Book review - The Explorer

[Viviana Kingston]

Title: The Explorer
Author: James Smythe
Genre: Science fiction
Rating: 3/5
Page count: 337 pages (ebook)
Category: Traditional publishing, first in series
Age rating: 13+
Warnings: mild swearing
Synopsis:
A journalist, Cormac, and a crew of people from all over the world embark on a once in a lifetime opportunity into space, venturing further than everyone else has ever thought to go. Exciting right? But the excitement quickly fades as the crew starts dropping like flies and eventually Cormac is the only one left, but not for long as the ship begins to lose its resources with each passing hour. Stuck in deep space, the only thing Cormac can hope for is to survive, but for how long?

Comments + opinion:
It’s one of the weirdest and mind boggling books, whether that’s positive or negative, I’m still left to determine it. It does have a good take on gaslighting though. The book is divided into 3 parts, the first being what Cormac thinks happened, the second is what actually happened and the third like every ending is a resolution which I’m not satisfied about at all. It’s funny in a sick way, when you read part two and you start to clue together what’s actually going on and the best part seems to be the conclusion where a constant motif is suddenly discovered for its real meaning. It’s a gruelling tale, but the end makes it worth it.