Reviews

A good book that was pretty much ruined by a bad ending. The story kept me on my toes and wanting to read more, even if the reveal was pretty obvious by the time it was spelled out. I hated the ending though.

Spoiler

The rest of the story seemed believably bureaucratic about keeping up appearances and managing costs and public perception and all that, and then suddenly there was a complete 180 and NASA was willing to put together a whole mission in record time just to maybe save 6 people. They'd already put fail-safes into the ships, so they had established that they were willing to sacrifice the astronauts if need be, and now suddenly they weren't? It would have been much better with the downer ending.

meganac's review against another edition

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4.0

Vessel is drastically underrated. Literally.

I love space novels, and picked this one up because the premise sounded delightfully intriguing - an astronaut, presumed dead, suddenly turning up years later after being sent to explore a potential Planet B with no memory of what had happened on her mission, and no idea what had become of the rest of her crew. It didn't disappoint; the pacing is good (answering questions just as quickly as new ones came up) and the cast of characters is fantastic. I loved how realistic the emotions of the cast were. I'm not generally one for the domestic in novels, but I didn't mind the exploration of Catherine Wells' marriage and relationships with her daughter, sister, aging mother, and coworkers because really...what would happen if everyone thought you were dead and you suddenly turned up again? I felt that the author did a good job exploring that concept realistically, although

Spoiler

I was disappointed that Catherine and David were so quick to get a divorce when they hadn't tried long to reintegrate into marriage and Catherine was going through so much already.

Also, Cal. I liked him. It's nice to see MBTI's thinking types in books.

archergal's review against another edition

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3.0

A pretty solid SF story about an astronaut who returns alone from a mission to another planet, but with amnesia about most of the voyage. Something happened to the other 5 members of the crew, but Catherine Wells doesn't remember anything that happened.

I thought the book dealt reasonably well with the stresses of returning from a long voyage after a nine-year absence. I wasn't entirely convinced by The Plot Complication, but I went along with it. The ending didn't work well for me either. But the rest of it was a pretty decent ride. A solid 3 stars, and a quick read.

greenikat89's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5/5 rounded to 3. Easy to dive into light sci-fi (not really much of a thriller). You can pretty much guess what the big twist is, but that's okay because I still liked the journey. Hated that the main female character and it had every main male character lust after her. Women can be single and have platonic friends. Ending felt rushed and far-fetched.

malus23's review against another edition

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3.0

Overall good, the last little bit of the ending felt a little rushed and odd, but the rest was fun.

k_dawned's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

bbboeken's review against another edition

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3.0

3 1/2
I missed depth in this book, and a more mature language. If Nichols wants to write moderately well written pulp (science) fiction, she's on the right track. If she wants more, she still has a lot of work cut out for her. Let's see what her next book brings.

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