#SciFiMonth Audiobook Review: Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tantor Audio (October 15, 2019)
Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrator: Adrian Tchaikovsky
I confess, I haven’t always had much luck with novellas, even when it comes to those by favorite authors, but I ended up really enjoying this one. For me, it was simply the right mix of humor and horror. Take the witty, smart-alecky narrative style of The Martian and combine it creepy, dread-inducing atmosphere of Alien, and you’d probably end up with something like Walking to Aldebaran. One wouldn’t think that would work so well, but it did.
The book takes us inside the head of our protagonist, astronaut Gary Rendell. And us, we are Toto. Don’t ask. All you have to know is that our man Gary has been on his own for a long time, long enough for him to start going a little stir-crazy, hoping to find another living soul to call friend. They wouldn’t even need to human. At this point, Gary is beyond caring about such trivialities, for you see, he’s trapped on a giant alien artefact that was found drifting at the edge of our solar system, following a disaster that killed the rest of his crewmates. Now he’s lost, frightened and alone, wandering aimlessly through the cold dark tunnels of the megalith.
Gary had thought he was lucky when he was chosen to be part of the exploration team, after a space probe sent back images from the Oort Cloud showing a strange alien rock which was nicknamed “The Frog God” because of its uncanny resemblance to the amphibious animal. But now that he’s in this mess, he can’t help but look back on the past and examine the chain of events which has led him here. And maybe it’s the shadows playing tricks with his eyes, or the fact he’s losing his mind from being so lonely and terrified, but over the course of all this walking, he’s seen and experienced some pretty weird shit. Not to mention, perhaps he’s not so alone in these Crypts after all, though whatever horrible thing is out there, he’s not so sure he wants to meet it.
Hands down, my favorite thing about Walking to Aldebaran was the voice of protagonist. There’s no question that Gary Rendell’s humorous accounting of his journey added much enjoyment to the book, but there’s also another side to it. You know the saying “you gotta laugh or you’ll cry” or ever hear of people cracking jokes as a fear response? There’s definitely an underlying element of this at play in the narrative, and rather than breaking me out of the immersion, the humor actually worked to further emphasize the sheer horror of the situation in which Gary has found himself.
I also liked how the overall story unfolded. For such a short book, there’s quite a lot to unpack. From Gary’s experience in the Crypts to the events that led up to the discovery of the Frog God and how the exploration team came to be on the alien artefact, everything is covered here in a way that balances pacing and the amount of detail being doled out. Adrian Tchaikovsky takes care not to overwhelm the reader with information, nor does he want to push us too far over the edge when it comes to the terror and intensity of the atmosphere. Each time before the plot can veer too far in one direction, he reels things back to build interest in another area, so that we get to cover a lot of ground while moving at a fast clip. Flashback scenes and memories were also done well in a way that doesn’t draw too much attention away from what’s happening in the here and now.
Also, the ending—which I will not go into, because no spoilers here—was one hell of a dark twist, and I never thought I’d be saying this but it might have single-handedly solidified Walking to Aldebaran as one of my favorites by the author, right behind Children of Time. Granted, so far I’ve only read a relatively small sample of his massive bibliography, but this one felt pretty special to me, which is all the more impressive considering how picky I am when it comes to novellas.
Bottom line, I found Walking to Aldebaran to equal parts hilarious and terrifying, and ultimately very rewarding. Of course, I can see it not being to everyone’s tastes, given the narrative tone of the protagonist, but if you don’t mind a bit of lightness with your horror and an interesting approach to the unreliable narrator, I would give this a try. I also don’t recommend novellas too often, but once in a while an exception will come along, and this one I believe would be an excellent introduction to Adrian Tchaikovsky because it’s a wonderful showcase of his talents as a storyteller, if you’ve ever been curious about his work.
