What do you think?
Rate this book
Wine Dark Deep #2
Encounter at Jupiter
Wine-Dark Deep Book Two - Encounter at JupiterContinue the Epic Voyage of the Spaceship Ulysses and its Crew!Having narrowly escaped the rebellion on Ceres, the spaceship Ulysses prepares for its historic rendezvous with Jupiter until an unknown object emerges in their wake. Silent and mysterious, the thing gives chase.Is it a life form? A machine? Or something even more sinister?Plummeting towards the largest planet in the solar system, Cal Scott and the crew of the Ulysses must hurry to discover whether the thing is friend or foe as they battle to avoid becoming the greatest space disaster of all time. The struggle with the incomprehensible plays out over interplanetary distances and fantastic speeds and begs the question-What else is out there?
- GenresScience Fiction
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2020
55 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
R. Peter Keith
3 books28 followersR. Peter Keith is the creative director of a NASA Space Act Agreement partner company that specializes in the design, fabrication and exhibition of museum exhibits and interactive experiences. He’s flown the NASA-Langley Lunar Lander Simulator to a landing in front of the Moon McDonalds* and has spent research time inside an original Apollo LM and the Orion Spacecraft with one of its engineers.
Keith collaborated with NASA to produce a simulation-based exhibition that focused on the basic concepts of spaceflight and their possible application in the colonization of our solar system. On it’s premiere, the exhibit broke all attendance records for Space Center Houston, the official NASA Visitor Center for the Johnson Space Center, home of the astronaut program.
The many long, thoughtful and technical conversations with NASA experts and advisors from Houston, Langley and JPL that occurred during the creation of this exhibition and its seven simulations and related programs provided the germ of the idea that became the WINE DARK DEEP series.
Keith lives in Vermont with his wife, kids and dogs. He has hung on to an old car for so long it has become cool again and has done the same with a few pairs of pants. He has an unreasonable love for all speculative fiction, having grown up with both classic literary and film works as well as the wonders of Marvel comics, Star Trek and Star Blazers. He’s an avid video game fan as well as a voracious reader.
*There really is a McDonalds on the moon in that NASA simulator. He has pics.
Keith collaborated with NASA to produce a simulation-based exhibition that focused on the basic concepts of spaceflight and their possible application in the colonization of our solar system. On it’s premiere, the exhibit broke all attendance records for Space Center Houston, the official NASA Visitor Center for the Johnson Space Center, home of the astronaut program.
The many long, thoughtful and technical conversations with NASA experts and advisors from Houston, Langley and JPL that occurred during the creation of this exhibition and its seven simulations and related programs provided the germ of the idea that became the WINE DARK DEEP series.
Keith lives in Vermont with his wife, kids and dogs. He has hung on to an old car for so long it has become cool again and has done the same with a few pairs of pants. He has an unreasonable love for all speculative fiction, having grown up with both classic literary and film works as well as the wonders of Marvel comics, Star Trek and Star Blazers. He’s an avid video game fan as well as a voracious reader.
*There really is a McDonalds on the moon in that NASA simulator. He has pics.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 8, 2021
This is the second instalment in the Wine Dark Deep series.
Events here follow directly on from the daring escape plan that closed off book one. However, it seems the crew have fled from one spot of trouble for another, of the far bigger and more alien variety...
This series is so short but so intense! This book is a mere 150 pages and yet every single one is put to good use: the plot is fast-paced and thrilling, the atmosphere is eerie and feverish, and the characters daring and intrepid.
This is a series liberal with its scientific descriptions, this instalment even more so than the last, and yet is adds an authentic air to proceedings and manages not to bog down the narrative. Did I understand everything this sought to explain? No. Did I have a fun time vying to imagine the multiple life and death scenarios and the ingenious manoeuvres the crew enacted to extract themselves from them? Hell yes!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, R. Peter Keith, and the publisher, Uphill Downhill Press, for this opportunity.
Events here follow directly on from the daring escape plan that closed off book one. However, it seems the crew have fled from one spot of trouble for another, of the far bigger and more alien variety...
This series is so short but so intense! This book is a mere 150 pages and yet every single one is put to good use: the plot is fast-paced and thrilling, the atmosphere is eerie and feverish, and the characters daring and intrepid.
