Book Review: Dead Silence (By S.A. Barnes)

I’ve always loved science fiction, especially stories set in space. Little beats the plot of space travel gone wrong due to an unknown enemy and a preceding crew that disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

So when I came across S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence, I delved in expecting a lot! Read on to find out if this sci-fi met expectations.

Genre: 

Science fiction, Thriller, Horror

Length: 

343 pages

Blurb:

Claire Kovalik knows little more than her job. Team lead on a repair ship, space is all she’s known or wanted. But now, she’s on her last job, made obsolete by technology, and with no foreseeable future for which to return to Earth. So when her ship picks up a distress signal, she and her team decide to investigate. What they find is the Aurora – a luxury cruise spaceship that disappeared twenty years ago on its maiden voyage. Their salvage claim could solve the entire team’s problems and take away all worries about the future. But when Claire and the others go onto the Aurora, they find words scrawled in blood, strange movements, and horrors unlike what they’ve ever seen. What happened on the Aurora twenty years ago? What happened to the hundreds of guests and staff? And will Claire and her team escape facing the same fate… or will history repeat itself?

Overall Rating:

10 out of 10 stars

Plot:

10 out of 10 stars

Characterization:

10 out of 10 stars

Primary Element:

10 out of 10 for its thrill and sci-fi, 8 out of 10 for its horror

Writing Style:

10 out of 10 stars

Part of a Series: 

No.

Highlighted Takeaway:

A brilliant mix of horror, science-fiction, and psychological thriller, Dead Silence will keep you reading late into the night, while making you look over your shoulder at every sound and leave the lights on.

What I Liked:

S.A. Barnes does justice to the various genres that Dead Silence crosses. Some parts are absolutely terrifying, but the book eventually settles into a very intriguing thriller, with the suspense keeping you hooked until the last page.

What I absolutely loved about the book, though, was the characterization. Each character held their own, regardless of the size of their role. They were complex and very real, making them easy to associate with, even as they all existed across various shades of gray. And, the best thing about the characterization was how well the author handled the main character, Claire. In a lot of women-led books, the primary characters become difficult-to-care-about, frustrating people instead of the complex characters the authors are trying to portray them as. I found this especially true for The Girl on the Train (by Paula Hawkins) and Before She Disappeared (by Lisa Garnder) (among many others). S.A. Barnes, though, weaves an amazing character arc for Claire and the others, making you dislike, love, pity, and root for her all at once, and keeping you completely engrossed. She doesn’t attempt to be “strong”. She just is; a combination of all her faults, virtues, fears, strength, and good intentions. And that took Dead Silence to a whole other level.

What I Didn’t Like:

I found nothing to dislike in the book. Even negative characters that can often cause a disconnect from the story did quite the opposite, adding depth to the story because of how well they were created.

Who Should Read It:

While it’s not very heavy on the ‘horror’ element, it definitely has some very scary sections that will keep you up at night (or for a few nights if you’re a scaredy-cat like me). So if you enjoy the creepy-horror type of narrative, and science fiction + thriller books such as Michael Crichton’s Sphere or Obscura by Joe Hart, or movies in the same genre such as Alien, Prometheus, or Life, you should definitely give Dead Silence a try.

Who Should Avoid:

Dead Silence does become violent and graphic just pages in. So if that’s not something you can easily digest, I’d recommend proceeding with caution.

Read It For:

Excellent characterization, an intriguing storyline, and great mystery and thrills.

Although it did keep me up for a night or two, Dead Silence introduced me to an author whose work I really enjoyed. I’m definitely going to be looking out for more of S.A. Barnes’ work. Get your hardcover copy of Dead Silence (with free global shipping) here. Or get a paperback copy here.

Let us know what you thought of Dead Silence, or just drop us a comment to tell us about your favorite science fiction books and movies. And as always, thank you for taking a break at The Book Review Station!

This post contains affiliate links. The Book Review Station may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you use these links to purchase books. Thanks!

– Rishika

Advertisement

Book Review: Dark Matter (By Blake Crouch)

I discovered Blake Crouch when I first came across the Goodreads page of Dark Matter, even though I only added it to my TBR pile at the time. I ended up reading Recursion first, and absolutely loved it. You can see its review here.

Finally ended up getting a copy of Dark Matter in July this year, and I delved right in. Did it meet expectations and was the novel everyone raves about better than Recursion? Read on to know.

Genre: 

Science Fiction, Thriller

Length: 

352 pages

Blurb:

Jason Dessen is happily married with an amazing son. His career as a college physics professor is satisfactory. His wife is an art teacher who enjoys her work. By all accounts, they’re happy… he’s happy. Except, a part of him wonders if his wife’s unplanned pregnancy and their consequent decision to give up his research and her attempt at being a full-time artist was the right choice. What could they have achieved if they’d made different choices? Would they… he… have been happier?

Of course, those are just thoughts… everybody has them.

Except, Jason is attacked one evening when he’s walking home to his family. When he wakes up, he is himself, but not in a world he knows. He’s not married, he has no son, and he’s not a professor. But, he is a known and celebrated genius who pursued his research to phenomenal results. He tries to make sense of his surroundings even as memories of his life seem to fade away.

What is this new world? Who is Jason Dessen in this world? Where is his family? And, most importantly, was the world he knew real… or is this the real one?

Overall Rating:

8 out of 10 stars

Plot:

10 out of 10 stars

Characterization:

10 out of 10 stars

Primary Element:

9 out of 10 stars for its sci-fi and its thrill

Writing Style:

10 out of 10 stars

Part of a Series: 

No.

Highlighted Takeaway:

A roller coaster of a sci-fi ride that’s as strong on evoking introspection as it is on keeping the pages turning.

