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Publication
Tor Nightfire (2022), 352 pages
Description
"Titanic meets The Shining in S.A. Barnes' Dead Silence, a SF horror novel in which a woman and her crew board a decades-lost luxury cruiser and find the wreckage of a nightmare that hasn't yet ended. A GHOST SHIP. A SALVAGE CREW. UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS. Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed-made obsolete-when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate. What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn't right. Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Carolesrandomlife
This was great! Who knew that I needed science fiction horror in my life?! I was more than ready for every creepy moment this book had to offer and had a really hard time putting the book down once I started reading. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was happening to Claire and her crew.
Claire and her small crew are finishing up their last mission when they encounter a distress signal. They decide to check it out and are shocked to discover a luxury ship that has been missing for 20 years. They decide to make a claim on the ship which means they must retrieve something specific to the ship to prove their claim. Strange things start happening from the moment they board the ship. The more time they spend on the ship the worse things get. Each member of the 5 person crew is seeing things that are not there and hearing things all while surrounded by evidence of the horror that came before.
I loved the way that this book kept me guessing. I wanted to know what was going on with Claire and the rest of the team. I was also very curious about what happened that caused the ship to go missing so many years ago. Claire was a complex character with a very interesting past. The story was incredibly exciting with enough action and suspense to keep me glued to the pages. I liked the way that the book was laid out in two timelines so that some of the things that would happen were foreshadowed but even more questions were raised.
I would highly recommend this book to others. I found this to be an intense and thrilling read that kept me guessing and left me speechless. I will definitely be looking for more work by this talented author.
I received an advanced review copy of this book from Tor Nightfire.
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I am so glad that I decided to give this book a try.Claire and her small crew are finishing up their last mission when they encounter a distress signal. They decide to check it out and are shocked to discover a luxury ship that has been missing for 20 years. They decide to make a claim on the ship which means they must retrieve something specific to the ship to prove their claim. Strange things start happening from the moment they board the ship. The more time they spend on the ship the worse things get. Each member of the 5 person crew is seeing things that are not there and hearing things all while surrounded by evidence of the horror that came before.
I loved the way that this book kept me guessing. I wanted to know what was going on with Claire and the rest of the team. I was also very curious about what happened that caused the ship to go missing so many years ago. Claire was a complex character with a very interesting past. The story was incredibly exciting with enough action and suspense to keep me glued to the pages. I liked the way that the book was laid out in two timelines so that some of the things that would happen were foreshadowed but even more questions were raised.
I would highly recommend this book to others. I found this to be an intense and thrilling read that kept me guessing and left me speechless. I will definitely be looking for more work by this talented author.
I received an advanced review copy of this book from Tor Nightfire.
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LibraryThing member tottman
If Aliens meets Titanic sounds like your kind of book, then you are in for a treat with Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes. Claire Kovalik is the sole survivor of a previous disaster on the Mars colony and was essentially raised by the Verux corporation for whom she now works. She is captaining a ship on
The salvage value of this opulent craft and her famous passengers would be rich enough so that each of the small crew could live out their dreams. Once they find the craft they are surprised to discover that there doesn’t appear to be any obvious damage to it. Upon boarding, they discover that many of the passengers appear to have died violently. Making their way through the ship they begin to experience sounds and visions that are difficult to explain. Are there ghosts? Or aliens? Or are they simply going mad? And could it be that the Verux corporation hoped the ship would never be found?
Dead Silence is a great blend of science fiction and horror. Each character is distinctive and brings different attributes and weaknesses to the job. Barnes does an excellent job of creating mood and mystery. Claire is a complicated and sympathetic character that is honest about her own flaws and self-doubts. Even if you figure out what is going on before it is revealed, the entertainment of the journey is not diminished. Atmosphere is everything in a book like this and Barnes nails it. Dead Silence is a ghost story that will make you feel the cold of space and glance over your shoulder at every sound. This book is well-paced and filled with tension. Looking forward to seeing what’s next from Barnes!
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.
