Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky - Book Review

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5 out of 5 stars

My name is Gary Rendell. I’m an astronaut. When they asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “astronaut, please!” I dreamed astronaut, I worked astronaut, I studied astronaut. 

I got lucky; when a probe sent out to explore the Oort Cloud found a strange alien rock and an international team of scientists was put together to go and look at it, I made the draw. 

I got even luckier. When disaster hit and our team was split up, scattered through the endless cold tunnels, I somehow survived.
Now I’m lost, and alone, and scared, and there’s something horrible in here. 

Lucky me. 

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

Can we pause and reflect on this genius writing for a moment? I came across this book after watching a video from booktuber Emily Fox (BOOKSWITHEMILYFOX check her out and subscribe she's a fellow Canadian!) and from what she described it did sound intriguing. I also want to read "Children of Ruin" by Adrian Tchaikovsky but since I haven't read anything by him yet starting with a 140 page novella or short sounded about right. I grabbed this book from my library but links to buy this book can be found below!

So here is how I am going to break down this review... spoiler free above the line and spoilers below!! I'll give you ample warning so be sure to look out for it if you don't want to be spoiled. 3 likes and 3 dislikes for the spoiler free and I'll touch on more in the spoiler section below.

Let's start with the dislikes:
1. This was my first time reading one of his books, as I said, so the current social references were a bit overwhelming for me at first. I mean WTF was actually used at one point and maybe it's because I don't read new books enough but it caught me by surprise and I actually hated it.. at first.. made much more sense to me as a came to the end of the book but it took me a while to get used to it.

2. Science jargon..... and this is just a petty dislike as it is actually necessary for sci-fi in my opinion. But I literally had to stop and google some things which made my read so much longer than it needed to be for 140 pages.

3. First person... this is just preference for writing style. 1st person writing has always been a bit tricky for me.. but I will say they way he did 1st person as if the protagonist (Gary) was speaking directly to you (or Toto) was quite intriguing.

Likes:
1. Everything... ok... no but really I loved this book. It was compelling, it was funny, and aside from the 3 points (including the petty one) above everything else was brilliantly done! I didn't find it too short like sometimes happens, leaving you wanting more, I was satisfied with the ending! I did pick up on the little twist about 80 pages in or so but it didn't take away from the reading experience!

2. Content... This book was detailed for such a short read. I felt like I could envision all of the environments and by the end I even felt like I could truly see what Gary looked like. I love when a book lets you immerse yourself in it so you can feel all of the emotions the protagonist is experiencing.

3. Tying things together. This was a smooth read, it flowed despite jumping back and forth between the Gary before the mission start and Gary during the mission. The jump backs made sense and gave hindsight to the situation he was currently experiencing and why it was happening and I liked the slow burn to really understanding where this was going.

All in all great read and highly recommended especially to discover if you want to read other books by this author. Recommended for those who love sci-fi, who want a bit of fall dark thriller type read which is perfect for this time of year, and for readers who enjoy suspense and twists.

But what do you think? Have you read Walking to Aldebaran? Is it on your To Read list?? Let us know what you think in the comments below!!

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SPOILERS AHEAD
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Now let's get down to the details... as stated above in my first dislike I hated the current references and slang but I completely understood at the end why it was written that way. Gary, from his perspective, wanted to prove he was still human and connected. I mean anyone who was reading could see he was very much not anymore but if he talked to Toto with the humanizing slang and added in some wtf along the way he'd still feel like he hadn't changed all that much and that all that happened hadn't made him the monster he really did become because deep down he was still a human in the mind. Although technically he really didn't even understand the English or Danish language anymore, I don't even believe he could really speak to humans anymore. 

The scritch scratch going on in his head were the thoughts of the humans and by time he even connected to them after walking through the caves for forever he couldn't quite get what their thoughts meant anymore.

It was brilliant and I totally appreciated that desperateness to connect, to deny his wrong doing subconsciously and his realization at the end that his true connection was no longer to the humans but to his maker... whomever that really is.

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