Audiobook Comments: It seems I’ve been having all kinds of luck with author-narrated audiobooks lately, because this was Adrian Tchaikovsky gave a superb performance on this one. I also think it worked especially well given the character of Gary Rendell. Tchaikovsky, being his creator, knew exactly how to deliver his protagonist’s narration, right down to the little details like tone and cadence, making this one an awesome listen all around.
The BiblioSanctum 
Author himself, interesting, that has not worked for me, but then I have only done 1
LikeLike
He was surprisingly good!
LikeLike
A novella that you liked? Most excellent. I’ve put off adding this to my tbr because he seems to write faster than I can read all my stuff, but with such a glowing review, I think I’ll have to add it!
As for the horror element, was it “scary” horror or more Lovecraftian in nature?
LikeLike
Yes! Color me shocked. There aren’t too many authors who can write a novella that gets more than 4 stars from me. And as for the horror, it’s hard to describe. Definitely a creepier, atmospheric horror reminiscent of Alien or Prometheus, rather than in your face scariness. The humor in it kind of offsets that too, so it’s a strange “horror story” in that sense.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very compelling.
http://www.rsrue.blogspot.com
LikeLike
Indeed!
LikeLike
Oh, wow. This is new to me, and it sounds AMAZING!
LikeLike
It’s great, I think you’d love it!
LikeLike
I absolutely HAVE to read this now. It sounds awesome and your review is perfect! 🙂
LikeLike
It’s really fantastic – I think I’ll have to recommend this to anyone who liked The Martian now. The humorous voice of the main character reminds me of so much of Mark Watney. But of course the tone of this book is much darker 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, well, I loved The Martian! And the darker the better! 😀
LikeLike
This sounds wonderful! I just finished my first Tchaikovsky, the Tor.com novella Made Things. I have a feeling it’s really different from his other books. I enjoyed it but I think I might like his science fiction more.
LikeLike
Yeah, I’m hoping to check out Made Things soon, but this one’s gonna be hard to beat, I think!
LikeLike
Well, this one looks like the kind of book I *must* read, because your review piqued my curiosity in a major way. And let’s not forget the added bonus of reading such an enthusiastic comment from you about a shorter work: it means a great deal indeed… 😉
LikeLike
Yep, I should give this one some honorary stars just for being a novella I actually liked, lol!
LikeLike
I had the chance to read this novella not a long time ago and totally agree with your review! I would rate it a 4 stars because Gary was simply too gold haha. Slowly getting back to blogging and reading others bloggers posts 😉 Missed it!
LikeLike
Welcome back to the blogosphere! And haha, I know what you mean about Gary. I liked him a lot, but at the same time, it’s a good thing this was a novella, because I think I can only take him in small doses!
LikeLike
The twist at the end was *awesome* and left me in stunned silence for a minute. One of the best novellas I’ve read!
LikeLike
Heck yeah, I loved that ending!
LikeLike
Glad you’re continuing to enjoy stuff from this author. I have yet to read anything by him still. Since this is shorter maybe I’ll give it a try!
LikeLike
Yes, I would highly recommend it, and I don’t do that often with novellas! 😀 This one’s great though, and would be much more accessible than his novels, which are gigantic and really dense plot-wise.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great review. I just added this to my TBR, it sounds like something I’d enjoy. I haven’t tried anything by this author yet, though I did just purchase Made Things and have a copy of Children of Time I keep meaning to read.
LikeLike
I’m hoping to try Made Things next! Something tells me it will be quite different from this though. And Children of Time was also amazing, my favorite book by Tchaikovsky!
LikeLike
Yes, yes, yes, I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, especially since it’s a novella! 😉 I was slightly discouraged by the Children of Ruin reviews, so I’m very happy Tchaikovsky seems back on track with this one. (Running to the library…)
LikeLike
I’m kicking myself for not requesting this – it sounds so good.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
Pingback: Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads | The BiblioSanctum
Yay! I loved this one – and oh man, yeah, that ‘twist’…
LikeLike
Pingback: #SciFiMonth Top Ten Science Fiction Reads of 2019 | The BiblioSanctum