AMAZING STORIES OF THE SPACE AGE. Rod Pyle. One might think this book’s self-description “True tales of Nazis in orbit, soldiers on the moon, orphaned Martian robots, and other fascinating accounts from the annals of spaceflight” means it is a book of exaggerated, sensationalist claims. Instead, it is a sober retelling from historical documents, some only recently released, of space projects that were envisioned or even seriously pursued for some years but, for all sorts of reasons, never completed. Some were early projects by the Air Force to take manned military operations into space, some involve nuclear propulsion, and some are bizarre; all are fascinating. Prometheus Books, 2016, 325 pp., $18.