Clare L. Deming

Detour is a science fiction novel by co-authors Jeff Rake and Rob Hart. I received a copy courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher (Random House Worlds) in return for an honest review (paid link). You can read what I thought below.

Here is the blurb:

Ryan Crane wasn’t looking for trouble—just a cup of coffee. But when this cop spots a gunman emerging from an unmarked van, he leaps into action and unknowingly saves John Ward, a billionaire with presidential aspirations, from an assassination attempt.

As thanks for Ryan’s quick thinking, Ward offers him the chance of a lifetime: to join a group of lucky civilians chosen to accompany three veteran astronauts on the first manned mission to Saturn’s moon Titan.

A devoted family man, Ryan is reluctant to leave on this two-year expedition, yet with the encouragement of his loving wife—and an exorbitant paycheck guaranteeing lifetime care for their disabled son—he crews up and ventures into a new frontier.

But as the ship is circling Titan, it is rocked by an unexplained series of explosions. The crew works together to get back on course, and they return to Earth as heroes.

When the fanfare dies down, Ryan and his fellow astronauts notice that things are different. Some changes are good, such as lavish upgrades to their homes, but others are more disconcerting. Before the group can connect, mysterious figures start tailing them, and their communications are scrambled.

Separated and suspicious, the crew must uncover the truth and decide how far they’re willing to go to return to their normal lives. Just when their space adventure seemingly ends, it shockingly begins.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

This book initially caught my attention because it featured a crew of astronauts as the main characters. However, this was a large part of why this story didn’t work for me. The professional NASA astronauts on the crew had previous spaceflight experience, but their training for the mission to fly around Titan on a new spacecraft was minimal to non-existent. Three civilians were also selected, but no screening for medical conditions or psychiatric testing was shown. These would have been particularly important aspects to consider for a mission that was expected to last two years.

The commander of the mission turns out to be a known alcoholic, and his colleagues at NASA cover for him constantly, even when he tries to distill alcohol from mouthwash in the middle of the mission after drinking all the alcohol that NASA sent along with them (LOL). One of the civilians is socially awkward and claustrophobic, which is also not a great combination aboard a spacecraft. Another one gets into a fistfight with another crewmember before they even leave Earth.

I found the pacing odd, with roughly the first half of the book being taken up by introductions of the characters. Once they finally arrive near Titan, the ship circles the moon and then comes home. No direct input from any of the astronauts was performed, bringing up the question of why a manned mission was even necessary. Of course there is a strange explosion on the ship when they are at Titan and they lose most (but not all) of their communication ability after that point. Unfortunately the nature of that explosion isn’t really investigated and by the end of the book it is clear that this is going to be the first of a series. The book ends on a cliffhanger and gives no answers to their situation.

The action that opened the novel was exciting and hooked me on the book enough to finish it despite the flaws in characterization and mission logic. The best part of the book occurs in the last third, when more action happens. The prose was also easy to read and I liked the cover.

While the premise of this book held potential for an exciting and intriguing story, I don’t plan to be reading more in this series.

Have you read any books lately that were disappointing? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my book reviews here.