itself to leapfrog the Russians and place the first men on the
Moon. The way / had written it, that first step on the Moon
was not made by Neil Armstrong; it was made by Chester
Arthur Kinsman.
Kinsman would not let go of my imagination. I found
myself writing short stories about him. He was a dashing
young military astronaut who founded the Zero Gee Club,
the first man to make love in weightlessness. He fought in
orbit and killed a Russian cosmonaut, a shattering experience
that altered his entire life. He got to the Moon, finally, and
rescued a fellow astronaut who had gotten hurt while on an
vil
exploring mission. He battled the bureaucracy of Washing-
ton, as any modern pioneer must, in his efforts to get the
United States to return to the Moon.
While these stories were shaping themselves in my mind,
while I was writing them and seeing them published in science
fiction magazines, the outline of Millennium crystallized and
came to life.
Once Millennium was published, readers reacted power-
fully, especially to the ending. I was encouraged to bring
together the stories dealing with Kinsman's early life, and I
wove them into a second novel, Kinsman, a "prequel" to
Millennium even though it was written several years after-
ward.
In the meantime, of course, the scientists and engineers
were making steady progress in the fields of space technology,
lasers, and computers. So much so that in March 1983
President Reagan announced the start of the Strategic De-
fense Initiative. Once again I watched my fiction start to turn
into history. Nothing in the original Millennium and Kinsman
has been invalidated by the events of the past few years. But
now many of the details that I had to sketch minimally can be
shown in much clearer perspective.
Now, in this single volume, the whole story is played out
from beginning to end. From a brand-new lieutenant on a
joyride in a supersonic Jet fighter plane to a man who literally
carries the weight of two worlds on his shoulders. From a
brash youngster who thinks of sex as nothing more than fun to
a man who cares so much about the woman he loves that he is
afraid of a relationship that will hurt her.
There are many differences between the original pair of
novels and this new retelling of the Kinsman saga. For one
