I loved 'Children of Time' by Adrian Tchaikovsky, so I was eager to read this novella.
I was hooked from the beginning.

Tchaikovsky writes well-rounded, believable characters. Here he lets poor Gary Rendell tell his story. We learn how he became stranded from his ship-mates whilst exploring a mysterious artefact in deep space, and his herculean efforts to be reunited with them. This is no easy ride, but our hero has the guts and the sheer instinct to survive to keep him focused on his quest.

In creating the crypts, Tchaikovsky has given us a tantalising glimpse into the depths of his extraordinary imagination - an inspired feast - but however strange the crypts appear, they are always written in a compelling and believable way.

The story is told with a humorous touch - Gary talks to the reader, telling us we are 'Toto,' to stop him from going mad, and his observations lighten the otherwise horrific atmosphere. He deals with everything in a matter-of-fact way - but he's been lost for a long time, and time is another crazy mixed up thing in the Crypts. He cannot give in to despair - it doesn't keep you alive.

This story taps into our greatest fears - unknown monsters lurking in the depths. Tchaikovsky takes this concept and flips it on its head, and we are forced to look at things from a different perspective. Up or down, right or wrong, and mad or bad all depend on your current position and viewpoint.
This is SF at its best.

A digital copy of this novel was supplied to me by Solaris Books through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know those times when you are reading Harlan Ellison and you say to yourself, "Where are all the newer writers doing DARK FREAKING TWISTS in their SF, full of humor, horror, and anxiety?"

Ah, good news, ya'll! This one fits the bill. :) In fact, I think I should make a little bookshelf named "MUAHAHAHAHAHA".

Yep. Expect a first-contact scenario playing out in flashback, wry and disturbing humor as we catch up with our poor pedestrian walking through the halls of the Frog God, and explore distant worlds and galaxies by foot. Expect, hunger, thirst, SO MANY OTHER aliens in the same boat, and especially...

A wonderful twist or two.

Come on. If Tchaikovsky is channeling Harlan, YOU KNOW it has to come. :) Ah, transformations. Well-rounded characters. Muahahahahahaha.

So fun. :)

I really liked "Children of Time" book, and was hoping I will like the Walking to Aldebaran, but I didn't enjoy it as much. I liked the first half of the book and I liked learning the story of what happened and what was that mysterious artifact found and how the protagonist got there. But it kind of fizzled out when it came to talking about the artifact itself and what it was. It felt like the author didn't actually come up with a clear idea of what it was supposed to be, and how to end the book, so it left me rather dissatisfied at the end. There is a lot of cruelty and lot of graphic violence and the character degradation.

I received a digital copy of the book via NetGalley

Bizarre, horrific sci-fi that I couldn't put down - I read it in one sitting. .

I love this author, but I don't love this novella. It was good, but I was anxious for it to be over with.

I really don't know what else to say. I should probably stop getting books off Netgalley to read as I kinda suck at reviews unless I love the book.

5 / 5 stars

So many of my favorite quotes in this novella happen towards the end, and I’m unwilling to use them. That would give too much away, I think. But then, there are SO MANY good quotes everywhere! And Walking to Aldebaran was a good therapeutic read. Maybe this will get me to start talking to myself as I wander around life, too, though I won’t call it Toto. Never liked the Wizard of Oz—I know, that’s just horrible. Don’t judge me too much, please.

“If they didn’t want to be eaten, they shouldn’t be so delicious."

Walking to Aldebaran is a hundred page novella from the master of, well, so many things: Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is only my third Tchaikovsky book—after The Tiger and the Wolf and Children of Time. Walking to Aldebaran reminds me quite a bit of Children, actually. Not so much the plot, as how it’s written. But that would make sense, wouldn’t it?

As for the plot, Tchaikovsky combines the erudite pilot Gary Rendell with some smart-ass in order to win my heart. Or, at least, I assume. Dude is quite possibly my favorite character of the year. Rendell is an astronaut tasked—along with his fellow crewmates—with exploring an alien artefact that hovers just at the edge of our solar system, known by him as ‘the Frog God’, due to it’s froggy visage. But, shortly after entering these Crypts (yeah, they’re the Crypts once he’s inside), a horrible fate befalls him and his crew, stranding Gary all alone in the darkness, forcing him to either curl up and die or traverse the Crypts afoot until he finds his way home. The narrative in Walking to Aldebaran picks up shortly after this (and after Gary begins talking to himself), but features frequent flashbacks that provide the reader with insight about how he got into this mess. And as the Crypts seem to bend time and space so that they can exit/enter into countless alien realms—he’ll be walking for a while. Hence the name.

Seeing as it only took me a handful of hours to finish it (albeit space across a few days), it proved less a journey and more a… jaunt. But still, with an adventurous and exciting novella like this, the length really doesn’t matter. I mean, I would’ve loved for it to have been longer… but it really didn’t need to be. Tchaikovsky knows what he’s doing, and Walking is fitted to match.

