Title: Detour
Series: Detour, #1
Authors: Jeff Rake & Rob Hart
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Publication date: February 4, 2025
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Science fiction
Source: Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley
Rating:

Detour is an absolutely addictive science fiction thriller — and it’s totally on me that I didn’t realize until about 10 pages from the end that this book isn’t a stand-alone. More on that later… meanwhile, here’s what it’s all about.

Planet Earth is in dire trouble as Detour opens, with the collapse of a huge Antarctic glacier spelling a major escalation of the world’s climate catastrophe. Life on Earth may be unsustainable; science is now looking beyond the planet for a new home for humankind.

Enter billionaire and presidential candidate John Ward, a man with the deepest of pockets, limitless ambition, and a huge ego. He’s funding a project to send a space crew to circle Saturn’s moon Titan, to leave behind satellites to report back on Titan’s ecosystem and help plan for future human settlement there. Thanks to advances in power sources and radiation shielding, a new spaceship has been built that can make the journey to Titan in a year, which means the ship’s crew will have to commit to a two-year journey away from home and loved ones.

In addition to three experienced astronauts, three civilians have been chose to join the expedition: Padma, a scientist who has done pioneering work on the viability of Titan for human habitation; Ryan, a DC cop who just happened to be in the right time and place to save John Ward from an assassination attempt; and Stitch, a graffiti artist who won a lottery for a seat on the mission. With only the briefest of training periods, this motley assembly is soon on their way off-world, each leaving behind complicated work and family situations.

As the synopsis indicates, something goes wrong during the mission, but the crew is able to avert disaster and return home as scheduled. But for the astronauts, there’s something wrong about “home”. Nothing is quite as they left it. Their family lives are different in key ways. The world is mainly the same… but it’s not. And their treatment is decidedly suspicious — rather than getting a heroes’ welcome, they’re warned to avoid the press, stay quiet, and no matter what, not to contact any of the other members of the crew.

The final quarter of the book is a mad rush of action and investigation, as the six astronauts struggle to understand the lives to which they’ve returned, while also trying to piece together exactly what happened out there near Titan, and why powerful forces seem to be gathering to stop them.

And then the book stops! Which I did not expect. When I first requested this book on NetGalley, I didn’t see a mention of this being the first in a series — and I did not go back to re-read the synopsis, either there or on Goodreads, before starting the book. If I had, I might not have been so surprised, somewhere around the 90% mark, to realize that there was absolutely no way this story would be wrapped up by the last page. My bad. Let this be a lesson to me — always read the synopsis (again) before starting a new book!

In any case… Detour is thrilling page-turner, and I’m so glad I read it. I’m a sucker for a great space travel story, and this book delivers. The authors skillfully establish the stakes of the mission right from the start, as well as establishing the core main characters and their individual struggles and backstories. As they depart on their mission, we know them — their strengths, their doubts, what they leave behind, and what they hope for upon their return.

The story is told through vignettes that shift the action between all major players, as well as involving John Ward, some side characters, and a few shadier people as well. The mystery of what happened on the journey and why the world seems changed when the astronauts return isn’t resolved (must leave content for the next book!), but there are enough hints and partial theories that leave a reader with a sense of tantalizing information still to come.

I appreciate that the personal isn’t sacrificed in favor of the action. The action is terrific, but a large part of my enjoyment stems from feeling invested in the characters themselves and caring about each of their lives and their futures.

The authors’ credentials alone let us know that we’re in for a great ride in Detour. Jeff Rakes is the creator of the TV series Manifest, which was one of my pandemic-era binges. Detour has elements that remind me of some elements of Manifest — not in a repetitive way, but more in the sense of themes and the underlying mysteries. Co-author Rob Hart is the author of a bunch of very popular books — of which I’ve only read The Warehouse, but I do have several other of his books on my TBR, and now I’m even more motivated to read them. (There’s a very fun little moment in Detour when both Manifest and Assassins Anonymous get shout-outs — yay to the authors for including this!)

Detour was just the sort of compelling, drop-everything-and-read book that I needed this week! I enjoyed every moment, and will absolutely be back for book #2. Here’s hoping the wait for the next book will take less time than, say… a mission to Titan!

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