The Enceladus Mission

Ice Moon 1

By: Brandon Q. Morris

Narrated by: Doug Tisdale Jr.

Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

In the year 2031, a robot probe detects traces of biological activity on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons. This sensational discovery shows that there is indeed evidence of extraterrestrial life. Fifteen years later, a hurriedly built spacecraft sets out on the long journey to the ringed planet and its moon. The international crew is not just facing a difficult twenty-seven months: if the spacecraft manages to make it to Enceladus without incident it must use a drillship to penetrate the kilometer-thick sheet of ice that entombs the moon. If life does indeed exist on Enceladus, it could only be at the bottom of the salty, ice covered ocean, which formed billions of years ago.

However, shortly after takeoff disaster strikes the mission, and the chances of the crew making it to Enceladus, let alone back home, look grim. From internationally best-selling hard science fiction author Brandon Q. Morris comes a new novel for hard science fiction enthusiasts. As a physicist and space specialist, Morris describes the journey of the international expedition through the hostile vacuum of space, using the latest scientific findings and technology trends as his inspiration. This isn't a 'What If' story, this is a 'When Will' story.

©2018 Brandon Q. Morris (P)2018 Liberaudio

Critic reviews

A space odyssey that's worth taking.
-- Kirkus

Wish I hadn’t

This is the type of book that I normally love: hard science, space exploration, alien beings.. Unfortunately the narrator totally ruined it for me. His tone is more fitting for reading comedies or feel-good stories, not what is supposed to be nail-biting, suspenseful science fiction. I could barely get a sense of when something dire or life-threatening was happening because the narrator just kept on in his “this is all good, everything is great” voice. Ugh!!!!!! The author also devoted way too many chapters to the development of the equipment that wasn’t used until the last 1/4 of the book. I felt disappointed that the description of the final destination, Enceladus, was severely lacking in comparison. I would not recommend this book.

I really wanted to like this book

I love hard science and the story line was interesting. However, the protagonist is so disconnected he felt more like an AI. Sadly, the book was narrated with a similar tone which I found extremely off putting.

The Enceladus Mission Series

This review addresses the entire series of The Enceladus Mission, which consists of four full-length novels: The Enceladus Mission, The Titan Probe, The Io Encounter, and Return to Enceladus. Read in sequence as most characters traverse all four books, as does the story.

Plot. A group of astronauts from several countries responds to a probe signal coming from the moon of a distant planet indicating potential life. Through the four novels, space travel is defined in painfully intricate detail. The entire series consists of a series of mundane problems, occasionally life-threatening, that arise with regularity - one after another. Expected relationships between characters develop, including a pregnancy. Shipboard AI's misbehave, save the day, stuff goes wrong, stuff gets fixed, etc.

Liked. The Enceladus Mission series is pure SciFi. The "what-if" possibilities are there, which in my opinion, makes the best SciFi. No drooling zombies, aliens with clicking knees, jump scares. No sex, no gratuitous profanity. Coincidently? Breakthrough Enceladus is a proposed privately funded astrobiology mission to look for macrobiotic life in the volcanic eruptions of water emanating from the moon - true - Google it.

Not so hot. Wording isn't particularly smooth - no contractions; more effort should have been applied to story rather than space technology, which can be boring to some readers. The ending left much unanswered.

Written by Brandon Q. Morris, narrated by Doug Tisdale Jr., each book in the area of eight hours of listening, all books released 2019.

Recommended to the nerds among us; lots of techy stuff to pick apart.

OK, I want the next one

I loved the point of view and internal dialog of Martin. Great science grounding and a compelling first contact. Narrator has wonderful inflections, but not quite as strong on accents. Very enjoyable overall.

Exciting with twists and turns.

Great story. Well thought out. Nice surprises along the way. Lots of twists and turns.

Enjoyable

Some humor mixed with solid science & internal consistency. Worth buying & the next in the series also.

Great listen!

Great story! Starting book 2 right now! Sure to not disappoint! Brandon Q. Morris does it again!

good idea, odd translation and performer

I like the story a lot. The story is apparently translated from german. It is good, but needs a lot more work on translation. Somehow the translator doesn't know english contractions. It sounds like the dialog from a 1970s Gofzilla movie. The performer makes it worse by adding a cheerful lilt to his voice at the serious and critical moments. The dissonance is deafening. I do want to know what happens in later novels, but I am not sure I can stick with it.

Meh

Just okay. The plot moved a little too quickly in some cases where it wasn't actually realistic. The descriptions of the technology were bland and uninspired such that you never quite knew exactly what was going on. I had a hard time developing a mental image of what most of the spacecrafts and characters actually looked like. Overall, would not recommend to friends

Not terrible. Not great. Not really good.

If you were ever curious about physics in space but didn’t want watch a Discovery channel scientist dumb it down to a 5th grade level then this is the book for you.

However, if you also wanted the book to have a compelling and interesting story with narrator who can do different character voices then this is not the book for you.