This is a series liberal with its scientific descriptions, this instalment even more so than the last, and yet is adds an authentic air to proceedings and manages not to bog down the narrative. Did I understand everything this sought to explain? No. Did I have a fun time vying to imagine the multiple life and death scenarios and the ingenious manoeuvres the crew enacted to extract themselves from them? Hell yes!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, R. Peter Keith, and the publisher, Uphill Downhill Press, for this opportunity.
October 12, 2024
Encounter at Jupiter is the second novel of R. Peter Keith’s yet-to-be-concluded space opera series, Wine Dark Deep. The first three volumes, starting with Wine Dark Deep and ending with The Odyssey, were released simultaneously. All are tightly coupled, and should be read in order, each ending with a cliffhanging connection to the next. If you have not read the opening volume, and wish to avoid spoilers in my review regarding it, go back the beginning, and stop reading these comments now.
The action resumes after the too-abrupt ending of Wine Dark Deep, the Ulysses has obtained its fuel tankers from Ceres, and is approaching a stable orbit around Jupiter. There the crew encounters a binary asteroid which behaves strangely, and increasingly imperils the ship. Eventually, the integrity of the ship is invaded by a peculiar fractal substance, which may be an alien life form, or an artifact of an alien intelligence, or something else. The crew, none of whom seem to have any backstory, struggle to understand and to survive, following procedure when possible and maintaining the professionalism of astronauts. The tone of the writing here is very jargon-filled, and plausible, even as the events get pretty wild. I appreciated learning the about the magnetic field, gravitational field, and magnetosphere of Jupiter, the plasma from the sulfur dioxide gas erupting from volcanoes on Io, and in general the Jovian environment. The setting seems well informed by NASA’s polar-orbiting Juno mission. At the same time, I am suspicious of the too-cinematic nature of what seems to be alien life; I will have to read further volumes to see if that is explained in way that makes biological and evolutionary sense. Also, I would like to see if the characters or situation of Ceres are ever revisited. Definitely, the abruptly dropped Ceres plot line of the opening novella is not resumed here, or even mentioned.
This novel is transitional from the hard-sf style of the opening novella, to the galaxy-spanning space opera of the third. The realism of the opening is therefore leveraged into the more fantastic setting of the third (and later?) volumes. However, I feel that more character development will be needed to pull readers further.
I received ebook advance reader copies of volumes 1-3 from Uphill Downhill Press (the author’s own company) and Smith Publicity through netgalley in exchange for honest reviews. All three books were released on 12 October 2020.
The action resumes after the too-abrupt ending of Wine Dark Deep, the Ulysses has obtained its fuel tankers from Ceres, and is approaching a stable orbit around Jupiter. There the crew encounters a binary asteroid which behaves strangely, and increasingly imperils the ship. Eventually, the integrity of the ship is invaded by a peculiar fractal substance, which may be an alien life form, or an artifact of an alien intelligence, or something else. The crew, none of whom seem to have any backstory, struggle to understand and to survive, following procedure when possible and maintaining the professionalism of astronauts. The tone of the writing here is very jargon-filled, and plausible, even as the events get pretty wild. I appreciated learning the about the magnetic field, gravitational field, and magnetosphere of Jupiter, the plasma from the sulfur dioxide gas erupting from volcanoes on Io, and in general the Jovian environment. The setting seems well informed by NASA’s polar-orbiting Juno mission. At the same time, I am suspicious of the too-cinematic nature of what seems to be alien life; I will have to read further volumes to see if that is explained in way that makes biological and evolutionary sense. Also, I would like to see if the characters or situation of Ceres are ever revisited. Definitely, the abruptly dropped Ceres plot line of the opening novella is not resumed here, or even mentioned.
This novel is transitional from the hard-sf style of the opening novella, to the galaxy-spanning space opera of the third. The realism of the opening is therefore leveraged into the more fantastic setting of the third (and later?) volumes. However, I feel that more character development will be needed to pull readers further.
I received ebook advance reader copies of volumes 1-3 from Uphill Downhill Press (the author’s own company) and Smith Publicity through netgalley in exchange for honest reviews. All three books were released on 12 October 2020.
October 12, 2020
While reading book series, almost all readers expect the second or the next books of the series far better than the first installment of the book. No matter what the author does in the first book, he cannot repeat the same formula because if he will do that then his readers will probably not get something 'new' from his books. In that case, author R. Peter Keith brilliantly provided some extra new content and much more depth on the premise of this book.
