When NASA receives a message from the spaceship Sagittarius, they are shocked considering that all contact with the Sagittarius was lost over six years ago and the crew is presumed dead. Somehow, Catherine Wells has survived the deadly incident that killed her other five crew members and just wants to return home after spending a decade in space. She is looking forward to seeing her husband and daughter but ten years is a long time to be gone and considering that she has been presumed dead for many years, no one is the same as when she left. Adding to the devastation of being the only surviving member of the mission, is the fact that Catherine has no memory of what happened to the crew and only remembers waking up alone in the spaceship. NASA wunderkind Cal Morganson is skeptical of Catherine’s memory loss and thinks she is hiding something. When Catherine finds herself losing time and waking up in places she shouldn’t be, she starts to wonder what really happened while she was aboard that spaceship.
This book is described as a psychological thriller. To be honest, I thought it would be scarier. I’m not sure if I was expecting aliens to jump off the page or for something really suspenseful to happen, but there was no real suspense and it was not scary. I’m also not sure that I would call this book a thriller. There were definitely a lot of psychological elements because a lot of the book dealt with the mechanisms of reintegrating a family and the dynamics when a mother prioritizes her career over family. It is very character-driven. In a way, Vessel is almost more of a family drama with hints of science fiction.
I’m not sure how I felt about Catherine; I had to question a lot of things that she does. She knows that her husband thought she was dead and has moved on with another woman but this is all kind of swept under the rug so that Catherine can return back to the family home as soon as she’s cleared from NASA. Her and husband start their relationship back up right away, which just struck me as odd. I also felt that she acted unprofessionally in a lot of situations, especially for someone who is a NASA astronaut. She kept a lot of secrets and when she started losing time, she didn’t tell anyone even though it was most likely related to what happened to her crew.
The book is told in two timelines – one in the present and one in the past that details the events leading up to the incident where Catherine’s crew members were killed. I really liked the way the author did that. I liked that we got this mystery of Catherine being the sole survivor and no one knows what happened because her memory is gone, and then we are slowly told in flashbacks what really occurred. I liked that we got this build-up to what happened instead of hearing about it in a rambling monologue from the protagonist after she remembers everything at the same time.
I’m not entirely sure I liked the ending. I don’t know if the author is setting the book up for a sequel but the book just kind of ends and left me wondering what happens next.
This was an interesting science fiction book, but light on the science fiction and heavy on the characters.
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