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the outer edges of the system on what is to be their final job before they are made redundant by automation. Just before heading back for their final rendezvous, they pick up a distress call. The call is from the Aurora, a luxury spaceliner that disappeared 20 years ago on its first flight.The salvage value of this opulent craft and her famous passengers would be rich enough so that each of the small crew could live out their dreams. Once they find the craft they are surprised to discover that there doesn’t appear to be any obvious damage to it. Upon boarding, they discover that many of the passengers appear to have died violently. Making their way through the ship they begin to experience sounds and visions that are difficult to explain. Are there ghosts? Or aliens? Or are they simply going mad? And could it be that the Verux corporation hoped the ship would never be found?
Dead Silence is a great blend of science fiction and horror. Each character is distinctive and brings different attributes and weaknesses to the job. Barnes does an excellent job of creating mood and mystery. Claire is a complicated and sympathetic character that is honest about her own flaws and self-doubts. Even if you figure out what is going on before it is revealed, the entertainment of the journey is not diminished. Atmosphere is everything in a book like this and Barnes nails it. Dead Silence is a ghost story that will make you feel the cold of space and glance over your shoulder at every sound. This book is well-paced and filled with tension. Looking forward to seeing what’s next from Barnes!
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.
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LibraryThing member HuberK
5 stars, Good book
DEAD SILENCE
by S.A. Barnes
published by: Tor Nightfire
A great sci-fi book, not too scary, more of a mystery than a horror book. All in all enjoyable.
Great thanks to #tornightfire for the complimentary copy of #deadsilence I was under no obligation to post a review.
DEAD SILENCE
by S.A. Barnes
published by: Tor Nightfire
A great sci-fi book, not too scary, more of a mystery than a horror book. All in all enjoyable.
Great thanks to #tornightfire for the complimentary copy of #deadsilence I was under no obligation to post a review.
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
This book sounded fantastic, and it was a fast-enough read, but I also came very close to DNFing, which speaks to just how many problems there are.
On one hand, there are some fantastic ideas and images here, some of the visuals being wonderfully creepy, and there are moments when the author's
The ending, though I won't get into spoilers, reinforces the feel that this was meant for younger readers, and to put it bluntly, it just ends up being kind of predictable and easy. On top of that, the book can't seem to decide what genre it wants to sit within, and when it comes right down to it, the book doesn't live up to the blurbs or the cover copy--it's certainly not 'the ultimate haunted house story, in space' as the Katsu blurb on the cover promises. There's also a complete lack of explanation for some elements which are central to how the story unfolds, and some serious plot holes. Things that were just forgotten or left out.
It's a fast read, as I said, so I imagine a lot of readers will speed through this, appreciate it for what it is, and move on, but in all honesty, it felt like a fairly sloppy story to me, and as I said, it didn't really feel like it was meant to be in the adult space at all. Since I'm personally burned out on YA sci-fi and YA dystopians, I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it were listed as YA with teen characters, but maybe that's the point.
I'd probably recommend this one to adults who like YA sci-fi (not horror, because this might be dark sci-fi, but it is not something I'd consider horror). Just don't get sucked in by the 'ghost ship' and 'haunted house in space' references on the cover, or you'll be disappointed.
On one hand, there are some fantastic ideas and images here, some of the visuals being wonderfully creepy, and there are moments when the author's
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writing really shines. The problems, though, are larger-level. In a lot of ways, this feels more like a YA sci-fi that was 'aged up' and forced into the Adults space, and the reasons I say that are at the heart of my critique. This book has all of the tropes that burned me out on YA sci-fi--characters put into leadership roles and responsibilities that they don't seem to deserve or be capable of fulfilling, a mysteriously mean corporation, high stakes that aren't entirely explained (this is important for this reason, but why that would be the outcome, who knows?), an overly voice-y protagonist who cycles on endlessly between thinking of a past trauma and second-guessing herself ad nauseum even when she should be focused on the present (to the point that, yes, it becomes very repetitive), and an awkward, shoe-horned-in romance that the book would be better off without. All of those things are things I expect to see in a YA dystopian or YA sci-fi, and when you add in the VERY young-feeling narrator here, I really wonder if this wasn't originally written as YA and then aged up either because of the horror-level images/scenes (few as they are) or the market. One way or another, it didn't make for a satisfying read.The ending, though I won't get into spoilers, reinforces the feel that this was meant for younger readers, and to put it bluntly, it just ends up being kind of predictable and easy. On top of that, the book can't seem to decide what genre it wants to sit within, and when it comes right down to it, the book doesn't live up to the blurbs or the cover copy--it's certainly not 'the ultimate haunted house story, in space' as the Katsu blurb on the cover promises. There's also a complete lack of explanation for some elements which are central to how the story unfolds, and some serious plot holes. Things that were just forgotten or left out.