'Encounter At Jupiter' is the second installment of the 'Wine Dark Deep' series. Where in its first book, the author put the entire crew of the Ulysses spacecraft in its fuel crisis and it ended them getting in conflicts with the rebellions of asteroid Ceres. Somehow they managed to escape from there and continued their voyage in the space. In this book, The protagonist and his crew came across a problem while passing through the trajectory of Jupiter. Some asteroid moon kind of thing was moving towards them from behind, but as it came closer to the spacecraft, the crew observed something which was beyond their expectations and imagination. The astroid-moon-like thing was nothing but some extraterrestrial object/life-form which then turned out to be humanity's first-ever encounter with the life/force beyond their knowledge.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because of its gripping suspense that revolves around that alien life form. I have never read a book where humans encountered with the aliens and reading some hypotheses and theories, or watching sci-fi space movies only gave me ideas about the possible life forms, but what I read in this book, was completely insane. Even the whole reading experience was INSANE. The author put me in a situation—just like he out his characters—where I wondered how the first contact with the aliens can be and it cannot be very pleasant or tragic, but very CONFUSING.
When I read the first book, I doubted the way the author excessively used technical terms and procedures—which was/is completely okay with me— and even I mentioned that it would be a down point for the readers who are not into such details technical description; after reading this book, I realized how important that technical aspects are—they provide the practicality to the book and make it even more realistic. I am fond of the author's knowledge of all those technical procedures he mentioned in this book, from the different operations of the spacecraft to assigning different duties to its crew members, and even after that to justify the actions and decisions they make. This all makes this series a very sophisticated work of space sci-fi.
I still don't know the characters' background but at least in this book author R. Peter Keith made them more familiar. After reading the first few chapters I found myself in a flow of the story where all characters and stories were moving smooth and then suddenly after a point it all became intense. I am not sure if there's any genre like 'Sci-fi space horror-thriller', but for me, this book was exactly like that. It was hard to speculate if the alien life-form was either cooperative or trying to harm the spacecraft and before I could form a judgment it all ended with a DAMN cliffhanger.
The description of the part when they entered the atmosphere of the Jupiter was quite horrifying; it was all chaos and uncertainty and all I and the characters were concerned about was their survival. It was a hell of an insane reading experience and I am eagerly looking forward to reading where the spacecraft and its crew ended up. What made this book even more fun to read was its humor element that I felt was missing in his first book. Some dialogues and scene exchanges were hilarious to read and kept me laughing for minutes.
Now, last but not the least, I still have the same conclusion that this hard sci-fi book series is not for regular book readers but space geeks will go crazy over it. The author knows what he's doing and he's consistent with developing the story in the most unexpected and realistic ways. His method of writing is a bit more technical but consciously reading it can provide a lot of knowledge about space and the working procedures. His work is mature with the contents he uses in his book and it's worth a reading cinematic experience the way he describes events. Looking forward to reading the third book of this series with huge expectations.
Highly recommended for some intense and realistic space exploration adventure and thrills. If you love movies like 'Gravity', 'Arrival' and 'Life', then pick this series blindly and you won't be disappointed.
'Encounter At Jupiter' is the second installment of the 'Wine Dark Deep' series. Where in its first book, the author put the entire crew of the Ulysses spacecraft in its fuel crisis and it ended them getting in conflicts with the rebellions of asteroid Ceres. Somehow they managed to escape from there and continued their voyage in the space. In this book, The protagonist and his crew came across a problem while passing through the trajectory of Jupiter. Some asteroid moon kind of thing was moving towards them from behind, but as it came closer to the spacecraft, the crew observed something which was beyond their expectations and imagination. The astroid-moon-like thing was nothing but some extraterrestrial object/life-form which then turned out to be humanity's first-ever encounter with the life/force beyond their knowledge.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because of its gripping suspense that revolves around that alien life form. I have never read a book where humans encountered with the aliens and reading some hypotheses and theories, or watching sci-fi space movies only gave me ideas about the possible life forms, but what I read in this book, was completely insane. Even the whole reading experience was INSANE. The author put me in a situation—just like he out his characters—where I wondered how the first contact with the aliens can be and it cannot be very pleasant or tragic, but very CONFUSING.
