Review: Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

Cold Eternity

by S.A. Barnes

Release Date: April 8, 2025

2025 Tor Nightfire

Ebook ARC; 293 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250884954

ASIN: B0D1PQ139Y

Audiobook: B0D3QRG2JR

Genre: Fiction / Horror / Science-Fiction

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago…

The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there’s a constant scraping, slithering, and rattling echoing in the vents. It’s not long before Halley realizes she may have gotten herself trapped in an even more dangerous situation than the one she was running from….

 

My Thoughts

Cold Eternity is another space horror novel and after reading the previous two books this author has written, I really wasn't sure what to expect as I had mixed feelings about both those books. And yet again, the same thing has happened with this one as I enjoyed the setting a lot, liked the creepy feeling that was being set up, then felt the let down at the conclusion of the book.  Personally, it just didn't quite deliver the goods.

 

I didn't mind the main character, Halley, who is on the run for something in her political past. We learn quite early that Halley is not her real name and that quite a few people are after her; either they want her dead or they want the information she carries. The desperation she felt as she hunted for a job to protect herself was well-written, and I liked the way she still tried to protect herself from predators despite her qualms. When she arrived at the job, it was eerie as anything, but she managed to keep her cool and do her job. Personally, I think anyone in her position would ignore the clues that were abundant around her because she was so desperate to earn money and get away. When you are desperate, you will do anything, and ignore anything, to get what you need to escape. I didn't actually mind that aspect of her personality as I understood her desperation. And it's not like she didn't see what was in front of her, she just chose to ignore what was there because it helped her to survive and cope.

 

The plot itself was actually quite interesting the first half of the book, and I found it eerie and downright creepy. I couldn't figure out why Halley just accepted meeting the mechanic the way she did, but I guess there are some things you are just supposed to ignore as you read.  *Sarcasm   The ship itself it pretty much a graveyard, with bodies frozen in a cryogenic state aboard. And it was downright creepy. And to be fair, I love eerie ghost ships and stories that revolve around this premise so the creepiness was right up my alley. And you would think the second half of the book would up the creepiness factor, but yet again, the author ruined it by going the paranormal route instead of the horror route.  Up to this point, the horror element was actually quite good and I was thinking the author had upped the game and would bypass the previous books, then bam, the paranormal stuff, which totally ruined the horror element for me.  

Verdict

Cold Eternity was actually quite good until about two-thirds of the way into the book, with good atmospheric horror elements and a creepiness that can only come when aboard an empty ship full of cryogenic people that no one knows what to do with. The character development was fine, and although Halley did some things that made me roll my eyes at times, it was more out of desperation than because her character was silly as she was desperate to get away from people who were hunting her. However, I wasn't keen on the last third of the book as an element was introduced that spoiled the overall creepy effect and left me feeling a bit disappointed in the ending. That being said, it was still an engaging read and worth your while if you like sci-fi horror.