When the first human mission to Venus goes disastrously off-script, only impossible choices and the bonds of friendship stand between history and oblivion.

Phaëthon hurls readers into the storm-lashed clouds of Venus, where Commander Adam Townsend must survive not only a hostile planet but the fallout of a mission on the brink. As the Icarus lander endures catastrophic failures—scorched airlocks, failing seals, and acid rain—Townsend finds himself isolated, relying on ingenuity, distant voices from orbit, and the echo of memories from a long-ago academy.

Meanwhile, as humanity pushes deeper into the solar system, the pioneering spirit that built Martian colonies and international astronaut academies is tested to the extreme. From the tense, pressure-cooker confines of Venusian modules to moments of levity and longing broadcast across millions of miles, Tyler Whetstone crafts a tale where character and technology collide.

Brilliantly observed, heart-wrenching, and shot through with hope and wit, Phaëthon explores the cost of ambition and the stubborn refusal to surrender, even as the darkness presses in. For fans of The Martian, Interstellar, or the legacy of hard science fiction, this story brings Venus vividly, and perilously, to life.

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