Here’s the blurb:
“A huge alien object has entered the solar system and is now poised above the Earth. It has made no attempt to communicate.
Out of time and options, NASA turns to its last living astronaut – Commander Sally Jansen, who must lead a team of raw recruits on a mission to make First Contact.
But as the object reveals its secrets, Jansen and her crew find themselves in a desperate struggle for survival – against the cold vacuum of space, and something far, far worse . . .”
I had high hopes that The Last Astronaut would be as good The Martian, 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.
The Last Astronaut is released on 25th July, and you can get your copy here:
M J Porter 