When I read the first book, I doubted the way the author excessively used technical terms and procedures—which was/is completely okay with me— and even I mentioned that it would be a down point for the readers who are not into such details technical description; after reading this book, I realized how important that technical aspects are—they provide the practicality to the book and make it even more realistic. I am fond of the author's knowledge of all those technical procedures he mentioned in this book, from the different operations of the spacecraft to assigning different duties to its crew members, and even after that to justify the actions and decisions they make. This all makes this series a very sophisticated work of space sci-fi.
I still don't know the characters' background but at least in this book author R. Peter Keith made them more familiar. After reading the first few chapters I found myself in a flow of the story where all characters and stories were moving smooth and then suddenly after a point it all became intense. I am not sure if there's any genre like 'Sci-fi space horror-thriller', but for me, this book was exactly like that. It was hard to speculate if the alien life-form was either cooperative or trying to harm the spacecraft and before I could form a judgment it all ended with a DAMN cliffhanger.
The description of the part when they entered the atmosphere of the Jupiter was quite horrifying; it was all chaos and uncertainty and all I and the characters were concerned about was their survival. It was a hell of an insane reading experience and I am eagerly looking forward to reading where the spacecraft and its crew ended up. What made this book even more fun to read was its humor element that I felt was missing in his first book. Some dialogues and scene exchanges were hilarious to read and kept me laughing for minutes.
Now, last but not the least, I still have the same conclusion that this hard sci-fi book series is not for regular book readers but space geeks will go crazy over it. The author knows what he's doing and he's consistent with developing the story in the most unexpected and realistic ways. His method of writing is a bit more technical but consciously reading it can provide a lot of knowledge about space and the working procedures. His work is mature with the contents he uses in his book and it's worth a reading cinematic experience the way he describes events. Looking forward to reading the third book of this series with huge expectations.
Highly recommended for some intense and realistic space exploration adventure and thrills. If you love movies like 'Gravity', 'Arrival' and 'Life', then pick this series blindly and you won't be disappointed.
September 1, 2020
I'm stunned. I don't know how else to explain what I'm feeling having just finished this book. I really enjoyed book 1 of this series. I'm not sure how he did this, but Keith's second act may be even better than the first.
To start with: this is a very different kind of story than the first book. That is an action story. It starts running and speeds up all the way to a well-determined end point. That's part of what a science fiction story needs: an action plot. This is a different kind of science fiction, though. It's a much more considered and philosophical story. There's a lot of mental activity and trying to figure out puzzles. Cal and his crew are our representatives and do as good a job as possible at trying to solve the puzzle before them. There are some leaps here that I would never have thought of. Beyond that, the balance of the action of the story and the mental activity of the story is maintained well. They build in parallel, and the result is an effect greater than either would have produced on it's own.
Recapping, just for a moment: after escaping Ceres with their propellant (not fuel!) properly topped up, the crew of Ulysses have started towards their scientific destination, Jupiter. As they approach, something happens that surprises them. It's so subtle that at first they aren't sure it's a result of their presence. They can't escape the final understanding, though; they are being followed. And, whatever is following is going to overtake them. Keith ratchets up the tension of this section of the book very nicely, without having anyone panic. It's clear they are concerned, but they can't understand. When the presence makes contact with them, they have a bigger problem. How do you communicate with something you don't understand?
Just as they're starting to make progress on that, they come to the scary final act of the book. That, I'm not explaining. Just let me say that the last 10-12 chapters of the book kept me going despite the fact I'm going to get up tomorrow on short sleep for my day job. I had to finish now. It had taken me too long already.
Despite having a lot of balls in the air, Keith does a great job at balancing the story out keeping the right flow of action and thought, building up to a pretty stunning climactic scene. There are, throughout the book, some really cool descriptions of things that it's quite likely that no one's ever actually seen. It was a lot of fun getting through this story.
Anyway, I enjoyed this a lot. If you like science fiction, I think you probably will, too.
To start with: this is a very different kind of story than the first book. That is an action story. It starts running and speeds up all the way to a well-determined end point. That's part of what a science fiction story needs: an action plot. This is a different kind of science fiction, though. It's a much more considered and philosophical story. There's a lot of mental activity and trying to figure out puzzles. Cal and his crew are our representatives and do as good a job as possible at trying to solve the puzzle before them. There are some leaps here that I would never have thought of. Beyond that, the balance of the action of the story and the mental activity of the story is maintained well. They build in parallel, and the result is an effect greater than either would have produced on it's own.
