Years after a scientist is abducted on live TV, a graduate student tracks down the mysteriously returned, yet reclusive man, ultimately uncovering a global conspiracy.
During a live television broadcast on the night of a lunar eclipse, renowned astrophysicist Andrew Leland is suddenly lifted into the sky by a giant spacecraft and taken away for all to see. Six years later, he turns up, wandering in a South American desert, denying ever having been abducted and disappears from the public eye.
Meanwhile, he inspires legions of cultish devotees, including a young physics graduate student named Shawn Ferris who is obsessed with finding out what really happened to him. When Shawn finally tracks Leland down, he discovers that he's been on the run for years, continuously hunted by a secret organization that has pursued him across multiple continents, determined to force him into revealing what he knows.
Shawn soon joins Leland on the run. Though Leland is at first reluctant to reveal anything, Shawn will soon learn the truth about his abduction, the real reason for his return, and will find himself caught up in a global conspiracy that puts more than just one planet in danger.
Equal parts science-fiction and globe-hopping thriller, The Return will appeal to fans of both, and to anyone who has ever wondered... what's out there?
If you are a fan of Blake Crouch's Dark Matter, you might want to put Joseph Helmreich's The Return on your radar. Like Dark Matter, The Return is filled with hard, heavy science, but it's completely accessible. You don't have to understand it in order to enjoy the events that are taking place. I appreciate novels that don't fit neatly into a genre box. The Return spans across science fiction, mystery, and thriller so if you are a lot like me and love reading all three genres, this is a book to be excited about.
It's not just the genre-crossing that makes The Return an unexpected read, though. The story itself is unpredictable in a great way.
I'm excited to learn The Return is Helmreich's debut novel. I will be keeping an eye out for what comes next.
7/10: Recommended Read
Review copy provided by author
