The problem with this book is that the protagonist has no personality.
Nor do any of the other characters, really, although some come closer to being real people than the narrator does. At one point it seems to be hinted that the protagonist might be autistic, which, if developed, would have made a far more engaging story.
The story concept is interesting, but Morris's commitment to 'hard science fiction' compels him to insert a lot of 'hard science' facts (both real ones and some plausible ones) rather clumsily. They come off as pedantic lessons for the reader rather than built naturally into the story..

The Enceladus Mission is an interesting first installment by Brandon Q. Morris in his new series. The characters were well developed, fully realized and empathetic. The plot had even pacing even if the writing got a bit stodgy in places and occasionally bogged down with the science; however this is is a hard science fiction novel so that's to be expected. Overall enjoyable. Would definitely recommend.

I was given a free copy of this e-book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

All of Brandon Q. Morris' novels are "hard Science Fiction," that is, thoroughly grounded in Science. But the engrossing and delightful THE ENCELADUS MISSION is also suffused with thoughtthought-provoking considerations on Consciousness, Life, Alienation, Loneliness, and other philosophical and metaphysical issues, as a multinational crew encounters what must be a millenia-old alien entity on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.

For the record, I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book with the request that I leave an honest review for other potential readers. That having been said, here is my honest opinion and review. The plot of the book is excellent, our search to confirm life on another body in our solar system. All of the difficulties in performing such a mission are well played out in the book. Some very intriguing twists and turns follow along in the story. The world building is great with plenty of rich details to lend credence to the story line. Everything works to draw you into the story and keep you there. As for character building, another great job. Each character is totally complex and believable. You can really get behind the characters and root for them. The book is well written and easy to read. The only thing that I would have to say is a negative is that it takes a while for the story to get moving and pick up speed. All in all, the book is definitely worth the time it takes to read it. I look forward with great anticipation for the sequel.

Basically, a probe flies through the material erupted from a geyser on Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. The tests done on the ejecta finds materials that imply that there might be life there. NASA and various governments put together a manned mission that will go to Enceladus and melt/drill their way through the ice to see if there is actually life.

The book covers the prep for the mission, the travel to Saturn, and what happens when they get there, and all of that was fascinating.

Unfortunately, the characters did not live up to the plot they are hanging off of. Martin, the POV character, is presented as a man so smart that he absolutely has to be part of the mission, despite his own misgivings, but he has almost no emotional depth. Okay, that's not terribly unusual, so that I gave a pass to that. However, the other characters introduced (the bitter astronaut assigned to train him, the survivalist trainer, the other members of the expedition, etc) are also paper thin.

The point I almost gave up (and if the book had been paper format, I probably would have thrown it across the room) was partway into the mission when the female commander announces that she is pregnant. First of all, why the hell would a mixed-gender crew be sent on a long space mission without the women all having IUDs? And then she sensibly decides to arrange for the mission doctor to give her an abortion. Only problem is, the crew decides to *vote* on it! Vote on whether or not to *force* her to go through with the pregnancy. And they do! There's no discussion on body autonomy!

After that, they seem to jump straight to 'how to baby-proof a spaceship' and 'how to create diapers'. No thought to avoiding radiation, creating pre-natal vitamins, dealing with a higher-risk pregnancy (the mother's age), the unknown elements of a low-gravity pregnancy and delivery. Nope, everything goes fine and dandy and there is a bouncing baby boy. But what about when they get back to earth? How will a baby conceived, gestated, born, and spending the first number of months is low gravity survive a landing and adjusting to full Earth gravity?

The pregnancy was completely unnecessary, and should have been run past a few female readers before the book was finalised.

Still, I pushed on despite the rage induced by that idiotic vote, and I did find the time on Enceladus interesting, and the alien life was satisfyingly alien. I just wouldn't recommend this book to female readers unless they are vehemently pro-life.


Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this

4 stars for the hardcore sci fi aspect and impressive research that went into this story. 2 stars for the writing and plot development. A little too long in words and short in depth for my liking but perhaps sci fi enthusiasts might get more from it. Thank you to publisher and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am a former aerospace engineer, so I can handle hard core science fiction. I actually enjoy super science-y science fiction. But there also has to be character growth and some emotion on the page and Enceladus lacked that, so I found it a struggle to read. The story is clearly well researched, but - I'm not sure all of that detail needed to be on the page, often it didn't advance the plot in any way. This one wasn't to my taste, but for folks that want a lot of technical detail and no emotions or description bogging down a story - this is right up your alley!

In the year 2031, an human delegation is going to Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. The narrative is very fluid and the author added a realistic way to describe the events and add some humor. I liked the annex which includes a guided tour to Enceladus. I hope this book will be transformed into a movie soon.

This book was an adventure! This could actually happen. The twist in the story , i didnt see coming. There was Well developed characters in my opinion and it keep my attention the whole entire book.

The beginning of this book was great but it quickly spirals from one improbable scenario to another i found it very hard to finish

Okay, so I have to tell you first and foremost that this is hard sci-fi, and I mean HARD. I mean its in the publisher's name (haha). Anyway, I found this to be a compelling read. Although the info dump at the beginning was unnecessary, I really enjoyed the premise of this book. The story revolves around a planned mission to Saturn's moon, fifteen years after a probe proves that life does indeed exist here. And the story just follows on form there. After one of the pilots is injured, Martin is the only one that can carry it on, even though he is basically attached to his desk and couldn't care less about who going on this mission.

But nonetheless, I loved Martin's character. he is so knowledgable and witty.

I highly recommend this book to sci-fi fans for a taste for something fresh!

In a sentence the novel is about how a remote probe detected definitive proof of life within the Saturnian moon of Enceladus and the following manned mission to confirm the probes results.
I initially found the writing style difficult to read, the chapters didn’t particularly flow into each other as they jump over significant time periods and seemingly important events, such as astronaut training. Although once the actual mission is underway the story flows and becomes a lot more engaging and fun to read. This is the reason why I’ve rated this novel a 4/5. The characters were well fleshed out and different while the setting and concepts were well thought through and researched.
The narrative revolves around the viewpoint of Martin Neumeier, a computer programmer and former contractor to JPL. After finding his way onto the crew heading to the distant moon the story takes off, pun intended. It follows his experiences being confined to a claustrophobic spaceship for over a year and the relationships built between the small multinational crew along with several other trials and tribulations.
If you enjoy reading science fiction that follows realistic scientific principals and concepts, then you will enjoy reading The Enceladus Mission. Although towards the ending of the book its realism is stretched to a degree but overall it didn’t undermine the theme of the novel.

I couldn't put this book down! Besides the suspenseful plot and rich characters, I really liked the technical plausibility of everything that happens. The author's writing style ensured that technical details didn't interfere with the flow of the narrative. I even enjoyed reading the "Guided Tour of Enceladus" section at the end which provides a more detailed technical background.

Interesting story. However, there was so much info given that it felt heavily bogged down. I just couldn't find a groove and it took me weeks to finish reading it. Good book, but I didn't love it.

I read a digital copy of this book I received via Netgalley.

There was a bit too much information in this one - too much focus on minutiae and 'we did this then we did that' for my taste.

The communication thing on Enceladus was fascinating, but it lasted about twelve seconds. I would have loved more depth with regard to that. It was actually the most interesting part of the book for me.

There is a huge twist in the early bits of the following book, so if you're not ready to be spoiled, avoid reading it.

This is a story for hardcore space fans, or those who want/need a grounding in hard sci-fi.

Through probably the first quarter of the book I never really seemed to get over the fact that Martin ended up on a manned crew two Enceladus. I really had a hard time biting that off, but at the same time, this book is supposed to be a work of fiction and fun. How many space geeks out there who are technically unqualified to be astronauts wouldn’t give their right leg (or any other limb) to become an astronaut? I know I would.

From that point, it really seemed to capture the focus on the mundane, and how everything trivial isn’t trivial. That helped solidify the isolation piece for me. That said, I do really enjoy that aspect, but that really messed with the pacing. Even after arrival at Enceladus, the pacing seemed a bit off. That’s honestly what took me so long to read this book, otherwise I would’ve finished it in two days.

One thing I really wish would have been explored in greater detail was the potential “hive-like” extraterrestrial. Hopefully, from what I gathered in the Author’s Note, the next book titled The Titan Probe will answer this question, and whether or not it tries to communicate thanks to Martin’s last minute idea. It’s a shame that it just fell really flat for me though. Anticlimactic. Reminded me of a weekly TV series...”tune in next week to see if So-and-So survived!”

Overall, I enjoyed the book. Definitely worth the read for hard sci-fi fans.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2577744187

https://astrogeek.wixsite.com/localgroup/home/the-enceladus-mission-by-brandon-g-morris

The Enceladus Mission
by Brandon Q. Morris
Just the book for the times, with First Man in the theaters a realistic fiction story about space exploration is the key. The problems and frustrations in developing new technology and machinery that will allow us to explore other world is not simple. This book shows the personal struggles, and risks that explorers have face in every new endeavor.
The personal story is enthralling, the dynamic scope and picture is astounding, what they find on Enceladus is a Science Fiction daydream. I recommend this book to all explorers, adventurers and just science fiction readers.

The Enceladus Mission begins with a robot probe finding evidence of single celled organisms on Enceladus. A mission is then created to explore Enceladus and it's ocean, under the ice. The story covers the design of the mission, problems beforehand, the mission itself, as well as the protagonists's obvious personal problems. Although it seemed slow in places, I really enjoyed the science fiction based on current science. It also shows the people on the mission as people, including an unplanned addition. I liked the undersea exploration and the results.
Overall, a good read! I look forward to more in this series.

“The Enceladus Mission” by Brandon Q. Morris is the very readable beginning of the “Ice Moon” book series. The author writes Hard Science Fiction, claiming to only work with elements which are based on real, already existing, technology and latest scientific findings. This makes his works worth reading and very fascinating. “The Enceladus Mission” therefore unfolds its magic to all readers, not only to science fiction fans.

The “Ice Moon” series already consists of five novels. All books are readable without any knowledge about the other episodes but reading them is definitely more fun in the correct order. The author also wrote several other science fiction novels which are loosely connected to each other but placed in a different time. Hopefully, these novels will be published in English as well. At the moment, “The Enceladus Mission” is the first book translated from German.

“The Enceladus Mission” is highly recommendable and should be read by all readers interested in space and space technology, distant planets and moons and contemporary science fiction writing inspired by newest scientific findings and developments.

The story is a fascinating concept which makes it a quick read and a page turner. The twist at the end was a real surprise and lends itself to a next book.