Walking to Aldebaran | Adrian Tchaikovsky

 

 A quick review today. I think I say this quite a lot, but I have had this for ages. I kinda read this one by accident. I had read my book and just wanted a quick read and this fit the bill.

 

 

Chilling story of a lost astronaut on an alien artefact from Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Adrian Tchaikovsky.

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.

 

 

Another tick off the Adrian Tchaikovsky reads.

Walking to Aldebaran tells the story of Gary Rendell, a astronaut lost in a mysterious place called the catacombs. As we learn more about the situation, we get to find out that a mysterious 'artefact' is discovered on the edge of the galaxy. Subsequently, an international exploratory mission is sent to the artefact to attempt to discover more about the strange rock. It turns out that the artefact is some form of time mashing, mind bending construction that has a mysterious purpose.

Wandering around the catacombs like a wayward D & D character, he finds himself split from the group after events go tits up and he finds himself alone.

Full of inherent humour and general snarkiness, Walking to Aldebaran was a mind mashing delight. Packed with Tchaikovsky's trademark creature feature and incredible storytelling, Walking to Aldebaran is a fun little novella that defies your expectations.