This is a page turner and absolutely stunning story of a sole survivor if a doomed space mission.
Catherine tolerates years of loneliness, PTSD and betrayals in her personal life.
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She looses everything she ever endeared for sake of humanity and its endeavour to scale unknown corners of the universe.
She came back but it was all so unbearable.
She tried to fight every obstacle that came to her during mission and after her return to earth.
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She had amnesia which erased parts of her memory which contained vital secrets required to prove that she was always innocent and dedicated astronaut.
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Story is engaging, fast, thrilling and interwinds relations and human curiosity as two partially antagonistic things.
Scientific facts appear believable .
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Details of spaceship on distant planet are highlight of the book and pull reader into finishing one more chapter.
Parts described ng family conflicts were a little damp.
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Part when Catherine and Cal go to meet old astronaut in Phoenix by road featuring their college teen like conversation could easily be ommited to keep intensity of plot alive at that point of novel.
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Overall very good work about space exploration and its perils.
Climax is appropriate and leads way for possible next part of the story.
Thanks netgalley and publisher for review ecopy.

An expedition to anther planet seems to have disappeared six years ago but mysteriously reappeares with only one astronaut onboard. What happened? The premise is very good and the story is a real page turner, the writing! OK but a good read nevertheless.

This was a solid read. I enjoyed the book and was hooked from the first page. If you enjoyed The Martian, you will love this.

You know how some books give you that anticipatory itch within a few pages of starting them? It’s like your bookworm senses start to tingle and you just know that a really good story is in your hands. That’s how I felt with Vessel. I just knew this was a book that I was going to blast through in one sitting. I was right.

While Vessel didn’t end up being a book that thrilled me from start to finish, it was a nevertheless a very engrossing read. The pacing was excellent, the dialogue felt real except for situations where even you wouldn’t believe the words you actually saying. The atmosphere built up pretty steadily. It took a turn for the cheese at one point, but managed to recover itself easily enough.

I liked the main character. She was far from perfect, but the way she handled everything made her like someone you’d like to sit and have a beer with. I did not particularly like either of the male characters involved in her life. Her kid was definitely cool, though!

I’m so glad a woman wrote this. There was at least one scene in the book that I remember thinking “If this had been written by a man, this wouldn’t be in here” about.

I thought about this book for a while after I finished it. Thought about how I would react if I suddenly snapped to awareness on board a ship I should have been flying home with others with, and realized I was completely alone. Would I have handled it as well as the main character did? I think, actually, I probably would have. Though if I had no reading material with me, that might be a whole ‘nother story.

(The other things I thought about I’m not going to say for fear of spoilage.)

Overall, Vessel scratched the itch it created in a very satisfying manor. It was one of those reads that when you were done you leaned back and just gave a happy sigh. It’s not a fun, ridiculous sci-fi action book, but it’s a quiet, fulfilling one.

I read this novel in one big gulp. Catherine Wells returns to earth after years, literally years, of space travel. She doesn't remember what happened while she and her crew were on another planet, and she doesn't know why only she returned and the crew did not. She's also trying desperately to reconnect with her husband and daughter, who have thought she was dead for more than 6 years. While trying to make all of these adjustments to life back on Earth and at work at NASA, Catherine is also worried about the new crew and ship that are about to leave for the same planet. Will they be safe? What happened to her on that planet and will it happen again?

Vessel by Lisa Nichols

Pros: great depiction of trauma, compelling story, interesting characters

Cons: not sure I believe the ending

Acting Commander Catherine Wells is the sole survivor of the presumed lost Sagittarius mission to TRAPPIST-1f, a planetary system on the other side of a warp hole. Her sudden return to Earth means NASA can better prepare the soon to depart Sagittarius II crew. Or it would, if she could remember what happened on the alien planet.

This is a quick read. The characters are all interesting, with the majority of the story focusing on Catherine returning to a husband and daughter who believed she was dead the past 6 years. There’s a lot for the book to unpack and the author does an excellent job of showing Catherine’s trauma regarding memory loss, extreme isolation for an extended period of time, survivor’s guilt for being the only member of her crew to survive, as well as the guilt over having been away from her family for so long.

