I was asked by Dutton Books & Net Galley to do an honest review of a new book from author Jeffrey Kluger called “Holdout” which comes out on August 3rd.

I’ll be honest this made me nervous because Sci-Fi is totally not a genre I gravitate towards.

The book starts off with two different perspectives. We have Walli Beckwith who is an astronaut and is in space. While attempting a mission between two shuttles, things did not go well & two cosmonauts end up leaving, one with a serious injury. Walli went against everyone and stayed put on the space station.

We are then also taken to South America and are introduced to Sonia who is a recent graduate from Baylor College and was interning for Health on Wings in the Amazon. One night a wildfire broke out and began destroying the tribes that were living there. She took in a young boy named Oli’s whose family died in these fires.

Walli can see the fires from space and advised that she would stay in there until the government would stop the fires. Turns out that Sonia is Walli’s niece so she had a personal connection in to making sure those wildfires stop.

There were parts that I like but there was just too much politics and not enough sci fiction for me. And since sci-fi is not my usually genre, I was hoping to get a better sense of the genre. But by the end, I was just ready for it to be over. I think it might have been about 50 pages too long. If this would end up being adapted for screen, it could possibly be better.

I appreciate the opportunity to read this early - thank you Penguin, Dutton & Net Galley.