{"product_id":"2940172640254","title":"Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e headline screamed: ROCKET SCIENTIST KILLED IN PASADENA EXPLOSION. The man known as Jack Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform a derided sci-fi plotline into actuality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of the city¿s occult scene.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eFueled by childhood dreams of space flight, Parsons was a leader of the motley band of enthusiastic young men who founded the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a cornerstone of the American space program. But Parsons¿s wild imagination also led him into a world of incantations and orgiastic rituals - if he could make rocketry a reality, why not black magic?\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eGeorge Pendle re-creates the world of John Parsons in this dazzling portrait of prewar superstition, cold war paranoia, and futuristic possibility. Peopled with such formidable real-life figures as Howard Hughes, Aleister Crowley, L. Ron Hubbard, and Robert Heinlein, \u003ci\u003eStrange Angel\u003c\/i\u003e explores the unruly consequences of genius.\u003c\/p\u003e  \u003cp\u003eThe basis for a new miniseries created by Mark Heyman and produced by Ridley Scott, this biography ¿vividly tells the story of a mysterious and forgotten man who embodied the contradictions of his time . . . when science fiction crashed into science fact. . . . [It] would make a compelling work of fiction if it weren¿t so astonishingly true¿ (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Brilliance Audio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47100353937648,"sku":"2940172640254","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940172640254_p0.jpg?v=1763844469","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940172640254","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}