Walking to Aldebaran is a short scifi novel from the prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky, and it starts off simple enough: an anomaly is discovered, a team is sent to explore it, and bad things happen. A good chunk of the book is rather predictable; our protagonist gets separated from the crew and is left to fend for himself. He comes across aliens, monsters, and horrors. The usual.

Around the two-thirds mark we get the "twist", and the novel hits its stride. It's a really quick read, and Tchaikovsky's writing is as brisk as ever without being sparse. I felt the ending and the full realization of the twist was a bit rushed, and another chapter or two to establish it would've been welcome, but that's a minor complaint. There are some weird meme insertions that I think will date the novel (a Boaty McBoatface reference, of all things) and a few uses of nonstandard pronouns that feel really forced and pandering. Overall a quick breezy read that can be classified as horror but probably won't be keeping you up at night.