The Enceladus Mission: Hard Science Fiction (Ice Moon Book 1) Kindle Edition

Extremely enjoyable read. The level of detail gave it a sense of realism and somehow helped the pacing of the novel too (I can't attest to the accuracy of the scientific detail, but it seemed convincing to me as a lay reader). The descriptions of the voyage and geographical characteristics of the moon were vivid and really allowed the reader to imagine many of the physical and psychological sensations that might arise if one were actually there. The form of alien intelligence encountered was unique and very creative.Finally, I saw some reviews had criticized the lack of character development. I couldn't disagree more. I found their behavior and motivations quite believable for the most part; far more compelling and readable than attempts undertaken by other sci-fi authors at creating a human dimension which often fail and come across as incredibly long-winded.Great book. I don't understand why this book is not better known - it is of far higher quality than many sci-fi books which are published.

Let me preamble this review by saying that I already bought the second book in the series, so I did enjoy it.The characters are reasonably well-developed though a bit predictable, and the hard-science angle is well done. The writing is solid and there are very few typos. (spoiler alert) The general theme of exploring for alien life in the solar system is obviously not unique, but it is well done and the perspective on the alien life they find once they arrive at Enceladus is also carefully crafted and believable.The one thing that prevented me from giving it 5 stars is that that while the book starts at a strong pace that quickly gets you into the story and the characters and also ends in a similar fashion (first and last thirds), the middle third of the book (mostly the trip to Enceladus) moves at a much slower pace, and at times I nearly skipped pages. This is somewhat expected as in spite of one attempt at spicing things up, one that is disclosed early on to the reader, it is hard to create a lot of action when confined to a closed environment (a spaceship) and what is essentially the repeated daily routine involved in such a trip. As a result, the narrative is pretty much inward facing, introspecting on the character of the different protagonists, and after a while it gets a bit tedious.Nevertheless, this is overall an enjoyable read, and as mentioned above, I did get the second installment of the story.

This SciFi book is decent in plot and writing style. The primary character is a “Sheldon-esk”’type genius and quite likable. The other main characters aren’t fleshed out very well but seem real. The story itself is a departure from most and seems possible but has one glaring error that kept getting in the way of really enjoying the book. It tells the story of traveling to one of Saturn’s moons by spaceship to check out a possible life form. The surface of the planet has miles thick ice cover they must drill through.The author employs an interesting melting device to accomplish this. The energy to create the necessary heat is beamed down to the surface from the spaceship. So far so good. But then the error - as the drill ship bores into the ice the energy is provided through a fiber optic cable from the surface. Of course the cavity that is created as the ship moves down refreezes behind them. So how does the fiber optic cable continue to move through the ice? There is no way it is strong enough as it would be completely locked in the ice along its whole length. So it would have to be heated along it 3 mile length to keep the ice in the tunnel melted. Doubtful this can be done. Simply too much surface area.Adding to the issue is once the drill ship gets through the ice it zooms around like a submarine dragging the fiber optic cable behind. So the fiber optic cable is 3 miles long through the ice and another several miles under the ice. Really? I found this entire aspect of the story too implausible to believe which basically ruined the story for me. Otherwise pretty good

Thanks to the author for a well-crafted story. I prefer hard science fiction to space opera, but this sub-genre writers sometimes fall into the trap of wanting to show off whatever research they did, whether it furthers the plot or not. This guy knows when to explain something and show you that he's done his homework, but he also knows when it's time to move out of exposition and move the plot along. Another important point about this series: it is very character-driven, so he has put the effort into developing characters who have enough particular personality traits that drive their decisions. They don't feel flat, which would make for tedious reading in a story where there are only about eight characters (counting AI) who recur from chapter to chapter. Instead, we get enough development to be able to guess how a given character might respond to a scenario. Finally, short sections make for easy commuter or lunchtime reading if you are fitting some literature into your busy day.

Good read. Enjoyed it. Was hoping for a bit more alien interaction, but in general the focus on the journey itself was enjoyable.It’s not the typical kind of Sci-Fi I read as this book delves more so into the beginning stages of space exploration.Interesting characters that are all enjoyable.On to the next one.

This was like a breath of fresh air to be able to read some Science Fiction that actually had some science as part of the story line. It seems to happen too often that so called SciFi books are really just fantasy or a dystopian story of survival but science plays no part in the story line.I greatly enjoyed the science background in this book along with the various characters and their roles in the development of the plot. Although this book is part of a series, the book is a stand-alone novel. To me it was the strongest from a science point of view; however, I have also enjoyed the next three as much as this one.I will be continuing to watch out for more SciFi from Brandon Q. Morris. He is well worth following.

Excellent book, hard science with enough sentimentality

Questo è il terzo libro che leggo su Enceladus, non male. Ben scritto. Un pochino lento all'inizio ma poi prende forza. Personaggi ben delineati. Le lune di Saturno vanno forte in questo periodo.

Pratiquer l'anglais avec un livre de science fiction écrit dans un excellent anglais

It is rare to find entertaining scifi that stays within the confines of our solar system and even rarer to find something which is convincing and well written at the same time. This is not overwrought as so much space opera, there is no need for outlandish FTL (faster than light) space ship drives, the characters are believable and (thank goodness!) rational.All too often astronaut characters resemble someone from an inner city ghetto where pride is everything and education nothing. It is particularly US and UK scifi that relies on this cheap Hollywood trick in a feeble attempt to create tension and excitement. In my view, they always fail as does Hollywood. Just put a small group of people in a confined space for a period and a few or more are bound to go off their rockers, loose their rational mind and turn into megalomaniac psychopaths. Utterly unbelievable that a personality like that would be made an astronaut or even survive one space journey.None of that here. Our astronauts behave emotional yet rational despite everything's that thrown at them which turns out to be quite a lot. From the outset, the tone is straightforward and just the right mixture of character introspection, technical detail, technical solutions and adventure. Due to the sometimes almost dry tone, it made me teary once or twice during the read because the emotional narrative felt so real. That is an extreme rarity in scifi. I think only Ursula Le Guin has managed to do that to me before.This as entertaining and real, character wise, as my other firm favourite, The Expanse series. Ice Moon book 1 is a different kind of story and presentation and yet the two share at lot of basic good story telling. Thankfully it does not drag on for 500 pages while at the same time this story could have because it is such a good read.

A superbly written book that keeps you focussed throughout..the book made me feel as if I experienced it in reality..Thanks Amazon for providing this one to read.Waiting for many more from Brandon Q.Morris.