Detour

by Jeff Rake, Rob Hart ★★★☆☆

On the surface, the plot of Detour seems relatively straightforward: a crew of six humans must pilot a space mission to Saturn's moon Titan to deploy an observation satellite, in the hopes that enough data can be collected for a future habitation mission. With temperatures and sea levels rising, an alternative to Earth is quickly becoming the only option for humanity, and the mission's sponsor, billionaire presidential candidate John Ward, believes that Titan might be a more realistic option than Mars.

The crew is a blend of established astronauts (3) mixed with three civilians. The first civilian is the foremost scientific expert on Titan; it makes sense to have her aboard. The next two—a Washington, D.C. cop who found himself in the right place at the right time and who Ward prizes for his calm demeanor in a crisis; and a graffiti artist who won a nationwide lottery for a seat—make far less sense. The setup has Armageddon vibes, with a ragtag assembly of crew members coming together to attempt to save humanity. Each also carries some level of baggage, be it alcoholism, relationship challenges, or crises of confidence. Nevertheless, the time window is short (for loosely explained reasons), the prep for the mission is accelerated, and five weeks after assembling the crew they launch into space.

And that's where the problems start to set in, both within the plot of the novel as well as with its execution. If you're looking for some harder science—even medium-level stuff like you might find in Andy Weir's The Martian or Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park—this is not that. The scientific explanations are light or non-existent, which was fine for me but may be disappointing to some. It's also unclear why six humans, particularly the two civilians with no meaningful experience, need to be aboard a craft that has a pre-programmed flight path. Perhaps they're onboard for disaster mitigation, but in that case wouldn't you want only the most capable astronauts? There are more challenges that I had with some of the plot choices, but I can't delve into those without spoiling the story. Suffice it to say that the overall balance of the novel feels off.

The biggest contributor to the imbalance, and my biggest frustration with the novel, is that it is purely devoted to setting up a bigger story. Be warned that there is no resolution, and it ends with a simple "To be continued...". This is Act 1, or perhaps the first half of Act 1, that introduces us to the main characters and their predicament. This would have been a more effective start to a series if the story arc would have reached a relative point of completion, even if there is more to tell. At just over 300 pages, there was plenty of room for more here, but instead the reader is left not even with a cliffhanger, but just with a relatively abrupt stop. I wish I would have known that going in!

That being said, it's an interesting start to a broader story. If Book 2 existed (or if Detour continued for another 200 pages), I'd still be reading. There's a reasonable chance that I'll return to the story once Book 2 is released, but there's as much chance that I will have moved on from caring about the outcome. As it stands, this is a 300-page version of the published synopsis, a "synopsis" which, surprisingly, reveals the vast majority of the plot of the book, far more than I would (or did) here. My recommendation is to wait until at least the second book is available before starting this one.