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A review by kingrosereads
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Sci-Fi isn’t really my thing but sci-fi horror is a whole other animal that I can’t get enough of even though it takes a lot for me to really enjoy (I have weirdly high standards). Before I get on with the review let me make this clear, this book depicted two things that deeply terrify me: rudimentary space travel and not knowing what is real or not (aka losing touch with reality). That being said, it’s possible this book won’t be scary at all for you especially since I have an overactive imagination so it takes whatever’s written and amplifies it. Now you know this, take this review with a grain of salt.
The spoiler free version:
Shit was scary. I hate space. I hate losing touch with reality. These things are scary. The whole time I NEEDED to know what was happening and often had to watch something nice so I could sleep. This author write this book for me specifically cause it really hit all the points of my fears.
Spoilers ahead
The book takes place in 2149 and space travel within our solar system is less than a century old. While it seems we’ve created artificial gravity, travel far beyond our planetary system, and establish colonies on Mars, we’re still doing space walks and building things in space by hand (no robots taking our jobs yet). At the far reaches of an established communication system, is a small maintenance crew performing its final duties before returning to Earth. On this ship is our main character, Claire who loves space but is being forced to retire once she returns to Earth. The rest of her crew are antsy to return home when they receive a distress call on an old emergency broadcast system. After much arguing, they decide to leave their rendezvous point to answer the call. They eventually discover the lost luxury space cruise ship, the Aurora. Essentially space Titanic. The ship set off from Earth twenty years prior for a year long luxury cruise (first and only of its kind). However, halfway through its journey is cut off all communication and went missing. Claire and her crew make the decision to claim their ship as their own based on maritime law that was adopted by space travel. They hoped to salvage enough for the ship that their financial woes would be settled for life.
They board the Aurora and discover there’s no evidence of an explosion, a system malfunction, or anything that would indicate an accident happened. What they do find are a lot of bodies frozen and floating above them (due to the gravity and environmental systems being shut off) with evidence of extreme violence. As they wonder the ship and decide to turn the engines on to get the Aurora to their rendezvous point, things begin happening on the ship that defies logic. The crew begin seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes and visions of their loved ones. It seems that madness is infected the crew and potentially is the cause of the Aurora disaster. But is it a biological cause or something supernatural or something else entirely?
So this book had me in a chokehold. I truly couldn’t not breathe during the entire thing. The author did well building up the suspense and throwing in jump scares (in a book which is crazy) to keep me on my toes. I genuinely struggled to put this book down because I NEEDED answers or I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Truly the author wrote this book for me because being in space with something causing paranoia and visual and auditory hallucinations is truly my hell. I don’t mind the romantic tension between Claire and Kane, it felt nice having someone really see her and have her back. My criticism of this book is the pacing. The build up of suspense was very slow and intense and in a lot of ways I loved it but in some ways I just needed the action to start happening. The tragedy of Claire’s crew was very rushed through given all the time to the build up. I just wanna say that as SOON as it was said that Verux had asked the Aurora to drop off supplies to a Mars colony on their way back, I KNEW they put something on that ship to cause the madness (whether biological or something else). Then they mentioned how heavy it felt on the ship which had my gears turning, then they said the noise dampeners were maxed out I went “omg it’s a vibration or frequency thing”. So I’m clearly a professional detective and need to be solving unsolved mysteries. But unlike murder mysteries where I guess the culprit early on I was actually really excited I figured it out because even while I was brain storming I didn’t lose that feeling of fear. The horror did devolve into an action thriller at the end where you’re on the edge of your seat trying to see if they’d survive and be victorious over the corporate bastards. I like a happy ending in horror movies. I’m not a fan of open ended or devastating endings.
I love that capitalism is the villain here and Claire defeated them and had a happy ending.
The spoiler free version:
Shit was scary. I hate space. I hate losing touch with reality. These things are scary. The whole time I NEEDED to know what was happening and often had to watch something nice so I could sleep. This author write this book for me specifically cause it really hit all the points of my fears.
Spoilers ahead
The book takes place in 2149 and space travel within our solar system is less than a century old. While it seems we’ve created artificial gravity, travel far beyond our planetary system, and establish colonies on Mars, we’re still doing space walks and building things in space by hand (no robots taking our jobs yet). At the far reaches of an established communication system, is a small maintenance crew performing its final duties before returning to Earth. On this ship is our main character, Claire who loves space but is being forced to retire once she returns to Earth. The rest of her crew are antsy to return home when they receive a distress call on an old emergency broadcast system. After much arguing, they decide to leave their rendezvous point to answer the call. They eventually discover the lost luxury space cruise ship, the Aurora. Essentially space Titanic. The ship set off from Earth twenty years prior for a year long luxury cruise (first and only of its kind). However, halfway through its journey is cut off all communication and went missing. Claire and her crew make the decision to claim their ship as their own based on maritime law that was adopted by space travel. They hoped to salvage enough for the ship that their financial woes would be settled for life.
They board the Aurora and discover there’s no evidence of an explosion, a system malfunction, or anything that would indicate an accident happened. What they do find are a lot of bodies frozen and floating above them (due to the gravity and environmental systems being shut off) with evidence of extreme violence. As they wonder the ship and decide to turn the engines on to get the Aurora to their rendezvous point, things begin happening on the ship that defies logic. The crew begin seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes and visions of their loved ones. It seems that madness is infected the crew and potentially is the cause of the Aurora disaster. But is it a biological cause or something supernatural or something else entirely?
So this book had me in a chokehold. I truly couldn’t not breathe during the entire thing. The author did well building up the suspense and throwing in jump scares (in a book which is crazy) to keep me on my toes. I genuinely struggled to put this book down because I NEEDED answers or I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Truly the author wrote this book for me because being in space with something causing paranoia and visual and auditory hallucinations is truly my hell. I don’t mind the romantic tension between Claire and Kane, it felt nice having someone really see her and have her back. My criticism of this book is the pacing. The build up of suspense was very slow and intense and in a lot of ways I loved it but in some ways I just needed the action to start happening. The tragedy of Claire’s crew was very rushed through given all the time to the build up. I just wanna say that as SOON as it was said that Verux had asked the Aurora to drop off supplies to a Mars colony on their way back, I KNEW they put something on that ship to cause the madness (whether biological or something else). Then they mentioned how heavy it felt on the ship which had my gears turning, then they said the noise dampeners were maxed out I went “omg it’s a vibration or frequency thing”. So I’m clearly a professional detective and need to be solving unsolved mysteries. But unlike murder mysteries where I guess the culprit early on I was actually really excited I figured it out because even while I was brain storming I didn’t lose that feeling of fear. The horror did devolve into an action thriller at the end where you’re on the edge of your seat trying to see if they’d survive and be victorious over the corporate bastards. I like a happy ending in horror movies. I’m not a fan of open ended or devastating endings.
I love that capitalism is the villain here and Claire defeated them and had a happy ending.