It's a fast read, as I said, so I imagine a lot of readers will speed through this, appreciate it for what it is, and move on, but in all honesty, it felt like a fairly sloppy story to me, and as I said, it didn't really feel like it was meant to be in the adult space at all. Since I'm personally burned out on YA sci-fi and YA dystopians, I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it were listed as YA with teen characters, but maybe that's the point.
I'd probably recommend this one to adults who like YA sci-fi (not horror, because this might be dark sci-fi, but it is not something I'd consider horror). Just don't get sucked in by the 'ghost ship' and 'haunted house in space' references on the cover, or you'll be disappointed.
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LibraryThing member SpaceandSorcery
Answering distress calls from space is a sure way of meeting countless forms of trouble, and Dead Silence proves this point once again with a compelling, claustrophobic story that successfully mixes science fiction and horror.
Claire Kovalik and her crew of four are nearing the end of their last
Dead Silence drew me in from the very start, mostly thanks to its split narrative alternating between a present in which Claire is trying to reconstruct what happened on the Aurora, relaying her fragmented recollections to two Verux officials, and the recent past in which the LINA crew faces the grisly mystery aboard the lost ship - there is also a third timeline, seen through brief flashbacks, in which we learn that Claire is the only survivor of a doomed colony decimated by a viral infection, and which explains the heavy psychological burden that she’s been carrying ever since. Learning from the start that something went hideously wrong with the mission, and progressing forward toward the discovery in alternating timelines, is the factor that grabbed my interest from page one and compelled me to read on, fighting the mounting sense of dread that the story creates very skillfully.
As for Claire, she is a fascinating character because there are so many dark areas in her past that carry on in the present - including her suicidal thoughts at the prospect of being denied the freedom of space once the last repair tour will be over - and turn her into a possibly unreliable narrator, particularly when we learn that she seems to be the only survivor of the LINA as well, with no memory about what happened to her crew, except for some ghastly flashes of their deaths - provided, of course, that these are real memories and not part of the… visions that have been plaguing Claire since her childhood in the failed colony. Claire is indeed not new at ghostly visitations, and at first, when she sees some weird images on board the Aurora, she believes them part of her psychological problems, but when her crew mates start having the same kinds of encounters - which become increasingly horrifying and realistic - it becomes clear that something else is at work here.
The descriptions of what Claire’s crew finds aboard the doomed ship are quite vivid, a frozen (literally so) tableau of what must have been the last moments for crew and passengers alike before the life support cut off, and it’s clear that some form of madness must have infected them all because there is evidence both of deadly struggles and of suicides, the latter apparently induced by some form of despair or terror. The dreadful scenario is magnified by the luxurious setting, that of a ship where no expenses were spared for the comfort and enjoyment of the wealthy passengers, and yet no level of opulence could save those people from the deadly dangers of space, which is revealed once again as a hostile environment set on killing any “trespassers”. And whatever it is that pushed the people aboard Aurora toward violence is still present, encroaching on the minds of LINA’s crew, and further deteriorating the already tense interpersonal relationships between them as it enhances the climate of antagonism and distrust already present from the start.
I have to say that the author managed very successfully to infuse the story, from the very start, with a sense of dread and unshakable uneasiness, focusing them into a need to know what really happened, both to the Aurora and to Claire’s crew. I felt great sympathy for Claire because, despite her apparent unreliability, she comes across as an honest person, one whose life has been very difficult to say the least, but who is still capable of great feats of courage and determination in spite of the obstacles - material and psychological - on her path.
Where the novel falters a little, in my opinion, is in the revelation of the underlying mystery of the Aurora’s disaster, because after the amazing buildup leading to it, it feels almost… mundane, for want of a better word, and while it might make sense in consideration of the background laid by the story, to me it seemed quite anti-climactic. Also, the lack of explanation about Claire’s “ability” to see ghosts was slightly disappointing, because the little clues linking back to her childhood trauma appeared to point toward something intriguing. But these are minor problems in what proved to be a very appealing read, one that kept me awake until the small hours out of a burning need to see where the story would lead: as far as “space horror” goes, Dead Silence was a quite satisfactory find.
