The Last Astronaut

by David Wellington

***Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020***

'An edge-of-your-seat tale of first contact'
Gareth L. Powell

'A terrifying tour de force . . . Gripping authenticity and an uncompromising white-knuckled pace' James Rollins

'Timely and terrifying, The Last Astronaut propels us deep into the mysteries of space . . . breathless, compulsive reading' Christopher Golden

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 . . .

'Great action, knockout characters, scarily believable science' Jackson Ford

• ISBN10: 0316419575
• ISBN13: 9780316419574
• Publish Date: 23 July 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Neither NASA nor SpaceX will be overly happy with this one. This is another real-ish solar system space survival story in the vein of Andy Weir's The Martian or Lisa A. Nichols' Vessel. In terms of techno-jargon, it sits somewhere in between those two, with more jargon early in the book before the book takes a less technical turn towards the back half. Stylistically, this is a mockumentary type tale with both a storyline and documentary elements interwoven and uses various event names for the headings of the chapters rather than chapter numbers. Overall a solid effort and very much recommended. I'll be looking for more from Mr. Wellington in the future, that's for sure.