Reviews

The Last Astronaut by David Wellington

reading_ryn's review

adventurous funny medium-paced

3.25

kroj213's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

sabsey's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

There were many things I loved about this - the horror was creeping and ultimately relentless. I was wary in the middle section of Wellington falling into worn-out tropes of the space horror genre, but he very neatly pulled off some very cool things in terms of a First Contact horror story. 

I was a bit unsatisfied with the trajectory of the public/private space exploration subplot, however it did setup my favourite character, Sandra (Rao coming in a very tight second). I also think Wellington particuarly excelled in making the worldbuilding seem & feel effortless, which is usually not an easy feat to pull off in sci-fi like this. 

I also got chills in one of the final lines on the book

regarding Sally finally walking on Mars.

Chills. I also got the impression that the MC as Sally could be a reference or namesake of Sally Ride, but I could be looking too deep there. 

Overall, even though the horror didn't quite work on me (the scary things in this book are not the things I am personally scared of), I deeply appreciated what it was doing, and Wellington really stuck the landing.

mckayhart's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

rebelkiss's review

4.0

The author kept referring to a 56 year old woman as ‘an old
Woman.’

heliofoe's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

This is horror sci-fi. I typically read sci-fi, but not horror. It's not my type of thing, because in horror people always have to do nonsensical things, and a lot of time is spent on describing horrific things that mostly bore me. 

Having said that the first contact elements are interesting and the survival elements kept me going. 

It doesn't surpass it's genre, which is a genre I don't enjoy, but if you do it's a solid 3/5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Medical trauma

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

magicmargot's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was fine. I was interested enough to keep reading and I liked the premise. I think the character were a little blah, but I'm not sure how much character work is really necessary for this kind of story that's pretty straightforward and isn't trying to be an expansive tale. Would I recommend it? Um. Sure. Give it a try if you're looking for a space adventure you can blaze through and doesn't require any real investment from you as the reader.

mjporterauthor's review

4.0

I had high hopes that The Last Astronaut would be as good The Martian, and for at least 50-60% of the book, I was really impressed with the character development and the storyline itself. I don't read a lot of sci-fi books, but this did have me hooked. From then on, I felt as though the story got a bit bogged down and slightly repetitive. It also adopted some quite stereotypical character development issues and my enthusiasm for the book wained quite dramatically. I did finish it, and the ending was reasonably satisfying, but it didn't quite have the 'wow' factor I was hoping for.
A firm 4/5 - the beginning was a 5/5 but the ending was only a 3/5. Perhaps cutting 20% from the ending would have made the read much faster and maintained the momentum built up at the beginning. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy

krittershausen's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

shawniebooks's review

3.0

This didn't give me what I was hoping for. I wanted thrill and horror and that creepy feeling.