Recapping, just for a moment: after escaping Ceres with their propellant (not fuel!) properly topped up, the crew of Ulysses have started towards their scientific destination, Jupiter. As they approach, something happens that surprises them. It's so subtle that at first they aren't sure it's a result of their presence. They can't escape the final understanding, though; they are being followed. And, whatever is following is going to overtake them. Keith ratchets up the tension of this section of the book very nicely, without having anyone panic. It's clear they are concerned, but they can't understand. When the presence makes contact with them, they have a bigger problem. How do you communicate with something you don't understand?
Just as they're starting to make progress on that, they come to the scary final act of the book. That, I'm not explaining. Just let me say that the last 10-12 chapters of the book kept me going despite the fact I'm going to get up tomorrow on short sleep for my day job. I had to finish now. It had taken me too long already.
Despite having a lot of balls in the air, Keith does a great job at balancing the story out keeping the right flow of action and thought, building up to a pretty stunning climactic scene. There are, throughout the book, some really cool descriptions of things that it's quite likely that no one's ever actually seen. It was a lot of fun getting through this story.
Anyway, I enjoyed this a lot. If you like science fiction, I think you probably will, too.
March 27, 2021
I was lagging in the beginning, but the end is very good. A strange fractal alien invades their ship as they head toward Jupiter. I think I liked the first book better because it was "man vs man" and had more dramatic character interaction and understandable science, at least in the beginning. The book immediately continues to book 3.
August 19, 2020
The first book was a fun space adventure and introduced great characters. Now things are getting interesting!! The end of this book just made me want to read the next one. So happy there’s a next one!
October 14, 2020
A hard sci-fi novella with a unique take on first contact that I recommend to all sci-fi fans.
July 4, 2021
In book two of the Wine Dark Deep series, the Ulysses makes its it to Jupiter only to encounter an alien vessel -thing also in the neighborhood. The alien takes it upon itself to interact with the Ulysses, much to the crews' horror as there is no communication between them and the alien. Are its intentions hostile or friendly? The crew is able to examine bits of the alien left behind after close encounter so they understand its makeup, and make a unique attempt at communicating with it but the results are inconclusive.
Like the first book, this is full of hard science fiction and fast-paced action. You are along for a ride in the command module the as the plot careens along faster and faster as the tension ramps up and the mystery deepens. The ending was abrupt with a mind-blowing cliffhanger which sets up the third book.
I liked Encounter at Jupiter but not as much as the first book. I'm going to order up the third book, The Odyssey right away so I can find out how this crazy encounter at Jupiter is going to end up.
Like the first book, this is full of hard science fiction and fast-paced action. You are along for a ride in the command module the as the plot careens along faster and faster as the tension ramps up and the mystery deepens. The ending was abrupt with a mind-blowing cliffhanger which sets up the third book.
I liked Encounter at Jupiter but not as much as the first book. I'm going to order up the third book, The Odyssey right away so I can find out how this crazy encounter at Jupiter is going to end up.
March 23, 2021
Hot damn! Book 2 was the step forward I would've wanted but didn't expect.
Review coming soon! I did not expect the high intensity full throttle Hard scifi to move in this direction, but enjoyed every moment of it.
Final review: 3/23/21
Helloooo readers! Thank you for making it over to the ‘Spot. I hope that at this moment, you still have things to appreciate and be grateful for. Speaking of, I am again grateful to have an exciting SciFi series to escape into. R. Peter Keith takes his Wine Dark Deep series to new places with book two, Encounter at Jupiter, and easily satisfied my studious criteria for scoring a book. After double checking the numbers, it’s a 5 star, Galaxy Class read!! Engage:
The space mission continues right after book 1, and we find Captain Cal dealing with a whopper of an unexpected circumstance that stays interesting and intriguing all the way to the end. While it still felt like I had a front row seat to one very fast paced and unique first contact story. Like the first book, the writing is smooth as a hot knife making contact with a stick of sweet cream salted butter.
Sketch and planning the Ship credit to https://uphilldownhillpress.com/
The monstrous beauty of the planet Jupiter is such a great background to the events the Odyssey and crew become “wrapped up” in. Being a “puny human” and having never left gravitys hold over me, I still find it hard to imagine what being close to one of the other planets in our little Sol family would be like. There were moments in the book though, that really brought Jupiter to life for me. One of the many great things about exploring SF is the feeling of connection to other planets, worlds, and just space in general. I am briefly content when I can imagine human space exploration as a reality, and RPK provides an abundance of opportunity to be embraced by the awesome and exciting adventure that will hopefully be on humanity’s horizon.
