The Invincible

So the Condor goes missing on Regis III, and our titular ship, the Invincible is tasked with finding out what happened. They land, locate the craft, and find all sorts of unexplainable and mysterious remains. It appears the crew succumbed to some sort of madness, leading them all to die of hunger or exposure, despite there being ample food, water, and shelter available. The environment on land is devoid of life, while the seas show marine creatures with a curious magnetic field sensitivity. There's a strange black cloud that blocks all form of communication, and a strange rain of molten metal. All signs point to something not right on the planet, but nobody's sure quite what that something is immediately. The captain decides to stick around, and his navigator (and our viewpoint) Rohan is tasked with investigating things.

It's an old book, but the story and writing still hold up. The author does an excellent job with characterizing the book's main players, and I was really intrigued with the mystery that the author sets up here on this desert planet. The captain and Rohan butt heads (in a professional way) frequently, as the captain is more of a traditionalist manifest destiny type and Rohan is more practical. The setting and feelings of the crewmates are also done well, leaving me well invested in the outcome of the ship.

I did feel like it lingered a bit too long in the last half of the book on matters of philosophy and characterizing what constitutes life, but it's something that I feel is somewhat common in sci-fi books of this era. Once the author pulls the curtain back a bit behind what's really going on on Regis III, I wanted more movement and resolution, and less musings on various aspects of technology and biology, and feeling beat over the head with the idea that sometimes doing nothing at all is the better route to take.

Still, really enjoyable read. Highly recommend to classic sci-fi fans.