrew

We finally caved and got an Audible subscription, and The Space Race narrated by Kate Mulgrew was the first title I picked up. She's the voice actor for my favourite video game series, Dragon Age, but she's also one of my favourite characters in the series Orange is the New Black. And some of you might know her as Captain Janeway of Star Trek fame. Needless to say, she does an absolutely fantastic job narrating The Space Race.

When I was a wee sprite, I wanted to be an astronaut, until it was pointed out to me that South Africa (at the time) didn't have a space programme. But that hasn't stopped me from having an interest in all things space, although I've gone from wanting to be an astronaut to writing the occasional science-fiction, so there is that.

The Space Race comes alive not only with Mulgrew's narration, but also interviews with the movers and shakers in space-faring technology, and also the little dramatical reconstructions slipped into the main body of the narrative. We get to see the roots of space exploration seeded in the R2 rockets of WW2 all the way to our potential for setting human feet on Mars. We relive dramatic events, for instance the Shuttle Challenger disaster that traumatised me as a child. We see also how space exploration, once dominated by white male Americans and Russians, is now opening to people from all over the globe, of different nationalities, who work together in our international space station.

What I love about this audiobook is that it reminds me that we, as a species, have broader horizons to conquer if we have any hope to survive into the future. If you have a love for the history of mankind's exploits in space, or just want to catch up, this is a good starting point packed with content.