Picking up Bova's 'The High Road' feels like unearthing a time capsule from the pre-Internet era. The yellowed pages practically hum with that distinct 80s sci-fi energy - equal parts optimistic and ominous.

What struck me most was how Bova predicted shuttle failures with eerie accuracy. Reading it now, I kept pausing to whisper 'oh damn' as passages mirrored real-life space program disasters. The man had a crystal ball for engineering hubris.

That said, the book isn't some dry technical manual. Bova's vision of space colonization still gives me chills - especially his description of lunar factories that somehow manages to be both gritty and poetic. I found myself running fingers over these paragraphs like they were braille messages from alternate futures.

The Reagan-era politics haven't aged perfectly (do they ever?), but there's something refreshing about Bova's pragmatic approach compared to today's polarized sci-fi. His 'compromises' read like survival blueprints rather than ideological manifestos.

Pro tip: Read this alongside Asimov's Foundation for maximum 'what-could've-been' melancholy. And maybe keep your phone nearby to fact-check predictions - half the fun is seeing which dominoes actually fell.