Janus 2: A Hayden's World Novella

Hayden's World #6

by S.D. Falchetti

Icy Moon Mysteries.

In Erebus, James Hayden sacrificed the world’s first near-light-speed Riggs ship to make a remarkable discovery on the icy moon of Janus. Now, amidst mounting concerns about that discovery’s implications, he must assemble a crew to repair his crashed ship and fly it back to Saturn’s Cassini Station. But Janus still has secrets to discover, and the alien probe’s mission may not be finished.

The crew of Gossamer Goose returns for a new interstellar adventure in this hard science fiction novella set in the Hayden's World universe. The story is a 30,000 word novella (2 - 3 hours to read) and is the perfect size for reading on the go.

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2018

About the author

I wrote my first story at the age of eighteen. A Monte Carlo, gas station, and small town were nearly destroyed to keep anyone from reading it. I'm giving it another whirl.

Reviews

[Stefan Vucak · Rating 4 out of 5]

An experimental ship crashes on Janus, a Saturn moon, but an alien ship is also there. James Hayden and his crew take out their new ship ‘Gossamer Goose’ to recover the wrecked ship and make contact with the aliens. When they get to Janus, there is no sign of the alien probe. They land on Janus, repair the damaged ship, and fly it to a holding orbit. They take ‘Gossamer Goose’ to investigate some mysterious lights on the other side of Janus, and find primitive life. Further investigation to be done in subsequent missions. Departing Janus, the alien probe attacks and destroys ‘Goose’. The crew take to the survival capsule and make for the repaired ship, but the alien probe ejects the survival capsule with James and two of his crew before the ship is destroyed. How they all extricate themselves is worthy of a rollercoaster ride.

I love hard science fiction, and S.D. Falchetti has certainly delivered a hard story with ‘Janus-2’. The author has everything here: a recovery, an odd crew, a hostile – apparently – alien ship, disaster, and an ending which … but never mind. Readers will have to find out for themselves. It is a well written story filled with enough technical and procedural jargon to satisfy any techie, because that’s all there is. There isn’t a whole lot of genuine emotional interaction, and the characters are fairly bland. For readers who enjoy straightforward action and technology, ‘Janus-2’ will provide a diverting evening read. Not a bad effort, S.D. Falchetti.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An SDF. SYFY. Novel (HWOB - 6)/Space Travel/Aliens/Earthers vs Aliens

SDF. has. penned a SYFY. Novel About a team of scientists who decide they are going to go to the car edge of our Solar System to retrieve a downer craft with a Riggs Drive. The mission is a qualified success until the retrieval process is interrupted by an Alien probe which destroys the primary space vehicle and they have to finish the repairs on the recovered ship. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[Aj · Rating 5 out of 5]

More Hayden's World Fun

I put the series down for a bit and am really glad I picked it up again. It's been a while since I stayed up late to finish a book.

This story continues the world building, really ramped up the sci-fi action adventure versus earlier books in the series and offered intriguing encounters with alien while keeping the reader grounded in good hard sci-fi ife... SERIOUSLY, I walk away from each story with new to me science factoids, which seamlessly fit into the story.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great SciFi Story with Lots of Action

This was another continuation of the original Hayden’s World story arc, with lots of space travel, science exploration and unknown plot lines. It was well done, and in general — the Hayden’s World series is well worth reading