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The Last Astronaut by David Wellington
"When a mysterious object from deep space parks itself near Earth, a disgraced former astronaut is sent on a last-chance mission to make contact. What she finds out there is stranger—and closer—than anyone imagined. Pulse-pounding and propulsive, The Last Astronaut captures the terror and wonder of the unknown."
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In The Last Astronaut, did you enjoy ...
... the meticulous, engineering-grounded exploration of a mysterious interstellar craft that glides into our solar system?
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
If what hooked you in The Last Astronaut was Sally Jansen’s NASA team methodically probing that vast, biomechanical object and trying to understand its physics before it killed them, you’ll love Clarke’s classic. A survey crew boards a silent, cylindrical starship and—much like Jansen’s team picking their way through alien tunnels—maps, measures, and theorizes their way through impossible architecture, all driven by procedural problem‑solving and awe.
... claustrophobic, life-or-death scrambles aboard derelict spacecraft where leadership decisions can doom a crew?
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
You felt the choke of danger when Jansen had to make snap, no-win calls inside that hostile alien interior—and when a rival team’s presence turned rescue into roulette. Dead Silence hits the same nerves: a small crew boards a lost luxury liner and finds escalating horrors that demand brutal choices to keep anyone breathing. The atmosphere is as tight as those bio-tunnels and every decision carries the same terrible weight.
... piecing together an incomprehensible alien encounter through reconnaissance, hypothesis, and dread?
Blindsight by Peter Watts
If you were compelled by the way Jansen’s team treated the interstellar visitor like a puzzle—sampling, inferring, and arguing what it wanted while the danger mounted—Blindsight turns that investigative tension up to eleven. A reconnaissance ship meets an intelligence as opaque as the living corridors your crew explored, forcing the team to test theories that may be fatally wrong. It’s the same science-first sleuthing under existential pressure.
... bleak, body-horror-tinged space crises with corporate secrets and moral compromises?
Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
Remember how The Last Astronaut balanced wonder with grim revelations—corp interests muscling in, and Jansen confronting the fallout of her past mission while the alien structure fought back? Salvation Day delivers that same dark edge: a hijacked shuttle docks with a quarantined ship hiding a biotech nightmare, and the survivors have to navigate lies, contamination, and hard choices that echo Jansen’s most harrowing moments.
... a flawed, formidable woman driving a dangerous mission while wrestling with guilt and past mistakes?
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
If Sally Jansen’s determination—pushing into the unknown to redeem a disastrous Mars mission—grabbed you, The Luminous Dead offers a similarly fierce, complicated lead. Gyre descends into lethal tunnels with only a handler’s voice in her ear, and as the lies and risks stack up, she fights through fear and culpability the way Jansen does inside that alien labyrinth. It’s intimate, relentless, and character‑driven.
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