Phases of Gravity

Follows Richard Baedecker, an Apollo astronaut who walked on the moon, through his midlife crisis. He meanders through India, Glen Oak Illinois, the mountains of Colorado, and the coastline of Oregon, checking up on his son and his former Apollo crewmates.

According to Simmons' afterword in the third printing of the Bantam edition and the Locus Index, the second (and presumably all subsequent) printing of the Bantam edition, which appeared in March 1991, was revised, though the afterword in the second printing gives no indication of any revisions.
Simmons stresses in the Afterword that the novel is NOT SF SFE says: ...not literally sf, being instead – if one is able to ignore a moment or two of muffled Transcendence – perhaps the first historical novel by an sf author about the space programme, recounting the psychic rejuvenation of a grounded astronaut.

Year	Award	Category	Status
1990	Locus Poll Award	Best SF Novel	Nominee/Finalist