As a long time skydiver I've always wondered about this ill fated attempt to jump from the edge of space. Craig Ryan did a ton of research and tells a gripping tale of Nick Piantanida's attempts to do what USAF jumper Joe Kittinger and later Red Bull sponsored jumper Felix Baumgartner did: to jump from over 100,000 feet and freefall to a parachute deployment altitude of about 10,000 ft. Nick tried to do it on a shoestring budget and ALMOST succeeded. The alleged particulars of the fatal error he appeared to make leave the reader wondering about whether Nick was actually already hypoxic when he made the tragic decision.The highest I've jumped is 24,000 feet in an unpressurized King Air using O2 masks in the plane but no bailout bottles. It gave me close to 2 minutes of freefall and only cost $48. Red Bull reportedly spend $32 million on Felix's space jump project and he got a bit over 4 minutes of freefall.I think this book could be turned into a good movie. Weave in Kittinger and later Baumgartner to give it some breadth and currency.I hope Craig Ryan decides to write a book about Col. Thomas Gatch, who disappeared on an ill fated around the world balloon flight...another mystery of the skies. He is a gifted writer.