Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Take Space X and The Artemis Program and mix them up with classic horror fuelled science fiction and that’s what you can expect from this book. A big object is racing towards Earth and it’s up to two teams of adventurers to figure out why.

I found this book slow to start, and struggled to get into it. The plot didn’t really move anywhere for a good part of the book, and I didn’t feel anything for the characters at first either. To add to this the point of view switches quickly between the characters with no indication that it has changed mid-chapter, which I did struggle with until I got to know the characters voices a little better.

However, the mystery of 2I kept me interested, and I liked that this book is inspired by a true event (Oumuamua), so I decided to push through.

And I am glad I did! The book really picked up the pace for the last 20%. The stakes were high, it was imaginative, and the discoveries were interesting too. So, In the end I did find myself enjoying the book, but I can only give this 3 stars due to the struggle I had at the start.

This was a bit of a disappointment.

It started off well but seemed to lose its way about three quarters of the way through.

The characters begin to crumble along with the story with some parts just seeming totally unbelievable.

A good attempt at a solid Science Fiction story though.

I found it really tough to get into - it wasn't bad, it just wasn't quite for me. I don't plan on leaving a longer review at the moment - Thank you for the opportunity to read the ARC.

The Last Astronaut is a lot of things. Let’s start form the top. It’s a near future sci-fi novel, in a world where, after a Mars mission ends in Challenger-esque tragedy, NASA has ceased human space exploration. Decades later, however, the commander of that doomed mission has been pressed into service, to investigate an alien object falling into our solar system. Things, as you may expect, do not go entirely to plan.

Though this is an ensemble story, I want to say up front that the standout for me was Sally Jansen, the commander whose catastrophic mission to Mars ended government-funded human spaceflight decades before the story takes place. The Jansen we have before us is someone struggling with themselves. With their own guilt, of course. But also with failure, with having come close to living a dream, of embodying her own goals, and then seeing those taken away. Not only that, but seeing that failure cascade, and strip away not only her dream of going to Mars, but everyone else’s. Jansen is outwardly still a woman at the top of her game, even if the game is over. A leader, who can make hard decisions, think fast and act fast when she has to. And all of that is true. She absolutely kicks arse, and it is a sight to see. The story isn’t afraid to let her off the leash, to let her show her expertise, to let her drive her own story.

But she’s also walking on thin ice. There are cracks in the façade that we can see in her narration. The need to save others. To take the weight of the shame and guilt for those she couldn’t save. The wish for redemption. And its to the text’s credit that we can root for Jansen, even as we recognise that the pressures that have shaped her may have been catastrophic; that she is, internally, treading on thin ice. To her credit though, Jansen is smart, resilient, and willing to pick herself up off the mat – both physically and mentally. The mixture here is just right – giving us a protagonist we can believe was a hero, with more than enough of the flaws that make us human.

Jansen is aided, of course, by a delightful ensemble cast, including her new crew, some of who have secrets of their own.. There’s the secretive military man, of course, but there’s also an effervescent scientist, whose discovery of the object, and dream of going into space has catapulted him into the big leagues. And the naïve researcher into xeno-bilogy with an intellect so razor sharp she might just cut herself on it. They’re an odd crew, and they definitely have their quirks, their mysteries, their moments of difficulty. But along with the ground control team, they’re our emissaries to whatever is heading toward us.

Of course, that relies on them being able to get there first.

The text has an interesting narrative style; parts are written from the viewpoints of the characters in the moment, and the visceral immediacy of those sections hit like a freight train. Smaller sections are apparently produced ex post facto, written or recorded as an after action report for an event which looks set to change humanity forever. The contrast in tone, the implacable dry bureaucracy of the reports, blended with the intimate horrors of the larger chapters, not only kept my attention, but left me wondering what happened next – looking for the reality under the formality of the reports and recordings, looking for the indescribable in the layers beneath the formal reality.
This works really well for the earlier portions of the text, as both we and our characters are brought up to speed. Trying to guess what happened before it does, trying to understand what the after action reports, the video transcripts, the scattered future artefacts are telling us.We, and the characters, are caught up in the challenge, in the desire and dream of space, of seeing what’s out there. Of touching down on something truly alien. Of understanding, perhaps, that we’re not alone, and what that means. It’s energetic and optimistic and an absolute pleasure to read, as everyone works together to see what they can find outside the surly bonds of earth.

I won’t spoil anything here, but I’ll say this. The world drawn here is top-notch. The sections in corporate America, and the government facilities of Nasa, will send a tremor of familiarity through anyone who’s ever been to either .The clinical construction of a mission, mixed with the spirit of adventure and attitude that makes it work. You can see the people striding forward, torch in hand, and you can see the world around them – ours. Once they reach the object, things change. Again, no spoilers. But here the strange, the unusual is what stands out, alongside the familiar. It shocks at the same time that it seems tantalisingly within our grasp. The atmosphere is electric, and the object is tantalisingly alien. Jansen and her team are somewhere strange, where the rules don’t apply – less a frontier than a different frame of reference.

In sum, I’m saying this: the characters are very human, and the object is absolutely, vividly not. What happens when the two meet, is something else entirely.

This is a book about discovery. About heroism in dark, dark places. About doing what you have to, in order to survive, about courage, and about duty. It’s about loss, as well, and love, and the things that make us the same and different. The intimate horrors that we share with each other, and the triumphs that get us through the day. It’s a very human story, and one that, once it has you in its grip, isn’t going to let you go until it’s done.

