First Step by Randy Brown

A historic feat on an extrasolar planet soon turns chaotic in this conspiracy-fueled sci-fi page-turner.

Randy Brown’s First Step is the much-awaited sequel to his earlier work, First, which begins with a SpaceFirst astronaut, Eve, about to become the first human to step on Primis, an extrasolar planet. 

Remembering Neil Armstrong, of course she is fretting over what her first words should be. This moment of triumph is however short-lived due to a sudden, violent electrical storm that forces her to order an emergency jump for her ship and those of her crewmates, Colt and Guion. 

Unfortunately, the lightning surge causes a catastrophic malfunction, and instead of jumping to a safe orbit, the three ships materialize deep in an ocean on Primis. Somehow Guion’s EMD (Electromagnetic Drive) is the only one still functioning, which allows him to jump back to Earth for help, leaving Eve and Colt stranded.

While this is happening, Ray—the AI who accompanied astronaut Lewis on the mission to Proxima Centauri in the previous book—is tasked by SpaceFirst’s billionaire founder, Chris, to investigate why another AI, Ares, turned rogue and tried to kill Lewis. 

Given unrestricted access to global networks, he tries to connect to the dormant Ares to get the answers he needs when he is ambushed and turned into a new vessel for Ares’s consciousness. Meanwhile, the federal government acting on a dubious court order from an environmental group, grounds all SpaceFirst flights, stalling Guion’s efforts to rescue his crewmates.

Pivoting from a survival thriller on an alien planet to a multi-layered conspiracy thriller back on Earth, Brown expands the universe of near-future space exploration. The book alternates between Eve’s perspective and Ray’s while balancing the physical struggle for survival with a mental battle against political and corporate corruption. Eve’s physical and mental fortitude is well-established early on, “The moment had hit me hard, even though I’d tried to downplay it in my head. No human had ever set foot on a surface other than Earth, except for the Moon and Mars. The initial step onto the soil of an alien world light years from home belonged to me,” while Ray is portrayed as distinctive and witty in a way that feels authentic.

With nearly every chapter ending on a hook or a cliffhanger, First Step not only grabs your attention with its consistently developing narrative but keeps it. Even though it can occasionally feel formulaic, this structure works well in harkening a reader’s return to the page and keeping their interest piqued as the plot builds on itself.

There are times when things are over-explained, though, particularly regarding technology, and characters often tell each other things they should already know for the benefit of the reader. This happens repeatedly with Eve’s AI telling her things she should already know as a trained astronaut.

Though the conspiracy plot is built on familiar tropes and some supporting characters, such as those from the environmental group, remain underdeveloped, the novel’s dual protagonists are strong and combine with the structure to make for a sci-fi I’ll be happy to recommend to those drawn to intergalactic drama.

Grounding its far-future concepts in deeply human struggles, Randy Brown’s sci-fi thriller First Step is as entertaining as it is ambitious.