Design fun with music by none other than yours truly!
Another great SF book that uses Jupiter, and other similar Gas Giant planets as the backdrop for the story is The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. A book that seems to have mixed reviews and is not part of his Culture series, but is a stunning read that I will have to save for a later review.
I really didn’t expect anything alien coming into this, as the first book mainly dealt with Cal and crew facing the end of the biggest scientific mission of all time, before it had even started. The grab for power and money, and an isolated outpost basically jump-scaring the solar systems political power players into handing over humanity’s controls to this small, wealthy, group. It was full of intense and striking action, as well as an escape that would’ve made any fan of The Shawshank Redemption in full ear-to-ear grin mode.
Without giving to much away, the book gets going as the crew of the Odyssey are syncing with Jupiter and preparing to undertake the multitude of multidisciplinary scientific experiments in the hopes of bringing home the bacon, i.e. scientific breakthroughs that will help move this not too distant humanity a little more distant. Quickly though they register an object, possibly a small moon?, on their trail and seemingly disregarding some basic laws of physics.
….and now the crew is facing a reality that might break them. It might be an inclusion into a bigger universe via first contact. Or, a possible beginning of the end for the crew, or maybe even all humans. I don’t know what will happen in book three, but I love that I want to find out. This book steadily accelerates into a “warp 9.9” ending that was spot on for me.
I haven’t spoken much about the crew, and I’m horrible at writing about people, but the crew is made up of a close knit group that fully supports each other, while each individual is unique and every conversation sprinkled with disagreements, some humor, hope, annoyance, friendship, and all those things that real people have in different levels. The characters, including the “gassy” one with the red spot on its belly, keep the everything in a tightly knit blast of a harder scifi book.
Great job again R. Peter Keith for writing such an enjoyable book. Oh and for those that don’t know much about him, he has worked in partnership with NASA for years, bringing an extremely unique space experience to museums for years. With the covid culture hitting us all so hard, museums are barely even opening now. If you have the time, try to find out what your local, or nearest big city museum is doing and spread the word that we need museums, our kids NEED that experience. I’m referring to just generally visiting a museum, and the importance of getting them reopened, but also, I will be first in line to have the NASA experience if Mr. Keith and NASA come to my city..Phoenix, AZ…hint..hint.
Review coming soon! I did not expect the high intensity full throttle Hard scifi to move in this direction, but enjoyed every moment of it.
Final review: 3/23/21
Helloooo readers! Thank you for making it over to the ‘Spot. I hope that at this moment, you still have things to appreciate and be grateful for. Speaking of, I am again grateful to have an exciting SciFi series to escape into. R. Peter Keith takes his Wine Dark Deep series to new places with book two, Encounter at Jupiter, and easily satisfied my studious criteria for scoring a book. After double checking the numbers, it’s a 5 star, Galaxy Class read!! Engage:
The space mission continues right after book 1, and we find Captain Cal dealing with a whopper of an unexpected circumstance that stays interesting and intriguing all the way to the end. While it still felt like I had a front row seat to one very fast paced and unique first contact story. Like the first book, the writing is smooth as a hot knife making contact with a stick of sweet cream salted butter.
Sketch and planning the Ship credit to https://uphilldownhillpress.com/
The monstrous beauty of the planet Jupiter is such a great background to the events the Odyssey and crew become “wrapped up” in. Being a “puny human” and having never left gravitys hold over me, I still find it hard to imagine what being close to one of the other planets in our little Sol family would be like. There were moments in the book though, that really brought Jupiter to life for me. One of the many great things about exploring SF is the feeling of connection to other planets, worlds, and just space in general. I am briefly content when I can imagine human space exploration as a reality, and RPK provides an abundance of opportunity to be embraced by the awesome and exciting adventure that will hopefully be on humanity’s horizon.
Design fun with music by none other than yours truly!
Another great SF book that uses Jupiter, and other similar Gas Giant planets as the backdrop for the story is The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. A book that seems to have mixed reviews and is not part of his Culture series, but is a stunning read that I will have to save for a later review.
I really didn’t expect anything alien coming into this, as the first book mainly dealt with Cal and crew facing the end of the biggest scientific mission of all time, before it had even started. The grab for power and money, and an isolated outpost basically jump-scaring the solar systems political power players into handing over humanity’s controls to this small, wealthy, group. It was full of intense and striking action, as well as an escape that would’ve made any fan of The Shawshank Redemption in full ear-to-ear grin mode.