The current memory lapses she has makes for a compelling storyline and I found myself rushing ahead to find out what was going on. I loved the periodic flashbacks to what happened on the Sagittarius I mission.

Once I found out what was happening some of that compulsion to finish the book dissipated. The closer the book got to the ending the less I believed how the higher ups at NASA were acting. The final acts of the protagonists seemed highly implausible and I had trouble believing NASA would go along with it considering the cost and time involved in implementing their plan.

On the whole it was an entertaining read, with some interesting twists though a somewhat unsatisfying ending.

Vessel is a chilling thriller suspense story. Imagine returning to Earth ten years after you were declared dead. For the protagonist, that's exactly what happens. She returns a decade after an accident killed her entire crew with no memory of what happened or why she survived. Her child has grown up. Her husband has moved on with one of her friends. It's a shocking introduction back to reality. What about NASA's involvement? What really happened out there? It's a story of suspicion and questions. I enjoyed the story line for its unique feel and suspense. I felt sympathy for the protagonist. She got a bad deal, but she showed strength and intelligence. If you like space drama and some mystery, you should enjoy this one. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I think, this book could make a VERY good science fiction movie, because even if the idea not totally new, it is still fascinating in many ways, at least for me.

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A spaceship that started 9 years ago to some far-away planet disappeared from all radars 6 years ago, the Earth just lost all contacts to the crew and declared all six crew members dead. And suddenly, after all this long time period, NASA gets a signal from the lost spaceship. The only alive person on board is Catherine Wells, she is in a good physical condition, but unfortunately she can't remember what happened within the period of time of over 300 days, she doesn't even remember if they landed on this planet, she doesn't know what happened to the other crew members, she can't explain their disappearance and - what is even more weird - all logs for this time period were mysteriously deleted.

Meanwhile NASA is busy with a new mission with a same target. But is it safe to send a new team without knowing what happened to the previous one? Is Catherine a victim or did she do something to her colleges? Does she tell the truth about not remembering anything? Can she be trusted?

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Well, this book could have made a very thrilling science fiction book too, unfortunately it failed on many parts to convince me.

I am also the one, who don't read a lot of science-fiction per year, because I personally find that there are many technical description in these books, and I'm very quickly bored with all technical terms and jargon. It is why I DNFed The Martian. But in this book is just too..few of science fiction, even for my taste. It is more about DRAMA behind the science fictional backdrop, illogical behavior of many characters and - what is even worse - NASA itself (I don't want to go in details, there were just too many to ignore) and disappointing stereotyped approaching of some subjects.

Catherine Wells, the main character, did nothing to change my opinion to the more stars. She is one of the most unlikable positive characters I ever read.

All in all, I managed to finish it, though the last half of the book was a real struggle for me.

A compelling sci-fi thriller. Nichols does well in this outing with Vessel being worth the read time.

Sometimes you’re lucky enough to read a book that stays with you. Vessel is one of those books.

When I began reading this, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. Would we be stuck in space for the majority of the book? Would it be a trope-filled Alien wannabe?

What I got was simply epic.

Vessel is a mix of well-written SF, psychological suspense, and pure thriller.

The story is fast paced and intense. From the very first page, I was in. It takes a little bit before the reader discovers exactly what happened up in space, but the payoff is definitely there.

So very happy I read this one!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

I enjoyed this fast-paced story about an astronaut who comes back from a mission with no memory of what went wrong or what happened to her crew. I particularly liked the politics of working at NASA, the suspicions of a colleague, and the difficulties Catherine has adjusting to life back home, especially in regards to her family. I do wish that we got to see more of her crew before the disaster, to get a better sense of all that Catherine lost. I also would have liked it to be a bit scarier, or more suspenseful - it was a bit predictable and the ending felt a bit rushed. Overall, though, a fast, very fun read. I'd recommend it.