Claire Kovalik and her crew of four are nearing the end of their last
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tour of duty servicing Earth’s comweb relays: from now on, Verux Corporation’s maintenance will be done through automated drones and Claire - whose past history made her unfit for reassignment on any other kind of ship - is now destined to a dead-end groundside clerical job. This bleak future seems inevitable until the LINA (the maintenance ship under Claire’s lead) receives a distress signal from beyond the comweb’s farthest range: as impossible as it might seem, the call comes from the Aurora, a luxury vessel that disappeared in mysterious circumstances twenty years previously, during its maiden voyage. The discovery, together with the possibility of financial security obtained through a salvage operation, drives Claire and her crew to board the Aurora, but what they find is a nightmare scenario: frozen corpses floating in microgravity, the unmistakable signs of senseless violence, and cryptic sentences drawn in blood on the walls. What’s worse, the LINA’s crew seems increasingly affected by this gruesome scenario as they keep hearing voices or seeing other people, impossible as it looks on this ship of the dead: fighting against time to effect the repairs necessary to bring the Aurora back toward civilized space, Claire and her crew must battle with their inner demons and the inexplicable horror that influenced the passengers, driving them to murder or suicide in countless gruesome ways…Dead Silence drew me in from the very start, mostly thanks to its split narrative alternating between a present in which Claire is trying to reconstruct what happened on the Aurora, relaying her fragmented recollections to two Verux officials, and the recent past in which the LINA crew faces the grisly mystery aboard the lost ship - there is also a third timeline, seen through brief flashbacks, in which we learn that Claire is the only survivor of a doomed colony decimated by a viral infection, and which explains the heavy psychological burden that she’s been carrying ever since. Learning from the start that something went hideously wrong with the mission, and progressing forward toward the discovery in alternating timelines, is the factor that grabbed my interest from page one and compelled me to read on, fighting the mounting sense of dread that the story creates very skillfully.
As for Claire, she is a fascinating character because there are so many dark areas in her past that carry on in the present - including her suicidal thoughts at the prospect of being denied the freedom of space once the last repair tour will be over - and turn her into a possibly unreliable narrator, particularly when we learn that she seems to be the only survivor of the LINA as well, with no memory about what happened to her crew, except for some ghastly flashes of their deaths - provided, of course, that these are real memories and not part of the… visions that have been plaguing Claire since her childhood in the failed colony. Claire is indeed not new at ghostly visitations, and at first, when she sees some weird images on board the Aurora, she believes them part of her psychological problems, but when her crew mates start having the same kinds of encounters - which become increasingly horrifying and realistic - it becomes clear that something else is at work here.
The descriptions of what Claire’s crew finds aboard the doomed ship are quite vivid, a frozen (literally so) tableau of what must have been the last moments for crew and passengers alike before the life support cut off, and it’s clear that some form of madness must have infected them all because there is evidence both of deadly struggles and of suicides, the latter apparently induced by some form of despair or terror. The dreadful scenario is magnified by the luxurious setting, that of a ship where no expenses were spared for the comfort and enjoyment of the wealthy passengers, and yet no level of opulence could save those people from the deadly dangers of space, which is revealed once again as a hostile environment set on killing any “trespassers”. And whatever it is that pushed the people aboard Aurora toward violence is still present, encroaching on the minds of LINA’s crew, and further deteriorating the already tense interpersonal relationships between them as it enhances the climate of antagonism and distrust already present from the start.
I have to say that the author managed very successfully to infuse the story, from the very start, with a sense of dread and unshakable uneasiness, focusing them into a need to know what really happened, both to the Aurora and to Claire’s crew. I felt great sympathy for Claire because, despite her apparent unreliability, she comes across as an honest person, one whose life has been very difficult to say the least, but who is still capable of great feats of courage and determination in spite of the obstacles - material and psychological - on her path.
Where the novel falters a little, in my opinion, is in the revelation of the underlying mystery of the Aurora’s disaster, because after the amazing buildup leading to it, it feels almost… mundane, for want of a better word, and while it might make sense in consideration of the background laid by the story, to me it seemed quite anti-climactic. Also, the lack of explanation about Claire’s “ability” to see ghosts was slightly disappointing, because the little clues linking back to her childhood trauma appeared to point toward something intriguing. But these are minor problems in what proved to be a very appealing read, one that kept me awake until the small hours out of a burning need to see where the story would lead: as far as “space horror” goes, Dead Silence was a quite satisfactory find.