If you’re looking for some hard sci-fi, blended with the best of humanity as well as downright, primeval horror, then this is the book for you.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy!

This book was unexpectedly good, fast-paced, very direct and to the subject. It is a dark book, with notes and tones of horror. And that is a pretty neat subject - horror in space.
It is a great read, all and all!

A gripping and dramatic sci-fi novel. Not necessarily to my taste - it was a bit too gung-ho for me! - but I can see this being very popular.

I had seen lots of fellow book-lovers raving about The Last Astronaut so I was eager to get reading. I liked the premise and thought it sounded like something I would thoroughly enjoy. While the writing is great, and the characters are well-drawn, I found that it wasn’t for me. I wanted to love it, and I think it’s another case of it’s me, not the book. Would still happily recommend it for others though!

Something went badly wrong on Orion 6's mission to Mars in 2024. A lot of people blame Commander Sally Jensen, but not half as much as she blames herself. In the aftermath of the failed Orion 6 mission manned space flight is pretty much all over. Then 21 years later a strange, enormous object appears in our solar system. It suddenly changes trajectory, decelerates and starts heading directly towards Earth. NASA has hardly been functioning for years and it certainly isn't training astronauts anymore. But with Earth being in so much potential danger, and with the prospect of finally making contact with ET, a mission to intercept the anomaly has to be put together urgently. NASA know that there is only one person qualified to lead the new mission but with she agree to go?

With the 50th anniversary of the moon landing and the prospect of a new space race currently all over the news, at times I felt that reading and real life were kind of crossing over. The Last Astronaut is a very high tech tale of first contact and survival in an inhospitable environment. A wonderful, engrossing sci-fi romp with some genuinely knicker-gripping tension.

In the distant future, space exploration by NASA is non-existent, the race for Mars was lost in a brutal way with long term ramifications. But now something new is coming and they need to be ready.

Wellington has written an extremely tense and dramatic story about first contact with some hair-raising moments to keep you guessing right to the end. It’s a fantastic blend of daring adventure, unpredictable twists and beloved sci-fi tropes.

You will be riveted, I certainly was!

It's a good sci-fi that reminded me of some sci-fi classics even if the story has some level of originality.
I liked how the plot was developed, the multilayered plot and the fleshed out cast of characters.
The plot is engrossing even if it's quite slow at times.
It's the first book I read by this author and won't surely be the last.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I'm still cutting my teeth on Sci-Fi genre so I am clueless in where this book stands when compared to others but I did find parts of the book a little hard to follow especially with all the flitting around in time and POV. But I did get it eventually and, once it clicked, it started to flow a bit better for me.
Sally Jensen is one of the old school NASA Astronauts. The last mission when went on went horribly wrong and she lost one of her crew. The government Space Program was disbanded and her life took a different path. But there is something approaching Earth. Something big, something that others have dismissed as just an asteroid or of that ilk. But one man is following it and notices that it isn't obeying the laws of physics and thus isn't inert. All attempts to communicate are futile so, the only path left is to resurrect the Space Program and launch a mission to, well, make First Contact! I'm not going to spoil things so I will just say that things in space don't go quite according to plan...
There's quite a bit of setting up to be found in the early parts of this book. But, once it gets going, really gets going, it's all a bit of a mad rush to the end. Not necessarily all wholly convincing in my opinion but jolly good fun in parts which helped move things along.
Characterisation was, on the whole, good. There are some great interactions between major characters and also, and you gotta love, a bit of personality clashing and control freaking. I did get a bit confused with some of the characters as there were quite a lot of them and some of them sort of melded into each other for me as I struggled to keep them distinct. I might have been better writing a cast list down (as I sometimes do) but I didn't think of this early enough for it to have worked.
The ending, when it came was also good, leaving me satisfied although marred a bit by some of the leading up to, parts of which I had to re-read before I eventually got it. That's probably my fault being still a bit green with the genre, rather than that of the author though.
All in all, a solid read that did keep my interest mostly throughout. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

The Last Astronaut was fun and fast-paced. There are certain parts in the book that was so interesting because of the narrative parts wherein it is like a document file of the characters during the said events.

One thing I can think of was The Last Astronaut sucked in all the sci-fi/ space opera tropes. We have Aliens, The Martian, and Life.

Don't get me wrong, the book was fun. But not that refreshing since it got all the tropes we have watched or read.

Wellington's novel is full of suspense, anticipation, intrigue and a drag of filler; a bit less terrifying if one's already familiar with Syfy's Expanse, Scott's Alien, Clarke's Rendevous with Rama, and Lovecraft, but still its own story.

I had high hopes that The Last Astronaut would be as good The Martin, and for at least 50-60% of the book, I was really impressed with the character development and the storyline itself. I don't read a lot of sci-fi books, but this did have me hooked.
From then on, I felt as though the story got a bit bogged down and slightly repetitive. It also adopted some quite stereotypical character development issues and my enthusiasm for the book wained quite dramatically.
I did finish it, and the ending was reasonably satisfying, but it didn't quite have the 'wow' factor I was hoping for. A firm 4/5 - the beginning was a 5/5 but the ending was only a 3/5. Perhaps cutting 20% from the ending would have made the read much faster and maintained the momentum built up at the beginning.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

An enjoyable read, I will be honest and state I personally found nothing new in the story but the telling of it was good, the characters development and interaction flowed well, I thought the ending let it down as it was too simple and cliched but that's just my opinion