Fenrir

by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor

When astronomer Stephanie Bronson uncovers a massive alien vessel named Fenrir racing toward the Sun, she must lead a desperate mission to rescue its crew before a catastrophic failure dooms them both to fiery destruction.

It was just a dot of light . . .

. . . a dot of light that appeared out of nowhere. Stephanie Bronson thought she might have found a distant supernova. Instead, what she’d found was something more than a thousand miles across, moving towards the Sun at almost a third the speed of light from the constellation of Lupus, the Wolf. Even more frightening, the object—called Fenrir, after the Norse Wolf of the World’s End—was slowing down. It was not a comet or even a rogue planet.

It was an alien vessel.

And despite the increasingly detailed and insistent messages of greeting from Earth, it showed no sign of responding. As the world braced itself for the arrival of the immense, frighteningly silent alien visitor, Stephanie held hope that they still might communicate with Fenrir—until something happened that no one had Fenrir flared and its drive died, leaving the huge ship careening out of control to a fiery death inside the orbit of Venus.

There was—just possibly—a chance for Earth to act—to rescue the now-shipwrecked “Fens.” But even Stephanie—or those trying to stop her and the rescue ship Carpathia—could not imagine that not merely the fate of the aliens, but that of Earth itself, would be decided by Fenrir.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).


Eric Flint was the creator of the New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series, the best-selling alternate history series of all time. Beginning with 1632, Flint—along with dozens of cowriters—chronicled what happened when the 20th-century town of Grantville, West Virginia, was transported through time and space to 17th-century Europe. In addition, Flint was the author, with New York Times best seller David Weber, of the Crown of Slaves Saga, as well as the Belisarius series with best-selling author David Drake. Flint was the editor of Jim Baen’s Universe, as well as numerous short story anthologies. Before becoming a writer, Flint worked as a trade union organizer, longshoreman, truck driver, auto worker, steel worker, oil worker, meatpacker, glassblower, and machinist. Eric Flint passed away in 2022.

Ryk E. Spoor, while earning his masters degree in Pittsburgh, became a playtesting consultant and writer for the Wizards of the Coast, the leading publisher of role-playing games and related novels. He now lives in East Greenbush, NY, working as a technical proposal writer for a high-tech R&D firm, and spending his non-writer time with his wife and sons. Spoor is the coauthor with New York Times best seller Eric Flint, of the popular Threshold series of science fiction novels. Spoor's solo novels for Baen include Paradigms Lost, Grand Central Arena, and Spheres of Influence. He is also the author of epic fantasy Phoenix Rising.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

516 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 3, 2025

About the author

Eric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, classic SF story, which I really enjoyed. For me. Just the right amount of science vs handwavium, and while it may be a bit of an optimistic tale, sometimes that's the best kind of story. Not everything needs to be morally grey.
While the story works well as a stand alone, I hope Ryk can continue the tale into a series.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eric Flint, an editor and frequent contributor to the Baen catalog, died two years ago. It would be good to know how much he contributed to his collaboration with Ryk Spoor on Fenrir. In any case, it is a worthy capstone to Flint’s career.

In the near future, we detect a large alien spacecraft slowing toward an orbit around Uranus, but something goes wrong, and the craft continues uncontrolled into the inner system. Can we rendezvous with it to rescue its crew or loot its technology—and, as it turns out, rescue our planet from a devastating antimatter explosion?

The story is a fast-paced, old-school space opera with science that would make Arthur C. Clarke and Andy Weir smile.

[Niniane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this novel's take on a first contact with aliens, the emphasis on hope and cooperation, as well as the discussions on what it means to be human. Things get even more interesting after the launch.

However, it's pretty much hard SF. It's obvious that a lot of work and planning went into this novel (though some points were weirdly handwaved). There's a lot of talking about scientific, technical and logistical details. If that's your thing, you will love it. However, it's not my cup of tea and it made the whole thing pretty dry. The story would also have benefitted from a faster pacing: the launch only happens at 50% and the meeting with the aliens at 65%.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gigantic starship is spotted entering our solar system and it appears to be in trouble. Earth launches a mission to meet it but has to overcome many unexpected obstacles. This book feels a bit like old school hard SF minus the sexism and other issues. Last book like this was Rendevous With Rama which had the wonder but no action. This book has the action, though at times the solutions were a bit too easily found. Its short for the amount of material covered, I'm glad this wasn't made into a trilogy.

An excellent read.

[Andreas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Astronomer Stephanie Bronson discovers a interstellar object approaching the Solar System. It turns out to be an alien spacecraft, soon dubbed “Fenrir”, which remains stubbornly silent. As the spacecraft is decelerating, it suffers an apparent catastrophic malfunction. A bold rescue plan is put in place for the enigmatic alien intruder.

An excellent adventure story with high adventure and solid science. Mr. Flint and Mr. Spoor make the plot flow smoothly, with interesting characters, and very engaging prose. Reminiscent of, and purposefully calling back to, a more optimistic time. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

https://www.books.rosboch.net/2025/11...

[Nicholas Ackerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very mixed book. There are a few well-done action scenes in the latter portion of the story that help things along, and the alien culture is well-realized, but it took endless meetings to explain every facet of the technology to get there. Lots of people pass through the story, and it is VERY talky. Strangely, the main character is only the fifth or seventh most developed character, and she doesn’t really have much of an arc.

Probably more 2.5 stars than 3.

[zac ranck · Rating 3 out of 5]

felt the first half dragged a bit too much, but not to the point I wanted to give up. I'm a little irritated that in the hard copy print there are encoding errors so some characters are blank squares. this starts on page 90

[Teresa Carrigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard science fiction, set in the somewhat near future. Some characters show character growth. The aliens don’t show up as characters until after about 60%.

[Ray A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story. Well paced and engaging

As I said, excellent story. Well paced and engaging.

Definitely worthy of a follow-on novel with the same characters.

Thank you.

[Nate Emberson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very fun sci-fi romp with just enough hard sci-fi and great characters

[Luca N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun story and earnest writing. At times brought to mind Stephenson’s Seveneves, Weir’s Hail Mary, Robinson’s Aurora. Here’s hoping there’s a sequel!