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LibraryThing member TobinElliott
There's a few really easy ways to kill a book for Tobin and cause him to not enjoy the ride.
The first way is to use a lot of hallucinations or dreams. Don't get me wrong, in very small doses, hallucinatory stuff can work well, but page after page after page of "it's not real!" just starts to bug
The second way is to have an extremely whiny, hand-wringing main character. While all the secondary characters are getting pissed with them, so am I, and I'm questioning why I would spend my valuable time hanging out with a fictional character that I'd flat out walk away from in real life.
The third way is to lift plot devices directly from other, better done stories. There's homages, and then there's "oh that worked well over there, I'll just bolt that on over here."
The final way (in terms of this novel) is to build and build to some shocking conclusion that, in the end, is boring and pedestrian.
Which brings us to this novel. Ugh. I truly kept hoping it'd get better. I kept hoping that it would break out of it's Alien and Aliens plot...but it only did so because, instead of really cool facehuggers and xenomorphs, the final big bad was...okay, no spoilers...but it was just so damn average.
And, if you're gonna steal from the Alien franchise, and you have a female lead character, hey, at least steal Ripley, right? Nope. Instead, we get Ripley-lite, the lower interest, lower confidence, bigger whiner, less kickass, more deer-caught-in-the-headlights version, known as Claire.
And where was the horror? Did I miss it?
If this is your thing, maybe read Darcy Coates's From Below instead. Same vibe, but better executed.
But this? Yeah, serious waste of time. I gotta go watch the first two Alien movies as a palate-cleanser now.
The first way is to use a lot of hallucinations or dreams. Don't get me wrong, in very small doses, hallucinatory stuff can work well, but page after page after page of "it's not real!" just starts to bug
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me. And dreams? No. Dreams suck. Don't use dreams as a plot device. Not ever.The second way is to have an extremely whiny, hand-wringing main character. While all the secondary characters are getting pissed with them, so am I, and I'm questioning why I would spend my valuable time hanging out with a fictional character that I'd flat out walk away from in real life.
The third way is to lift plot devices directly from other, better done stories. There's homages, and then there's "oh that worked well over there, I'll just bolt that on over here."
The final way (in terms of this novel) is to build and build to some shocking conclusion that, in the end, is boring and pedestrian.
Which brings us to this novel. Ugh. I truly kept hoping it'd get better. I kept hoping that it would break out of it's Alien and Aliens plot...but it only did so because, instead of really cool facehuggers and xenomorphs, the final big bad was...okay, no spoilers...but it was just so damn average.
And, if you're gonna steal from the Alien franchise, and you have a female lead character, hey, at least steal Ripley, right? Nope. Instead, we get Ripley-lite, the lower interest, lower confidence, bigger whiner, less kickass, more deer-caught-in-the-headlights version, known as Claire.
And where was the horror? Did I miss it?
If this is your thing, maybe read Darcy Coates's From Below instead. Same vibe, but better executed.
But this? Yeah, serious waste of time. I gotta go watch the first two Alien movies as a palate-cleanser now.
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LibraryThing member BettyTaylor56
“Dead Silence” by S.A. Barnes took me on a chilling journey through the depths of space aboard the eerie remains of the luxury space-liner, the Aurora. With elements reminiscent of both Titanic and The Shining, Barnes weaves a tale of suspense, horror, and psychological thriller that grips the
The story follows Claire Kovalik, the leader of a beacon repair crew, who stumbles upon a distress signal leading them to the long-lost Aurora. What begins as a potentially lucrative salvage operation quickly spirals into a nightmare as Claire and her crew encounter inexplicable horrors lurking within the ship's dark corridors.
Barnes expertly crafted an atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread that made me feel as though I was trapped alongside the characters in the vast emptiness of space. The tension steadily mounts as whispers in the darkness and unsettling phenomena plague the crew, keeping both the characters and me on edge.
One of the novel's strengths lies in its characters, particularly Claire, whose troubled past and unreliable narration add layers of complexity to the story. As Claire grapples with her own inner demons while facing external threats, I was drawn deeper into the mystery surrounding the Aurora and its gruesome fate.
