But the Stars

De: Peter Cawdron

Narrado por: Nicole Poole

"But the stars that marked our starting fall away. We must go deeper into greater pain, for it is not permitted that we stay." (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, AD 1301)

At the start of the 22nd century, the starship Acheron is in orbit around WISE 5571, only, unbeknownst to the crew, the ship has been overrun by telepathic extraterrestrials. How do you fight an enemy that distorts everything you see? What do you do when you can't trust your own senses, let alone anyone around you?

©2020 Peter Cawdron (P)2020 Tantor

Worth it.

At points this book gets a little preachy about science that doesn't really need to be explained in depth for the story to be told. Or maybe is was the characters explaining to other characters at times in the story that seemed a bit forced. This pulled me out of the narrative a bit. But not enough to not thoroughly enjoy the book. The Thing meets Dante's Inferno meets Secret Hitler. Fun, well written, and enjoyable all the way through.

Thought provoking book that made me like my least favorite trope again.

I thought that I was going to hate this book at first, but I loved it. Very minor spoiler warning…
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in the first few chapters you discover that the main character keeps having her memory wiped. I typically hate stories that have any kind of “dream” sequence (including actual dreams, time loops, alternate realities, or memory loss) as it’s usually just poorly thought out and lazy writing. However, Cawdron did a phenomenal job with the mechanics and I’m so glad that I gave this book a chance. There is depth in the characters, provoking questions about what it means to be human, and an overall refreshing take on first contact. Excellent read.

Outstanding

I would give it 6 on the story except that I wanted a book 2 and maybe a book 3. Plus the rating doesn’t go to 6 😄

Fantastic.

So fun. Plays with a scary topic, absolutely mental.

Knowing what is real is one of the most important skills of modern times and we have to be brave to face indicators when our model of reality appears to be off. Loved this book as a fun exploration of these struggles in a visceral high stakes manner that borders on cosmic horror.

Well worth the time to engage

This was a very different sci-fi novel which introduces an alien life form. I am happy to recommend it.

This is intelligent science fiction

I really enjoyed this book. I would compare Peter Cawdron with Adrian Tchaikovsky. Intelligent authors with good scientific knowledge. This is my second of Cawdron's "First Contact" novels and I look forward to more.