I was so in the mood for science fiction and this one, auspiciously and, as it turns out, incorrectly hailed as the next great thing and inevitably compared to the last great thing in the genre be it Martian or something similar. Actually, I’m pretty sure it was also The Arrival and some other really terrific movies. All of those are far superior to Vessel. To be fair there’s a very good chance Vessel might make a good movie, but as a book it left a lot to be desired. In fact the entire thing kind of came across as a let down. The premise is great, space travel was warp speeds, new potentially habitable planet to study, a mystery of the lone survivor of a six person mission remembering nothing. That’s how the book draws you in, Catherine Wells all alone on a spaceship hallucinating her daughter for company, no recollection of how she got to be all alone. But she’s alive and she comes back to Earth, having been declared dead along with her entire mission years ago. NASA has their poster woman and spokesperson, in fact the new mission to the very same planet is on the way, but alas Cath’s reentry into the world she left behind for so long proves to be too easy at first (unbelievably so, actually, her family magically completely on board with having to readjust after all nine years) and then entirely too challenging (blackouts, voices, violent thoughts, etc.). So now it’s up to Cath and a NASA ally to figure out what’s going on and what took place on her original mission (for us readers this is told via flashbacks) and what might be in store for the current mission. So ok, that all sounds very exciting, it really does, and here’s why it wasn’t. First off, Cath doesn’t really come across as a likeable character and she has to carry the entire book, so this is kind of huge. She’s very single minded about her goal of being an astronaut, which is admirable, but in the process she does leave her only child (and a very young one at that) and her spouse behind for 6 years. Without seemingly a second thought. So when she comes back after 9 years, they have, understandably moved on, and yet put all that aside to welcome her back like she just went to for a brief trip. None of that seems realistic and frankly doesn’t really present Cath in the best light, she seems consistently throughout the book like a very selfish person, so the entire subplot of her family life doesn’t really engage. And her convenient new love interest is just too…convenient. But that’s all drama, what about the science fiction. That’s more interesting, but honestly not especially original, in fact strongly reminiscent of many similar stories. It’s still a fun concept, but it’s dragged out too long and then finally presented in a very anticlimactic grand reveal. Yey, aliens. Yey, a moral, because yes, mankind has always approached land conquests with a certain brutal singlemindedness or pure self interest and profit. But no wow. And the very ending is just, well not to say stupid, but very frustrating. In fact it brought down my opinion of the entire book, which until than was steadily hovering at average, because I absolutely hated what Cath and her boytoy decided to do, it strains credulity. It just doesn’t seem like a logical solution from two presumably very logical scientific minds and unless it’s meant to imply a sequel, it was a very unsatisfying ending. Other than that, the writing was very bland and flat, at least until you get used to it, somewhere around third of the way in or so. So yeah. A very decent idea completely tanked by lackluster execution. Quick, at least. But disappointing. Maybe wait for the movie version if one ever occurs. Thanks Netgalley.

Intriguing And Well Thought Out. This book by debut author Lisa A Nichols can give Andy Weir a run for his money as a less technical yet still very well thought out and crafted story of a lone survivor in space. While NASA themselves likely won't be very happy with this book, it actually works well in presenting both the good and bad of the organization and of humanity generally. Highly recommended.

Don't go into this expecting anything resembling sci-fi. While there is some passable 'space-mission' stuff and talk of a wormhole, this is more akin to a cozy mystery than anything else. As such, I found it slow and boring.

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I loved reading this book! The nuances about a person’s life, the challenges, the mental and physical trauma after a decade away in space is very well written. One of the few books where I was interested from the first page. I don’t want to compare to any other book about space travel. This book is a must read in its own right! I’m hoping for a prequel next!

Vessel is an awesome psychological thriller. This one will leave you breathless. Catherine, an astronaut, returns to earth on her ship. But something is wrong. She returns to earth after losing her entire crew to some kind of disaster. It is a well thought out story and is very entertaining. I liked this book so much that I read it in one sitting. Advance reader copy was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Solid--just a few points where a good editor could have made it much stronger.



Review copy provided by publisher.