Title: Walking to Aldebaran
Author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Genre: Science Fiction
Edition/Pages: Ebook, 140 pages
Goodreads page

ARC provided by Rebellion via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Summary

This follows Gary, an astronaut who is lost, wandering The Crypts – an alien artifact located just beyond Pluto. As Gary wanders in the dark, he talks to himself, relaying everything that has happened to get him to where he is.

Overview

This is a short, 140ish page novel, told in an internal monologue format – Gary tells his story to the reader as if they were there.
This is high science fiction! The aliens, science, setting, are nothing similar to Earth or humans. Which can make picturing the creatures or scene a little tricky. This is definitely not a sci-fi beginner book.

What I Liked

1. I NEEDED to know what was going on! This story opens up and you have no idea how Gary got to where he is, what the Crypts are, or anything else for that matter. And I was completely sucked in by all the open questions. I needed answers.
2. Both the setting and aliens were so unique and descriptive. Nothing was humanoid which I really appreciated and the Crypts were so creepy and atmospheric.
3. I loved the bits of humor that were thrown in. This story overall is bleak and depressing, so the bits of humor gave it a perfect balance.
4. I really liked the style choice for this story. I thought it was such a unique choice to have the main character talking to the reader as an internal monologue. And it worked perfectly considering the character’s mental state. It was just such a perfect choice.
5. The twist ending. Oh man, so good.

What I Didn’t Like

1. For about 3/4 of this book I kept questioning if this story had a point. It was very meandering and slow (it took me 4 days to read 140 pages). And with all the heavy description for the world and alien creatures, I felt a little bogged down.

Overall, this is one of the strangest stories I’ve ever read (in a good way!). And it has a really great sci-fi twist! If you’re a science fiction reader, I definitely recommend checking this out!