The crew of the Pioneer has just left Earth’s orbit when a freak phenomenon severs communication with Earth and sends them hurtling off course into uncharted space.
The ground crew struggles to find out what happened, and whether the crew of the Pioneer are even alive. Seasoned captain Derek, cocky pilot Jacob, and astrophysicist Vicky must find must figure out what happened, where in the galaxy they are, and how to get home before their dwindling life support runs out.
I was impressed with how meticulously researched and scientifically believable this novel was. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during a NASA mission, I think Random Walk might be a great approximation. It’s full of references to things that hard sci fi readers love. References to Mars missions, secret space programs, wormholes, and other quantum science abound.
I didn’t love everything about it. I thought it got off to a slow start, and occasionally I found it hard to follow. It also had more technology description than I like…but true hard sci fi fans would probably disagree with me and point out that speeding up the pace would probably make the book less scientifically believable. There was a cliffhanger ending, so readers will need to buy at least one more book to find out whether Derek, Jacob and Vicky make it home alive. If you love hard sci fi and are looking for clean, positive science fiction, this book should be on your list!
Genre: Clean hard science fiction
Content labels:
Heat: None
Violence: None
Profanity: None
Age recommendation: All the characters are adults, but it is clean enough for any child who really loves space.
Random walk is available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Disclaimer: We received a free copy of this book with a request for an honest review.
Operation Grendel – Daniel Schwabauer
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