Without giving to much away, the book gets going as the crew of the Odyssey are syncing with Jupiter and preparing to undertake the multitude of multidisciplinary scientific experiments in the hopes of bringing home the bacon, i.e. scientific breakthroughs that will help move this not too distant humanity a little more distant. Quickly though they register an object, possibly a small moon?, on their trail and seemingly disregarding some basic laws of physics.
….and now the crew is facing a reality that might break them. It might be an inclusion into a bigger universe via first contact. Or, a possible beginning of the end for the crew, or maybe even all humans. I don’t know what will happen in book three, but I love that I want to find out. This book steadily accelerates into a “warp 9.9” ending that was spot on for me.
I haven’t spoken much about the crew, and I’m horrible at writing about people, but the crew is made up of a close knit group that fully supports each other, while each individual is unique and every conversation sprinkled with disagreements, some humor, hope, annoyance, friendship, and all those things that real people have in different levels. The characters, including the “gassy” one with the red spot on its belly, keep the everything in a tightly knit blast of a harder scifi book.
Great job again R. Peter Keith for writing such an enjoyable book. Oh and for those that don’t know much about him, he has worked in partnership with NASA for years, bringing an extremely unique space experience to museums for years. With the covid culture hitting us all so hard, museums are barely even opening now. If you have the time, try to find out what your local, or nearest big city museum is doing and spread the word that we need museums, our kids NEED that experience. I’m referring to just generally visiting a museum, and the importance of getting them reopened, but also, I will be first in line to have the NASA experience if Mr. Keith and NASA come to my city..Phoenix, AZ…hint..hint.
October 6, 2020
I will admit that the majority of this book, while intellectually stimulating (honestly, this book reads smart - not like it's being dumbed down for the audience, though it must be) was not as engaging as the clear-objective adventure of the previous book. I'm again struck by the notion that something came before this series to explain the who and why of it all. Because, even at the end of book two, we don't really know what the objective of this mission is (beyond Jupiter, which is a planet not an objective) or anything about the personal lives of the crew (though we did get a little tidbit that pilot Sarah Samuels is from Boston).
A few other things that got me: Cal is always referred to as Cal and Inez as Inez, but the doctor (whose name is Susan, I think) is called the Doc almost always, Xu Zuoren is sometimes called Xu sometimes called the science officer sometimes Zuoren, the pilot is the same, and the engineer is sometimes referred to by his title, the color of his spacesuit, his first name, his last name, or his full name. There aren't so many people that we can't just use their names - or at least what they call each other (though the fact that everyone but the doctor gets called by name kind of gets me). To similar effect, there are many scenes when there are 3+ characters having a conversation without dialogue tags; maybe I'm supposed to guess who's talking and maybe the who isn't actually important, but it still caused me to stumble a bit.
What I did like: aliens! And these are aliens that are so, you know, alien to our human space crew that it feels more believable. We spend the entire book not having really any idea what the alien (or is it aliens?) wants, how it behaves, what it understands about the humans and the ship. And that creates a very real sense of panic among the crew. And though the ending was very abrupt, it left us in a place that has me very excited to pick up book three!
{Thank you Smith Publicity and Uphill Downhill Press for the review copies of the Wine Dark Deep series in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}
A few other things that got me: Cal is always referred to as Cal and Inez as Inez, but the doctor (whose name is Susan, I think) is called the Doc almost always, Xu Zuoren is sometimes called Xu sometimes called the science officer sometimes Zuoren, the pilot is the same, and the engineer is sometimes referred to by his title, the color of his spacesuit, his first name, his last name, or his full name. There aren't so many people that we can't just use their names - or at least what they call each other (though the fact that everyone but the doctor gets called by name kind of gets me). To similar effect, there are many scenes when there are 3+ characters having a conversation without dialogue tags; maybe I'm supposed to guess who's talking and maybe the who isn't actually important, but it still caused me to stumble a bit.
What I did like: aliens! And these are aliens that are so, you know, alien to our human space crew that it feels more believable. We spend the entire book not having really any idea what the alien (or is it aliens?) wants, how it behaves, what it understands about the humans and the ship. And that creates a very real sense of panic among the crew. And though the ending was very abrupt, it left us in a place that has me very excited to pick up book three!
