Cover Image: Walking to Aldebaran

Walking to Aldebaran

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Member Reviews

Decent read to add to your Sci-Fi shelf. Basically, humans go into space, play with something they shouldn't, and we follow the repercussions of that decision as we listen to the inner monologue of an astronaut on said expedition. Shades of themes from The Expanse, Prometheus, and 2001.

The writing was occasionally pompous feeling just for the sake of sounding smart, but overall was well put together and flowed neatly. Didn't really have any feelings toward the characters and I don't think the novella length had anything to do with that.

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I've really enjoyed all of the books that I've previously read by this author and this was no exception.

I loved the space setting, unreliable narrator and all the aliens/monsters that we met.

My only gripe with it is that it was too short for me. By the point that the story had me thoroughly gripped and wanting to know what's going on, it ended.

But overall, very enjoyable!

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I am not quite sure what to do with this book. I really liked Children of Time and I loved that the biology of the spiders was considered in their evolution. This one really had no grounding in reality and had a very unreliable narrator. The ending felt a little rushed but I enjoyed the sense of the bizarre and unexpected.

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“It had a dozen many-jointed legs, and I snapped them off and piled them up, a campfire just like my old scoutmaster taught me, and I used one of my shonky little jury-rigged pieces of nonsense to spark it into flames.” That is astronaut Gary Rendell in survival mode. He is part of the international crew of the Quixote. A probe was sent to look for other planets, but it found the Crypts instead. Rendell is now lost in the Crypts (a/k/a the Frog God a/k/a the artifact) after becoming separated from the rest of his crew mates. The Crypts are a gateway to other universes, but that means that any sentient life forms in those universes can also visit the Crypts and Rendell encounters several of them, including egg people, pyramid people and the intestine monster. Rendell also learns the lesson of being careful what you wish for.

This novella reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode, with a combination of humor, adventure, horror and surprises. I enjoyed the author’s writing style. It demonstrates intelligence, imagination and wit. This is the first book by him that I’ve read and it made me want to read more.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

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Chilling, quick paced, full of action and suspense. Essentially a Big Dumb Object story, but this BDO is an immense alien fun house, full of mystery and horrors. The story is told through the often witty, sarcastic first person narration of a lone astronaut lost within the maze like object, making for a fun ride, yet always with a feel of something sinister lurking just out of view. I literally could not put this down. Not to be missed!

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One of the bright new lights in today’s science fiction offers us a harrowing glimpse of space exploration and madness. With echoes of Space Odyssey, an artifact appears out by Pluto. It’s large. It’s ancient. It has openings that beckon for exploration. And,it is riddled with passages, chambers, and all manner of space aliens from other planets and other dimensions. No one ever imagined this was how the first contact with intelligent life would play out. And, one man, Gary Randell, has survived the expedition-but is condemned to wander the foreboding halls and ponder what he has become. His narration often drips with sarcasm as he addresses “Toto” and explains his actions.

It’s a fascinating exposition, but it is merely novella-length and never achieves grandiose proportions. In short, you wish there was more to the story and to where it would lead. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read and hard to put down.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

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This looked so exciting. Not just did it feature the brightest star in the best constellation out there, but also it’s a space adventure. From a new to me author and in a novella form, which as everyone knows or at least should is an absolutely best way of trying out a new author. But somehow it just wasn’t music to my ears and yes, that is the pun on the author’s name, sorry, it was irresistible. So why was Gary the astronaut’s walk not all that fun. Actually, I’m not quite sure, I’ve thought about it and I’ll try to be objective. On the balance it had some good things going for it. It is after all a space adventure, one man, one bizarre celestial body randomly found while looking for planets 9 (so sorry Pluto) and 10, a variety of alien lifeforms. Or are there? You can’t quite be sure, because Gary isn’t quite a reliable narrator. In fact Gary might be going mad, solitude will do that. But the actual thing is that Gary is also not a very likeable narrator. In fact the guy sounds like a bro and not an especially bright one (maybe an attempt to attract a younger audience), which is just not what you’d expect out of an astronaut or what you’d want for a narrator, one you spend the entire book with. And so while the author gets to show off his imagination and creativity with the various creatures his confused protagonist meets, when all is said and done you might notice the flatness of the writing or the fact that you don’t really like or care about Gary and his journey and the ending twist is gasp worthy, but really not at all original. The novella was entertaining enough and went by quickly enough, but didn’t wow in any way or made you go look for the author’s other books. Well, it was something to try. Thanks Netgalley.

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I have read children of time and dogs of war and really enjoy the authors telling of science fiction, this book alternated,between holding me enthralled with a different view on first contact and exploration and then taking me on disturbing look at the psyche of the books main character, I think this is worth reading just for the psychology the sci_fi is an added, bonus

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