The blend of science fiction and horror elements is executed seamlessly, creating a truly immersive experience that left me breathless. From its spine-tingling premise to its heart-pounding conclusion, “Dead Silence” is a gripping rollercoaster ride of suspense and terror that will linger in my mind long after the final page.
While some may find the pacing sluggish in parts, particularly during the middle section of the novel, the payoff is well worth the wait as the story builds to a crescendo of blood-curdling action and revelation.
Overall, Dead Silence is a must-read for fans of science fiction horror, offering a compelling narrative, memorable characters, and plenty of thrills along the way.
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reader from start to finish.The story follows Claire Kovalik, the leader of a beacon repair crew, who stumbles upon a distress signal leading them to the long-lost Aurora. What begins as a potentially lucrative salvage operation quickly spirals into a nightmare as Claire and her crew encounter inexplicable horrors lurking within the ship's dark corridors.
Barnes expertly crafted an atmosphere of claustrophobia and dread that made me feel as though I was trapped alongside the characters in the vast emptiness of space. The tension steadily mounts as whispers in the darkness and unsettling phenomena plague the crew, keeping both the characters and me on edge.
One of the novel's strengths lies in its characters, particularly Claire, whose troubled past and unreliable narration add layers of complexity to the story. As Claire grapples with her own inner demons while facing external threats, I was drawn deeper into the mystery surrounding the Aurora and its gruesome fate.
The blend of science fiction and horror elements is executed seamlessly, creating a truly immersive experience that left me breathless. From its spine-tingling premise to its heart-pounding conclusion, “Dead Silence” is a gripping rollercoaster ride of suspense and terror that will linger in my mind long after the final page.
While some may find the pacing sluggish in parts, particularly during the middle section of the novel, the payoff is well worth the wait as the story builds to a crescendo of blood-curdling action and revelation.
Overall, Dead Silence is a must-read for fans of science fiction horror, offering a compelling narrative, memorable characters, and plenty of thrills along the way.
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LibraryThing member harpua
Ehhh.....this wasn't a bad sci-fi novel, but often billed as horror, it's really not horror. It starts out by giving you the impression that this will be a horror novel set in the distant future and taking place mostly in space. While it kept me guessing, in the end it was just an average novel.
LibraryThing member antao
To think that SF is only about spaceships and aliens is ignorant. SF has always been about thoughts, concepts, the big questions. Whether they were explored on distant, make-believe, planets. On our planet, in the minds of the protagonists - or proposing answers to "what if?" questions: alien
So no. Contemporary SF is not "taking on" the human condition - as if this is some new direction. The genre has always been about that: relationships, reaction to change, questioning morals, considering alternatives. It's just a shame that she hasn't realised that before now. It's the genre of big ideas, the genre that actively tackles universal questions of self, of society, of philosophy and religion and the nature of reality. It's who we are now, as well as how we might find ourselves living in the future - and that's always always been the case. Hell, even Star Trek, cheesiest of pop culture staples, was absolutely tackling questions of civil rights and social justice on a weekly basis, under the pointy ears and sparkly moon rocks. It's always been about the characters, Sarah, whether framed by technological innovation or political or geographical changes.
Good SF shows a World that is a bit different from the normal one, and this difference should normally have a logical, scientific explanation. For this reason, good SF is not focused on individuals, but interested in what happens with the "human condition" in a world that is, in certain aspects, different.
Sometimes it does sound I like vintage SF better but what I can’t stand are bad rip-offs. Just another love story in disguise (Kane, Claire) or just another SF novel and then you add a few "spaceships" because SF is a bit trendy right now so then it will look new, fresh and interesting. Nope. Go watch “Event Horizon” instead.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
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contact, over population, medical advances, nuclear power, mind control, AI, extended longevity, elites and slaves. All the topics regarding advancing our civilisation (or it's demise) are covered by SF - and many "space operas" are just that: cowboys, a love-story, WW2 battles reenacted (in fact almost all space battles depicted in TV and films are merely old-fashioned plane-based scenes, at their core).So no. Contemporary SF is not "taking on" the human condition - as if this is some new direction. The genre has always been about that: relationships, reaction to change, questioning morals, considering alternatives. It's just a shame that she hasn't realised that before now. It's the genre of big ideas, the genre that actively tackles universal questions of self, of society, of philosophy and religion and the nature of reality. It's who we are now, as well as how we might find ourselves living in the future - and that's always always been the case. Hell, even Star Trek, cheesiest of pop culture staples, was absolutely tackling questions of civil rights and social justice on a weekly basis, under the pointy ears and sparkly moon rocks. It's always been about the characters, Sarah, whether framed by technological innovation or political or geographical changes.
