The Last Astronaut

Hmm, near-future novel about a mission to an asteroid that has just entered the Solar System. But this is several decades from now and the US space programme is dead, so they have to drag an astronaut out of retirement. This sounds right up my street… There’s a follow-up to Oumuamua thirty-five years from now, but this one is considerably bigger. Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have a space programme after their Mars mission ended in tragedy. But they cobble together a mission, crewed by 1) the geek who discovered the asteroid and realised it as was decelerating, b) a young xenobiologist, c) a Space Force pilot of the X-37 drone (that’s the same one being flown now, by the way), and d) the ex-astronaut captain of the Mars mission show more with all her baggage. But they’re overtaken en route by a corporate mission – who describe NASA as “the enemy” – and then spend very little time analysing the asteroid before following the corporate team inside. In a tweet, I characterised this book as being “a mashup of Rendezvous with Rama and Prometheus, with none of the sense of wonder of the first and all of the baffling stupidity of the second.” To be honest, I was being generous. The central premise of The Last Astronaut is that the asteroid is a space-based life-form, whose life-cycle requires it to crash on habitable planets in order to breed. Which makes not the slightest bit of sense. How did they evolve if they required Earth-like worlds in order to reproduce? And, apparently, the asteroid creature rapidly generates interior flora in order to feed its rapacious young… except, where does it get the energy from to grow that flora? Not to mention the asteroid creature’s ability to accelerate rapidly using solar sails. This is a sf novel written by someone who has done a little bit of research but not actually applied any intelligence to their premise. It doesn’t help the prose is the sort of bland simplistic prose of techno-thrillers, the characterisation is single-note throughout, and the Mars mission commander is repeatedly labelled a murderer throughout the book despite doing the only thing possible to save the Mars mission. Wellington has tried to update his presentation by including “interview” excerpts of the main cast (although some, I think, seem to have taken place after their deaths), and adding an “excerpt from author’s foreword to the 2057 edition” by David Wellington. I read The Last Astronaut in mounting disbelief – its complete failure to present a believable near-future, its reliance on present-day tech, its pantomime corporate villains, its hokey premise, its weirdly small cast for the story it told, its complete lack of originality… How it ended up on the shortlist of a major genre award is a fucking mystery. show less

Rendezvous with Rama, except the ship is trying to kill you.

The problem I had with this book is that it tried to be too many things. Parts of it really reminded me of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama where they're exploring a ship from elsewhere that's too alien to fully understand. Parts wanted to be psychological horror where the team is trapped in the darkness doubting themselves and each other and whether there's anyone else alive. Parts seemed like they were going for body horror with the "hand trees" and what happened to the other team. Which in the end meant that none of the aspects actually stood out. It was just an odd mishmash that wasn't really scary horror but wasn't a cool exploration story either. It doesn't help that I never show more really cared for any of the characters either, they were much too one-dimensional for me to be invested in. show less

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.

Blending science fiction and horror in the best ways possible, The Last Astronaut is a compulsive read with gorgeous writing. The believability of the characters and the nuance with which Wellington writes make it impossible to put the book down, even when it threatens nightmares. I'm so glad to have stumbled upon this read, and from here on out, I'll be reading everything Wellington writes--I can't wait to look up his other publications.

Absolutely recommended.

Fun. Kind of Rendevous with Rama, but if no one except the aliens were good at their jobs, everyone was a psychological mess, and science wasn't real. Having said that, I couldn't put it down.

Oh wow, what a creepy fucking book. Pretty cinematic and excellent at creating a menacing and ominous atmosphere. The characters were pretty flat, but they weren't the main thing here. I enjoyed this, but I also wish I hadn't decided to read this right before bed.

I really liked this book. The story gripped me from the beginning and the suspense kept me interested the whole time. The author really conveyed the immensity of space, and what its like to be in outer space as a tiny human. The body horror was really gross and scary, as well as the looming, oppressive darkness that was inside 2I. The writing was very cinematic and I could see this being made into a movie someday. I could easily visualize what the characters were going through (literally) and I loved the imagery. The reason its not getting 5 stars is because the characters felt shallow. Each character had one or two traits and didn't stray from those traits. But that didn't really diminish the whole story, but it could have been a show more richer experience with more nuance and depth to the characters. I was pretty riveted during the entire read, and enjoyed the overall experience. show less