{Thank you Smith Publicity and Uphill Downhill Press for the review copies of the Wine Dark Deep series in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}
November 21, 2020
After the first book, I was anticipating another space cowboy saves the day tale, this time at Jupiter. But, this story went in an entirely different direction. This is a look at first contact with an alien. Or not? Is it alive? Is it sentient? Is it a threat? The crew goes through a very plausible experience of what that might be like. Like the first book, it is loaded with potential hazards but does not wallow in horror. A pretty good setup for the next book with the conclusion as well, but without an unfinished, cliffhanger feel. Very enjoyable, highly recommended!
November 18, 2020
I am so glad I kept reading after book one. This, this is a fast read and keeps you guessing about what happens next. It was not what I expected and enjoyed greatly. The only reason it is not a full 5 stars is the character development, I really wanted to know more about the characters. The plot and pacing is great, the science is awesome and wow so much of a fun read. I wish I knew the characters a bit better, book 1 could have covered that for me personally. But overall a great book.
August 28, 2023
Encounter At Jupiter brings Mission Commander Scott and his crew into a bizarre but oddly compelling first contact situation. The mechanics of how Scott & Co. handle this were fascinating – I had trouble believing that Mission Control back on Earth was as passive about it as Keith suggests – but at the same time, this opens space (no pun intended) for a deeper discussion of how the crew, with their very different personalities, handle the stress inherent in the situation. The book ends with the Ulysses's crew taking the ride of their lives into the eye of a very unusual storm.
Good stuff all around, and a solid, relatively quick middle link in a series which is solidly grounded in how things actually work in space.
(This is part of a longer review of the whole trilogy, which can be found on my blog.)
8.5/10
November 17, 2020
This is a review of the entire 3 book series: This is a pretty good series that starts out OK (with a rather short first book), but gets better as the series progresses. although the second book is probably the best. Each book has it's own personality and tone, and the second book builds the tension and the story nicely. The third book continues and builds the story to an interesting conclusion. The author has a great imagination (not surprisingly) but keeps the story grounded in realism. Recommended.
Hard sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, so this was a good fit for me. A pretty good bet for sci-fi fans.
I really appreciate the review copy of each book!!
Hard sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, so this was a good fit for me. A pretty good bet for sci-fi fans.
I really appreciate the review copy of each book!!
January 1, 2022
Holy Smokes!
Okay, I was somewhat dismayed (oops, spoiler) that the events from book one were disregarded and only mentioned in passing, but...! Wow, so exciting! If you're a hard sci fan , you'll be in your glory here. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, though, once again, it stops IN THE MIDDLE! of an exciting part. That being said, gotta go! The next book is waiting!
Okay, I was somewhat dismayed (oops, spoiler) that the events from book one were disregarded and only mentioned in passing, but...! Wow, so exciting! If you're a hard sci fan , you'll be in your glory here. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, though, once again, it stops IN THE MIDDLE! of an exciting part. That being said, gotta go! The next book is waiting!
January 31, 2022
The book starts out as a spaceship has a routine pass by of Jupiter. Until an unknown object follows and eventually overtakes the spaceship. The crew must fight to survive. It's an interesting book.
March 27, 2022
A wild ride
Encounter with an alien, captured by the alien, becoming a partner to the alien and being taken on a wildly unbelievable ride with the aliens help. The story has an enormous amount of detail as the blind courage of the crew is tested.
Encounter with an alien, captured by the alien, becoming a partner to the alien and being taken on a wildly unbelievable ride with the aliens help. The story has an enormous amount of detail as the blind courage of the crew is tested.
March 18, 2026
An excellent second book in the Encounter at Jupiter serues.
I really liked this second book in the series; the descriptions of the Jovian atmosphere so brought memories of the movie 2001 to me with its kaleidoscope of colors for the reader to imagine in real life.
I really liked this second book in the series; the descriptions of the Jovian atmosphere so brought memories of the movie 2001 to me with its kaleidoscope of colors for the reader to imagine in real life.
February 21, 2021
Encounter at Jupiter continues the mission of the spaceship Ulysses to Jupiter. Just like the first book, this is a fast paced and very enjoyable read as Mission Commander Cal Scott and his crew discover an unknown object following in their wake. Bring on Book 3!
Read
August 1, 2023The saga continues with a totally new scenario, not what I would have expected after book 1!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews