Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020!
“A terrifying tour de force.” –James Rollins
“Readers will be riveted.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) Sally Jansen was NASA’s leading astronaut, until a mission to Mars ended in disaster. Haunted by her failure, she lives in quiet anonymity, convinced her days in space are over. She’s wrong. A large alien object has entered the … her failure, she lives in quiet anonymity, convinced her days in space are over.
She’s wrong.
A large alien object has entered the solar system on a straight course toward Earth. It has made no attempt to communicate. Out of time and out of options, NASA turns to Jansen.
But as the object reveals its secrets, Jansen and her crew find themselves in a desperate struggle for survival — against the cold vacuum of space, and something far, far worse…
“Breathless, compulsive reading.” –Christopher Golden
“A suspenseful, fast-paced story of first contact.” —Kirkus
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If Stephen King had written a haunted house story set in space, it would look very much like The Last Astronaut. Written with an uncompromising, white-knuckled pace, here is book that will leave you shaking and looking at the cold depths of space with equal parts horror and wonder.
3.5 stars
Timely and terrifying, The Last Astronaut propels us deep into the mysteries of space for a near-future SF/horror hybrid that’s breathless, compulsive reading. This book deserves to be the one you see everyone reading on the subway or at the beach.
If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror. – John Young
“This object was spontaneously decelerating. Meaning it was slowing down under its own power. It wasn’t some dead rock tumbling through the solar system. It was a spaceship.”
Sally Jansen was mission commander on an exploratory mission to Mars. That had been her dream for most of her life, to go to Mars. But the SHTF and she found herself back on Earth, disgraced.
In 2055 NASA hadn’t trained any astronauts for years and was bordering on bankruptcy. But then, by accident, a huge object is found to be heading towards Earth – under its own power and Sally is sent into space again as mission commander over a ragtag crew to approach the object and try to contact it. One problem, a commercial airship has also launched towards the object.
This was an okay sci fi first contact thriller. The world building was imaginative and detailed. Character development was a bit light on all the characters except for Sally. I did find that the story dragged along in many places and felt repetitive with many scenes.
I enjoyed the story, for the most part, and would recommend it to sci fi enthusiasts.
I received this book from Orbit Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
“There was no clear delineation between the darkness external and internal.”
What would you do if you were given a second chance? You worked your entire life to achieve your dream before something horrific happens and that dream is snuffed out?
Through Sally Jansen, the last astronaut, we get to experience just that.
David Wellington has created an immense work of sci-fi/horror and I’m so thankful I saw Lilyn from Sci-Fi & Scary’s review for this book. Because of her review, I snagged this on Netgalley and it is easily in my top 5 reads of the year.
Sally was the mission commander of NASA’s manned trip to Mars. After an accident happens, and an astronaut dies, Sally is blamed and the space program is defunded, put aside while private firms begin to focus on space exploration.
Then Wellington introduces the amazing to us. What was believed to be an asteroid that has entered our solar system, doesn’t act like one. It’s believed to be a spaceship. So Sally is recruited and leads a group to the suspected ship to make first contact.
Everything about this story was cinematic and massive. I couldn’t believe the visual scope created here and I felt like I was reading a Ridley Scott script at times. Think Alien meets The Thing meets The Martian for the style of story that plays out.
I’ve always loved the idea put forth of Ancient Aliens and those star folks who came before, etc. This played right into it and I ate it up.
I’ve already told a dozen people that they need to read this book ASAP and in every message I’ve said – “read this before it becomes a movie.”
As the story unfolds and we get deeper into the alien idea, Wellington ramps up the horror, the terror and the psychological dread. It was superb. This was the most recent book to actual infiltrate my dreams, which is very rare, but also shows just how much I was devouring this read.
This should be on everyone’s must-read lists if only to then be moved to their top reads of the year lists.
Wellington deftly plays with scale, from the aching intimacy of his human cast to the vastness of space and the enormity of their destination. Journey into a phantasmagorical alien landscape, where paranoia, loss, longing, and resolve interweave into endlessly shifting and always more terrifying configurations.
I like space science fiction stuff to a certain degree. The Last Astronaut was just a bit too scientific for my taste. Lots of jargon and bits I don’t really understand. I get slowed down to a crawl and ready to give up. I forced myself to continue because the idea is good, and going to Mars would be awesome. I was creeped out by some parts of the story. It’s thrilling and suspenseful and engaging if you can slog through the science word jungle. I don’t think I would read it again, but it’s not a bad book. I’m not the perfect type of reader for this, but others definitely are and will love it. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Neither NASA nor SpaceX will be overly happy with this one. This is another real-ish solar system space survival story in the vein of Andy Weir’s The Martian or Lisa A. Nichols’ Vessel. In terms of techno-jargon, it sits somewhere in between those two, with more jargon early in the book before the book takes a less technical turn towards the back half. Stylistically, this is a mockumentary type tale with both a storyline and documentary elements interwoven and uses various event names for the headings of the chapters rather than chapter numbers. Overall a solid effort and very much recommended. I’ll be looking for more from Mr. Wellington in the future, that’s for sure.