Review: Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Ghost Station

by S.A. Barnes

Release Date: April 9, 2024

2024 Tor Nightfire

Kindle & Audiobook ARC; 377 Pages 

ISBN: 978-1250884923

ASIN: B0C2MVPFNC

Audiobook: B0C3NMSG2C

Genre: Fiction / Sci-Fi / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.25 / 5 Stars

Summary

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.

While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure than opening up to her.

That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?

 

My Thoughts

Ghost Station is the new entry in space horror by this horror and I definitely liked it better than the first book. I am fascinated by the concept of space travel and exploration, and love the idea that we are not alone out there and those who are out there are not always welcoming and may be far superior to us. Space exploration can be deadly, yes, but it can also be lonely as well as exciting. You have to depend on others to survive so what happens when you don't necessarily have confidence in others on your team? 

 

The story revolves around Ophelia, the ship's psychologist, who is sent to assess the mental well-being of the crew on an isolated planet where one of their crew mates has died. Wanting to do good, she is surprised when she is given the cold shoulder as the crew understands that a poor evaluation could get them sent home and make them unemployable. Ophelia is a bit of a mess during this book and I enjoyed her journey as she explored the impact her past had on her choices and her behaviour, but the fact she is ignorant of the impact she could have on the crew mates blows me away. She constantly talks about how different she is from her family, but doesn't really consider the implications of why she is sent there in there in the first place.  

 

The first half of the book is quite slow as it deals a lot with Ophelia and her family and the secrets she has kept from everyone; there is so much going on in her head that it sometimes becomes repetitive. It's not that the introspection wasn't interesting, but it has to balance more with the action and this didn't happen until the second half of the book.  A lot of the information was important to the second half of the book, but you had to be really patient for the action to start happening.

 

As mentioned previously, the plot was quite slow in the beginning, but I did enjoy the build-up of the tension. It revolved mainly around Ophelia's issues and whether what she was seeing was real or not as well as the issues she was having with other crew mates. I listened to the audiobook as well as read an ARC kindle version, and I really enjoyed the audiobook. Zura Johnson did a great job narrating the book and the other crew members were easily distinguishable. Personally, I preferred the audiobook. 

Once the action picked up in the second half, it was good and there was a big secret to be revealed, something I already suspected.  I wish the author had kept up this kind of tension and pace throughout the novel as the last quarter was the best of the book. 

Verdict

Ghost Station was an improvement for me as I DNF the last one, but it did get bogged down in the first half with too much introspection. With such an intriguing narrative, I wish the author had balanced the mental health aspects of doing such a job with the action a bit more as I felt like they were two separate things in this book.  I definitely enjoyed it, and am looking forward to reading more by this author in the future. And I will also be searching for more by this narrator as well.

 

Review: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Dead Silence

by S.A. Barnes

Release Date: FEbruary 8, 2022

2022 Nightfire

Kindle Edition; 343 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250819994

ASIN: B0951SCZRK

Audiobook: B092NYBM4Q

Genre: Fiction / Science-Fiction / Horror

Source: Review copy from publisher

2.75 / 5 Stars

Summary

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.

 

My Thoughts

Dead Silence had such an interesting concept, the same pull that I crave when reading about haunted houses: finding an empty ship that has been lost for years, then discovering the bodies are still on the ship killed in grotesque ways.  How does something like this happen? How does a luxury liner with the most famous and the richest of the rich just suddenly disappear for many years? A space concept I love. Alas, that was not to be the case as the story did not live up to its potential and I really, really struggled to get through it.  

 

First of all, the ideas were really interesting and I really liked the first couple of chapters.  It was ghostly, eerie, and I really soaked up the atmosphere as the crew explored the ship, horrified at what they discovered.  You could just sense this eeriness and I was expecting someone to jump out at any time, having pulled some survival botanist trick (Mark Whatney-esque) from their butt.  Unfortunately, the execution soon fell flat and I had a hard time getting through some of the scenes.  I am not a fan of dual timelines, but I do wonder if this book would have benefited from that type of writing style which would have allowed the reader to experience what actually happened originally on the ship and allow the suspense to build up as they worked through the fear with its passengers and crew.. That same fear could have carried through the present day as the current crew dealt with the same fear which would have kept up the tension and fear. The way it was written destroyed the suspense for me as it was more telling the reader what happened which is wasted in a horror novel as it lowers the suspense and tension. And honestly, it got boring. 

The biggest issue I had with this book was with the main character, Claire.  I could have happily opened up an airlock at any point and tossed her out.  I understand that she is dealing with some significant issues, but the author didn't allow for any character development or growth, not even one iota. It felt very tropey, making a main character weak so others can behave in certain ways and walk all over you even if you are the leader, creating tension between the crew.  I just had a hard time believing that someone like Claire would be in charge of something like this in such an organization. I did like the other characters though, and wish the author had focused a bit more on them, especially Cain, I adored Cain.

 

Verdict

Dead Silence had a lot of potential, and overall, I did like some aspects of the book.  When the writing and story were good, they were GOOD, and I was entranced and couldn't read fast enough, the horror elements being interesting and eerie.  Unfortunately, the writing style was also a weakness, and there were times I had to drag myself back to continue reading, especially when Claire was being particularly annoying or the story took on more of a telling mode and lost me completely.  Maybe I am being particularly difficult as I read a lot of horror?  That being said, I will definitely read another book by this author and I am hoping she will write another space horror in the future.