I seriously enjoyed this one. Loved it, actually. The narrator, the concept, the setting. The character arc. The quote-unquote “growth”. The cover was really nice, too. A solid 5-stars, I’d say. The real question is whether I’d justify the $10 ebook price, though. Now, normally there’d be no way I’d even consider it. $10 for a 100 page book, a couple hours read? Nah. But Aldebaran is really, really good. So… I’m torn. I guess, like, may…be? I’d definitely justify reading it, no matter how you get there.

Reviewed at: https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/

Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a wonderful, humorous, sci-go novella. Protagonist Gary Rendell provides a funny and often chilling view of his time stranded on an alien artefact.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a real gift for developing characters that you just can’t help but root for. In times of despair, relative joy and sometimes insanity you get a real sense of astronaut Gary Rendell as a living breathing person.

This review was based on an eARC by Netgalley.

How is it possible to not finish a short story/novella? The first person narrative format was just too boring. The lost astronaut's contemplative meandering just could not hold my interest.

I'm not often a sci-fi guy and haven't read any for a while but I'm really glad I ended my 'sci-fast' with this delicious, darkly-fun novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The story concerns a mission to a mysterious planet-sized artefact, called The Crypts, that has been discovered near Pluto. Of course, said mission turns out to be a bad idea...leaving us following the experiences of a sole English astronaut, Gary Rendell, who is lost in the mind-bending, physics-devouring. alien-inhabited world of The Crypts.

Saying much more on the plot would spoil things but Gary has all manner of strange experiences on his journey, and narrates it all in a wonderfully sarcastic manner.

This is sci-fi with humour, mystery, tension, horror and big ideas. I enjoyed it a lot!

I really enjoyed most of this book.

Adrian Tchaikovsky has told a fascinating tale of space exploration, which, for the most part, left me compelled and frequently claustrophobic. The intertwined narratives of the lead up to the mission and astronaut, Gary's, current predicament dove-tailed nicely.

But then, the ending. I couldn't spoil this if I tried, because honestly, I have no idea what happened. I was probably a bit too sleepy when I finished this book off, so I do acknowledge that my total lack of understanding is likely to be at least partially my fault. Don't read tired kids. Despite this, I don't think the conclusion greatly impacted on my enjoyment of the rest of the book. The mood which the text created didn't really need a massive climax (or, whatever happened) and I could have just continue reading happily about Gary's exploration of the unknown.

A light humored story about an adventure of first contact. Kind of messed up in places and gets creepier as the story goes on. I loved it.

I was not sure what to expect of this, but found it remarkably engaging. The protagonist being from the UK definitely helped, as the character's dark humour emerged. The ending, and indeed the latter part of the book did become bleaker and darker, but I still found this an enjoyable book. And a fellow Leodensian too !

If you fancy something quite dark, a bit quirky and different, give this a go.

I had to think about this one for a while to be sure of what I wanted to say about it. Even to be sure what I think about it. It hit me with quite a punch, so it was effective in provoking a reaction, but did I like it? And more importantly, do I recommend it?
The short answer is yes, although this novella wasn’t at all what I was expecting from Tchaikovsky this time around. Here’s the long answer.

This is the story, told in the first person, of astronaut Gary Rendell, a member of an international expedition sent to explore a giant, possibly alien artefact that has been discovered out beyond Pluto. And then something happens. Gary is left trapped and alone inside the artefact, walking through endless tunnels, trying to survive and maybe, just possibly, find his way back home.

One of Tchaikovsky’s strengths is his ability to get inside the head of a character and show you things from their point of view. He’s done this incredibly successfully with protagonists as diverse as sentient spiders (Children of Time) and a genetically engineered bio form that thinks of itself as a Good Dog (Dogs of War). In each case, the “voice” was distinctive and different. He’s done it again with human astronaut Gary. From the first line of the story, I felt I knew this character:

"Today I found something I could eat and something I could burn to keep back the darkness. That makes today a good day."

The voice is reminiscent of Andy Weir’s The Martian, colloquial and wisecracking but with a darker edge.
The narrative swings between the present (walking through the tunnels) and the past (the expedition and what happened when they arrived) but unlike many dual narratives, it is perfectly balanced between the two, present action alternating with exposition in a way that is never boring but gradually ratchets up the tension.
It’s a fast read and a compelling one, with little stops along the way for a bit of reflection and philosophy, a bit of deeper meaning:

"I feel like, in coming out here, we’re bleeding our culture, the humanness of us, out into the void."

But they don’t last long, and within a few lines, the light, humorous tone is back:

"I’d eat humble pie with every conspiracy theorist in the world if they’d only lend me one of their tinfoil hats right now."

Gary meets all kinds of creatures in the tunnels and there is plenty of danger, gore and even horror, but it’s all kind of playful, darkly funny, not too serious. And then, suddenly, the whole tone changes and real horror descends. I won’t say any more, but I actually had to stop reading for a moment because it was such a shock. Tchaikovsky knows how to pack a wallop, as Gary himself might say.

This novella is beautifully judged in length, tone and pacing, with a superb ending. A worthy addition to Tchaikovsky’s body of science fiction. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next.


A digital A.R.C. of this novel was supplied to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A novella by award winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky, Walking to Aldebaran is the journey of Gary Rendell, astronaut, through the depths and horrors of the Crypts.

