Book Review: Detour by Jeff Rake & Rob Hart

4.75/5 stars. This sci-fi thriller novel from a TV writer/showrunner (Rake) and a prolific sci-fi novel writer (Hart) creates a straightforward story of a two-year mission to Saturn’s moon Titan for the purpose of dropping a satellite into the atmosphere of the moon. The extended plan - to eventually create a human settlement on Titan. This plan is the brainchild of one of our civilian-astronaut main characters, Padma Singh, a brilliant young physicist. The mission is funded by wealthy entrepreneur, and Presidential candidate, John Ward. The story is told from multiple perspectives, including the three professional astronauts (Mike, Della, Alonso), three civilian astronauts (Padma, Ryan, Stitch), John Ward, and his personal assistant Camila.

Everything seems to go fine with the preparation and the mission itself until the spacecraft reaches Titan. At that point, the mission seems in jeopardy, but everyone survives only with limited communications for the trip back to Earth. Events from that point forward are unusual, to say the least.

The action and character development are nicely balanced in this story, and the pace picks up once the astronauts are traveling toward Titan and does not let up thereafter. The story is well-written, and the prose is good. The authors do a respectable job of setting up the story and connecting the reader to the characters. I have enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading more from these authors in the future.

I highly recommend this novel! It will be released in January 2026, and I think anyone who enjoys a science fiction thrill ride with great characters and some interesting science concepts should pick this up.

 

PROSE 4

STORY 5

CHARACTERS 5

ENTERTAINMENT 5

Total 19/20 =0.95 4.75/5

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