Chris Hadfield first came to my attention as an astronaut playing "Space Oddity" in the International Space Station. His literary career has absolutely launched him into a new orbit, and "Final Orbit" is the latest of his books. He uses both real people and characters to write a space thriller about the development of Soviet and US joint space missions, plus the wild card, a solo Chinese taikonaut that has launched without warning. Space is dangerous enough without random acts of adventure complicating things further. Was it meant as a demonstration of China's might, or an attack precursor?

This story is set in the Cold War era, where everybody is up to something, and nobody is quite sure what it is.

As a retired astronaut, Hadfield can write authentically and correctly about procedures, training, trajectories, and all the other stuff that goes into constructing a believable space program based on Earth. I can't wait for his future books!

I really enjoyed getting to read this, it had that element that I wanted in the historical thriller novel. I thought the use of China was a unique concept for the space race and glad it worked with the terrifying idea of space in the thriller novel. I thought the characters were so well written and enjoyed getting into this world. Chris Hadfield has a strong writing style and glad I read this.

Thank you, Mulholland Books, for providing the copy of Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield. Wow, he’s an astronaut AND an author! At first I was worried because the book is 400 pages long, but it just sped by because I could not put this book down. I loved learning more about space travel and history, and the characters were so well-written they almost jumped off the pages. I couldn’t figure out how some of the history was connected to the stories, but it was still all interesting. I liked how at the end the author listed which characters were real people, and which locations/events were real. I loved how the book kept getting more and more exciting, and a couple of times I gasped out loud from surprise. If you want an excellent book that you will devour until the end, go get this book! I just bought the first two books in this series so I can get more of this story. 5 bright stars

I didn’t realize this was the third book in a series. I got to 11% and enjoyed it so I checked out the first book at my library to try to read the other two prior.

Unfortunately I just really do not like the lack of humor in this story. I am always hoping for tension, suspense or humor in sci fi and I got something that felt like a nonfiction read. This is hard sci Fido it makes sense.

I was just hopeful there would be more humor and seeing I didn’t enjoy the first book in this series, if it’s packed full of science and real events my preference is nonfiction for that type of story. I was just a bit bummed at the semi dryness I think? The writing style was decent but I was wanting more. I’m going to soft DNF this read at 25% right now as I’m craving humor. As this book doesn’t come out until October I might pick it back up but for now this is not the book for me.

Thank you for the ARC. I appreciate the opportunity to leave honest feedback voluntarily.