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 ... Still, Mr. Amelinckx is an adroit storyteller and thorough researcher, and in Satellite Boy he has written a good, engrossing yarn.
The book is entertaining and colorful; it reads like an expanded magazine article ... Amelinckx’s book is ideal for both true-crime and technology buffs.
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 ... Still, there are some nice twists and turns.
Colorful yet unconvincing ... Amelinckx lucidly explains the technical aspects and spotlights the boon communication satellites provided to law enforcement agencies, but the link between Lemay and Rosen feels overly circumstantial. In this case, the sum is not greater than its parts.