The Crypts are aeromes that lie within the entrances to the Artefact (or ‘Frog God’), a black-hole type planetary object beyond Pluto, to which Gary and a party of fellow astronauts have travelled.

Needless to say things aren’t all plain sailing, and a number of encounters with both amiable and disturbing creatures occur, separating the crew.

I enjoyed this quick read – a rare foray into mainstream sci-fi for me.

I've heard nothing but good things about Tchaikovsky. It was a good book, couldn't really put it down after the first third of it. It's really easy to read, the pace is great, it's also funny and chilling. I had a really good time reading it so I ended up rounding to 4 stars.

An astronaut, Gary Rendell, is part of the team in charge of exploring the Crypts, a.k.a the Artefact, a.k.a. the Frog God, an alien structure found past Pluto. The story is told from Gary's point of view using two different timelines which loosely converge at some point. It's a story about hope and human nature, but it's also a story about losing what makes us human.

Out at the edge of our galaxy, a Big Dumb Object appears. Astronaut Gary Rendell joins a team tasked with going out and attempting to make contact. Things go sideways, and we're left with Gary's first-person account of what he's experiencing in the Crypt, as it comes to be known. The combination of being cut off from his fellow crew members, wandering around this artifact, and having a lack of food, means Gary's not the most reliable of narrators. We're just Toto, along for this wild ride.

I won't spoil any of it, because in this novella, the joy is in the journey--and this journey kept me riveted. In fact, I had to portion out my reading because I oddly felt that I was plowing through it too quickly. Tchaikovsky continues his streak of impressing the heck out of me. Every science fiction and fantasy fan should be reading his stuff.

Enjoyed trying this book. I am not a usual SciFi fan so this was somewhat a departure for me.

Took awhile in getting into the book with some backwards and forwards which modern writers like to do these days. Has wry humour sometimes black but it did break up the strange content.

The story concerns an English Astronaut, who pilots a ship from a mother ship, on a expedition to investigate a far flung anomaly . They encounter a strange made huge rock device of which no one knew of its purpose. They enter the rock through an entrance which leads into a "Crypt".

The story is about this Astronaut and his journey in which he encounters different aliens .

A fairly short book which keeps you engrossed in the tale. The outcome becomes clear fairly early on but doesn't spoil the end.
Enjoyed the change for me but not sure I would want to read any more too much like this.

Gary Rendell, an astronaut, and his team explore the Crypts, a nickname for an unknown alien structure floating past Pluto.

Initially the novella was super hard to get into as I was thoroughly confused. The novella starts to make more sense, even with the flashbacks. The plot was good with the description of the Crypts and other alien lifeforms being my favorite. I loved being able to picture the new and strange aliens.

Gary was alright as a character. I liked reading about his descend into loneliness and lunacy. His inner monologues were interesting as it helped explained his thought process and the rational behind each decision.

The writing style was unique and entertaining once you got used to it. I'm not used to words randomly repeating to make a bigger emphasis on a point.

The ending wasn't great as I was initially confused about what happened and why. Once I pondered it I started to understand it but that also means I didn't like it. Although I wasn't expecting a happy ending for Gary I was hoping for more.

In summary it was a good sci-fi novella and I would strongly suggest it to Tchaikovsky fans or fans of alien first contact novels. My favorite novel by Tchaikovsky is [book:Ironclads|34466691] (I loved it).

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC.

A short, sharp hit of mindbending sci-fi of the best strain. Redolent of 2001, this book is a straightforward take on the 'artefact found in space' subgenre which is made all the more compelling by the dry humour of the narrator.

Although heady metaphysics are discussed the writing reminded me of 'The Martian' in that its written in a chummy, familiar way which draws the reader into the world.

A quick but brilliant read and a definite primer for Tchaikovsky's writing.

Thoroughly recommended.

I read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s 2019 stand-alone novella “Walking to Aldebaran” in kindle ebook, which I received from Solaris Books through netgalley.com, in exchange for publishing an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. The novella's publication date is expected to be 28 May 2019. Adrian Tchaikovsky is the pen-name of British writer Adrian Czajkowski, previously known for his Shadows of the Apt series (which I have not read), and his award-winning Children of Time (which I have read and rated highly). Note that the work is in British English, and I may change a spelling here and there in my American English comments.

The story is told in first-person by astronaut Gary Rendell, lost and endlessly wandering the passages of a big alien artifact in the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto. Chapters alternate between two plot lines. The first concerns his exploration of and survival in “the Crypts.” There are the occasional truly alien Aliens with whom he struggles to understand and communicate, or at least co-exist. He forms some theories about the trans-dimensional nature of the artifact, that point towards its purpose. As the only character, the reader has no real choice but to identify with Gary, in a situation that initially draws a comparison to Mark Watney of The Martian. The second plot is the backstory of the international mission of which he is a part. His mysterious current situation can be understood only through his recollection of events from the backstory. One of the strengths of the story unfortunately cannot be told without spoiler. That twist reminded of the great science fiction writer Gene Wolfe.

In my mind, novella was the perfect length for this, and it is getting my top recommendation.