Good SF shows a World that is a bit different from the normal one, and this difference should normally have a logical, scientific explanation. For this reason, good SF is not focused on individuals, but interested in what happens with the "human condition" in a world that is, in certain aspects, different.
Sometimes it does sound I like vintage SF better but what I can’t stand are bad rip-offs. Just another love story in disguise (Kane, Claire) or just another SF novel and then you add a few "spaceships" because SF is a bit trendy right now so then it will look new, fresh and interesting. Nope. Go watch “Event Horizon” instead.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
This is a great book, following the horror tradition of bodies every where, in what seems to be caused by the victims going crazy.
When a small repair ship stumbles across a very old SOS, from a lost cruise liner from 20 years ago, they have a decision to make. A salvage claim could set them up for
Where the book shine is the humanness of the story. The cast of characters is small, and they are all fleshed out. The reasons for why the crew decides to take chances is well put together - from needing money to provide for a daughter, to wanting a future that is independent of the corporation that provided.
There were enough clues to point a reader to what was happening, but it was still a surprise. While its not a perfect book, it really is a fun read.
When a small repair ship stumbles across a very old SOS, from a lost cruise liner from 20 years ago, they have a decision to make. A salvage claim could set them up for
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life, but only if they can survive whatever cause the the people on the cruise liner go crazy. The blood bath they find is beyond belief.Where the book shine is the humanness of the story. The cast of characters is small, and they are all fleshed out. The reasons for why the crew decides to take chances is well put together - from needing money to provide for a daughter, to wanting a future that is independent of the corporation that provided.
There were enough clues to point a reader to what was happening, but it was still a surprise. While its not a perfect book, it really is a fun read.
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LibraryThing member tuusannuuska
A story told in two timelines about a woman who comes home from a routine maintenance mission, reporting that the rest of her crew is dead on a vessel that was lost in space a couple of decades back.
“It sets off a strange sense of dislocation in my brain. Like it can’t be real. Or I’m not.
Our main character is an emotionally distant woman with a very traumatic past. She’s a team leader on her last trip with not much to look forward to, after. Because of her past, she’s determined to distance herself from the rest of humanity, and only barely tolerates her crew mates (with the exception of her medic, who she’s got the hots for, because what is a story without a completely unnecessary romance side plot?)
The actual plot takes off when the maintenance vessel receives a distress signal from a very old space cruise ship presumed lost a couple of decades back. They investigate, board the ship, and gain first hand experience of what caused the problems that lead to the loss of the ship in the first place.
“Space travel is boring. As a commweb maintenance team, we’re used to it. A boring day is a good day. Boring is what we strive for. When things are exciting, someone is usually about to die in some new and horrible way.”
The audio narrator of the book was intense, to say the least. I honestly could have done with less aggression and shouting, even though I do understand that she was simply channeling the main character. Just, you know, sometimes less is more.
Some bits were pretty successful in getting my heart pumping and anxiety spiking, but mostly I was unfortunately pretty underwhelmed. The romance subplot annoyed the shit out of me, because it was so unnecessary and pasted on. Being motivated by the loss of a friend is much more impactful (in my mind at least) than by the loss of someone you have a crush on. Why can’t authors just trust in that?
I’d recommend this to someone who’s maybe transitioning into reading adult sci-fi/horror from mostly reading YA.
“It sets off a strange sense of dislocation in my brain. Like it can’t be real. Or I’m not.
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But maybe that’s just because of the dead princess floating in the corner.”Our main character is an emotionally distant woman with a very traumatic past. She’s a team leader on her last trip with not much to look forward to, after. Because of her past, she’s determined to distance herself from the rest of humanity, and only barely tolerates her crew mates (with the exception of her medic, who she’s got the hots for, because what is a story without a completely unnecessary romance side plot?)
