The Kuiper Rogue

In Schaefer’s SF novel, an Earth outpost near Saturn encounters a looming mega-comet, which has had deadly effects on humans for eons.

By the final years of the 21st century, a World Space Council has erected self-sufficient biodome environments containing Earth flora and fauna on the moon, on Mars, and, most recently, on Gaia 3, located on Saturn’s moon Titan. There, scientist Margaret Vandolah faces escalating challenges from an out-of-balance ecosystem, infrastructure glitches, and strange dreams afflicting the super-competent crew. Her teenage son, Will, is more interested in astronomical observation, and he’s the first to note an approaching object circling in from beyond Pluto. The intruding planetoid dwarfs all known comets and is massive enough to exert its own destructive gravitational force. “And it’s outgassing exotic ices.…This is amazing,” observes Will. But the sphere’s fluky radiation, interacting spectacularly with Saturn’s rings, not only produces an unearthly lightshow, but also causes a loss of communication with Earth—plus glaucoma, blindness, and, if untreated, eventual insanity among members of the crew. With the comet-thing on a vector toward their home planet, the Vandolahs and their dwindling population of nonhomicidal crewmembers must somehow warn the Space Council while also trying to save Gaia 3 from annihilation. Schaefer dips into a now-obscure notion that calls to mind politician Ignatius Donnelly’s peculiar volume Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (1883); its proposition was that cosmic disasters due to space debris have regularly bedeviled humanity, requiring long, hard climbs back up to civilization each time. This Michael Crichton–esque version of that theory features wide-eyed scientific wonder, exciting technological problem-solving, and Hollywood-style action. However, it also delivers mediocre dialogue, a somewhat clinical emotional distance, and outrageous coincidences, as when young Will’s pertinent skillset ranges from engineering to ancient Middle Eastern archaeology. However, there are also some cute and helpful monkeys along the way. A last-act change of venue and new cast members take the yarn into more peculiar territory, as SF verges into pulpy occult fiction.

A rollercoaster doomsday tale about a marauding planetoid that mixes implausibility with decent thrills.