Homer Hickam's new novel has an 83-footer on the cover

He wrote a pretty good book, Torpedo Junction, about U-boats vs. the coastal shipping off the east caost in early '42. The Icarus figures prominantly.

I never heard of Homer Hickam or October Sky until one night on the way to work, Steve Dahl was talking to him on his radio show. I was at the local library and they just happened to have a copy of October Sky. So I checked it out since the price was right and watched this movie. I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. My 11 year old son was in the room and I did not think he was watching but he started asking questions about the rockets. We both recommend October Sky to anyone who needs a nice, touching little family movie that happens to have a Space age connection.

October Sky = **** Vanilla Sky = P.U........................ :-))

Cheers, Max Bryant

Actually "October Sky" (the book) was originally titled "Rocket Boys". I guess that after "October Sky" (the movie) came out it was re-published with the new name. Just like "Lost Moon" became "Apollo 13."

Note that October Sky is an anagram for Rocket Boys.

I always wondered why they bothered changing the name. Rocket Boys seems like a decent enough title for a movie to me, though it may denote a bit more action. I've always figured that they were hoping for some Oscar nods and movies with names like Rocket Boys aren't considered serious.

John Benson ------------------------ IPMS El Paso Web Guy