Interesting SciFi thriller about an astronaut who, after years of being presumed lost/dead in space, returns to earth – without the rest or her crew, or any memories about what happened to them, or herself, really.
An astronaut returns to Earth after losing her entire crew to an inexplicable disaster, but is her version of what happened in space the truth? Or is there more to the story…. A tense, psychological thriller perfect for fans of Dark Matter and The Martian.
After Catherine Wells’s ship experiences a deadly incident in deep space and loses contact with NASA, the entire world believes her dead. Miraculously—and mysteriously—she survived, but with little memory of what happened. Her reentry after a decade away is a turbulent one: her husband has moved on with another woman and the young daughter she left behind has grown into a teenager she barely recognizes. Catherine, too, is different. The long years alone changed her, and as she readjusts to being home, sometimes she feels disconnected and even, at times, deep rage toward her family and colleagues. There are periods of time she can’t account for, too, and she begins waking up in increasingly strange and worrisome locations, like restricted areas of NASA. Suddenly she’s questioning everything that happened up in space: how her crewmates died, how she survived, and now, what’s happening to her back on Earth.
Smart, gripping, and compelling, this page-turning sci-fi thriller will leave you breathless.
The reactions of her and the people around her, both NASA, her colleagues, and her family, were reasonable and realistic, heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.
The mixed in flashbacks gave great context, though I found the break between what she did and what present-prptagonist didn’t remember a bit unclear.
The final reveal of what happened wasn’t entirely what I expected, but at the same time, also very obvious (given the book’s name, I mean, duh.)
The ending was very satisfying and left me itching for more – I wouldn’t mind reading a sequel.
The one thing I found a bit clumsily executed was the romance. It felt half hearted and like the author didn’t really want to write about it, just slapping it on because it should be there, kinda.
Check out the book here.
~iam
MI Book Reviews 