The actual plot takes off when the maintenance vessel receives a distress signal from a very old space cruise ship presumed lost a couple of decades back. They investigate, board the ship, and gain first hand experience of what caused the problems that lead to the loss of the ship in the first place.
“Space travel is boring. As a commweb maintenance team, we’re used to it. A boring day is a good day. Boring is what we strive for. When things are exciting, someone is usually about to die in some new and horrible way.”
The audio narrator of the book was intense, to say the least. I honestly could have done with less aggression and shouting, even though I do understand that she was simply channeling the main character. Just, you know, sometimes less is more.
Some bits were pretty successful in getting my heart pumping and anxiety spiking, but mostly I was unfortunately pretty underwhelmed. The romance subplot annoyed the shit out of me, because it was so unnecessary and pasted on. Being motivated by the loss of a friend is much more impactful (in my mind at least) than by the loss of someone you have a crush on. Why can’t authors just trust in that?
I’d recommend this to someone who’s maybe transitioning into reading adult sci-fi/horror from mostly reading YA.
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LibraryThing member mind_ju
Don't go into this expecting Event Horizon or The Shining. There are some Horror elements, but I'd say at the core it's a Thriller set in space.
I don't regret reading it, but it sure wasn't what I was looking for and I can't think of anything particularly strong or successful about the story or themundane in a way. While some readers will be disappointed, I feel it's probably the bravest thing about the writing.
I don't regret reading it, but it sure wasn't what I was looking for and I can't think of anything particularly strong or successful about the story or the
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characters. Actually, what I might remember best about this book is the mystery's conclusion, because it's just so Show Less
LibraryThing member LynnMPK
I’ve come to realize that I don’t enjoy reading from the perspective of unreliable narrators. I wish I had known that the MC of this book is probably the most unreliable of narrators. How was Claire able to be in charge of ANYONE? Girl was a mess and whoever put her in charge of the safety of
The story was interesting enough for me to finish with only a few eye rolls here and there. I was not thrilled with the reveal and I think the story lost steam after you knew what was going on. Also, it was annoying how everyone was crazy until they were needed to be competent to move the plot along.
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other people needs to be fired.The story was interesting enough for me to finish with only a few eye rolls here and there. I was not thrilled with the reveal and I think the story lost steam after you knew what was going on. Also, it was annoying how everyone was crazy until they were needed to be competent to move the plot along.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
I haven't read a Sci/Fi novel in a long, long time so thought this one sounded like something I would like. I wasn't entirely wrong. It opens with a crew of workers who are finishing a maintenance project in deep space when they suddenly pick up a distress signal from the luxury liner, Aurora. This
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usually wouldn’t be too unusual except that luxury liner went missing twenty years ago, lost to the mysteries of space…that is...until now. Claire Kovalik, the head of the team makes the decision to investigate...and she and her crew enter the ghost ship. They find that after more than two decades of drifting in deep space, the Aurora’s life support systems are all offline, and its interior is littered with hundreds of bodies. They also discover that most of the cruise liner’s passengers appear to have died under very mysterious circumstances. Something strange and unimaginable happened here. Darkness and paranoia begin to close in. I have to say up until that point, this story was exactly what I had expected and had hoped it would be. As Claire and her crew explored the haunted ship filled with the dead, I thought it was very much like "Event Horizon"...creepy, atmospheric, with over-the-top tension. It was unfolding beautifully into an awe-inspiring experience that felt very much like watching a movie. Then, the second half changed. The story from here split into two separated timelines...the past and the present. The story lost a lot of the momentum. The pace came to an abrupt halt during, and it was simply impossible to see things quite the same and I started to lose interest as more of the intrigue was removed, and the plot began to feel a tad too "crowded" with the addition of corporate politics, pandemic themes, conspiracies, and even a touch of romance which seemed almost to have been an afterthought. The action and the thrills toward the end were okay, but they were having much less of an impact at this point. I didn't in anyway dislike the book, I just wish the author could have continued the vibe that it started out with. I couldn't quiet go with the 5-star rating that I started out with, but 4.5 is honest. If you enjoy sci-fi horror, then chances are you are going to love Dead Silence. Show Less
Awards
RUSA CODES Reading List (Shortlist — Horror — 2023)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2022
Physical description
352 p.; 8.65 inches
ISBN
1250819997 / 9781250819994
Other editions
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes (Ebook)
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