Walking to Aldebaran

Walking to Aldebaran

This is the first work I’ve read by the Arthur C Clarke winning Adrian Tchaikovsky. It’s a novella told in the first person about a trip to explore a strange alien artefact that has been detected from Earth. A motley bunch of crew members, chosen largely along political lines, has been chosen to explore this strangely behaving ‘thing.’

It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that things don’t go too well. Our protagonist is Gary Rendell, and we meet him in the crypt-like surroundings of the body, seemingly alone, apart from lots of similarly lost alien species.

The tale is laced with dark and dry humour throughout, and you really don’t know where things are going. Indeed, it’s not easy to see exactly what’s going on. The alien world doesn’t seem to conform to any understandable physics.

It’s a fun read, although at times I thought it could get to its point even quicker. I’ll definitely go and try some of his works, probably starting with Children of Time.

Thanks to Solaris and Netgalley for the ARC. Walking to Aldebraran is out this month in hardback and digital.


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