What I Liked:

Blake Crouch brings sci-fi and fragile humanity together, and weaves stories that are not just interesting but thought-provoking too. He does just that in Dark Matter. The book also has some great characterization – subtle but powerful, that makes each character impactful, regardless of how much visibility they have. The story and the basic premise are intriguing, taking the age-old question, “What if?” to a brilliant level.

What I Didn’t Like:

There is nothing really wrong with Dark Matter. In my opinion, it just wasn’t as edge-of-your-seat as Recursion. That’s the only reason I’ve rated it lower than a full 10.

Who Should Read It:

Anyone who likes science fiction will enjoy Dark Matter. Especially if you like sci-fi that delves into the beauty and ugliness of human psychology. I’ve always found Michael Crichton’s work to be that perfect mix of sci-fi and psychology (especially how people behave when driven by greed while influenced by their own histories). I’ve found Blake Crouch’s work similar in its approach to the combination, although he explores human psychology in different ways. If this is your first shot at sci-fi, I’d definitely recommend checking out Blake Crouch.

Who Should Avoid:

If you’re not a big fan of sci-fi, especially multi-timeline / multi-universe stories, I’d recommend skipping Dark Matter.

Read It For:

A glimpse into what someone can truly be capable of when pushed to different limits.

I’m definitely going to keep reading more of Blake Crouch’s work, including his older and newer novels. I’m especially excited about his latest release, Upgrade, even though it has been getting mixed reviews on Goodreads.

Recursion, Dark Matter, and Upgrade are all available in beautiful hardcovers. You can get them delivered across the world for free through Book Depository using the following links:

• Recursion

• Dark Matter

• Upgrade

Let us know what you thought of Dark Matter or other works by Blake Crouch in the comments below. And as always, thanks for stopping at The Book Review Station!

This post contains affiliate links. The Book Review Station may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you, if you use these links to purchase books. Thanks!

– Rishika

Book Review: Recursion (By Blake Crouch)

Our lives and we, ourselves, are made of our memories. Does that mean that altering these memories could alter our realities (or the perception of our realities)?

I’d been looking for a good science fiction novel for a long time. I’m a huge fan of Michael Crichton’s work – his books have always had an incredible mix of science fiction and psychological outlook, making for great stories with great characterization. Obscura by Joe Hart was the last ‘really good’ science fiction novel that I’d read (review here). And Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter has been on my list for a while. Before I could read that though, I heard about Recursion, added it to my TBR pile, and managed to get my hands on a copy.

Needless to say, I had high expectations. Read on to know if they were met.

Genre: 

Science fiction

Length: 

329 pages

Blurb:

NYC Cop, Barry Sutton, can do nothing but watch as a woman kills herself – driven mad by painfully vivid memories of a life she hasn’t lived. Sutton is a functioning alcoholic, unable to come to terms with the hit-and-run that killed his teenage daughter eleven years ago and his subsequent divorce. But he’s a good cop, which is why he cannot let the suicide go. Just another in a mounting number of cases of FMS – False Memory Syndrome – it leaves Sutton searching for a truth and opening the doors to a world he didn’t know existed.

Brilliant neuroscientist, Helena Smith, knows the importance of memories. And she wants to create the technology that will help people preserve their most precious ones, so that they can live them again in vivid detail. Driven by the desire to save her mother’s memories before Alzheimer’s claims them all, she cannot refuse an incredible opportunity that promises her everything she needs to achieve her goal.

The paths they set down on bring them together – and against a terrifying force… born from the greed of wealth and fame. Can Barry and Helena defeat this invisible enemy, or will reality as they – and everyone else – know it, change forever in catastrophic ways?

Overall Rating:

9 out of 10

Plot:

9 out of 10

Characterization:

7 out of 10 (lower than my initial thought of 8 out of 10 because I found some of the character development toward the last one-third of the book a bit hurried and abrupt).

Primary Element:

9 out of 10 for its fictional science-y element

Writing Style:

8 out of 10

Part of a Series:

No. 

Highlighted Takeaway:

Beautifully chaotic, Recursion has a (surprising) emotional impact that comes in at the (approximate) 60% mark of the story. Without giving away too much, I can only say that Blake Crouch manages to evoke a lot of feelings in the reader for his main characters.

What I Liked:

The tumult that many of the main characters go through and the different conclusions they reach – all of them make you feel like, if such an event were to really take place, these would be the very human and very humane things that most of us will probably do. It added a realistic element to the characters and the story.

What I Didn’t Like:

I found two things a bit off-putting. The first was the writing style. The tense used was a little difficult to get used to. You do get past it, but it takes a while and, until then, I found it keeping me from getting pulled right in from page one (even though the events that kickstart the book are pretty great). The second was the abrupt and sudden character development jump I mentioned above. It was easy to get past it and say, “Okay, this is happening with this person now,” and you even root for the persons involved, but I felt like it could have had a few more pages dedicated to it.

Who Should Read It:

Anyone who likes science fiction will probably enjoy Blake Crouch’s Recursion, especially if you like Michael Crichton’s work.

Who Should Avoid:

There are elements of thriller and mystery, and even a dystopian feel to Recursion. But its crux is science fiction and a large part of the book is dedicated to explanations. Plus, its very story is based around popular science fiction themes. So unless you have at least a little bit of interest in science fiction, I would recommend avoiding Recursion.

Read It For:

A few excellent insights about us (as humans) and about living life – with all its ups and downs.

I can happily say that Recursion satisfied my craving for a great sci-fi read. And Blake Crouch is definitely an author to follow if you like the genre.

Share your thoughts on Blake Crouch’s work, Recursion, or anything sci-fi related in the comments below (book recommendations are very welcome!).

Coming up next… no idea! I’ve got a few books I’m looking at including Salvation of a Saint (by Keigo Higashino), Antifragile (by Naseem Nicholas Taleb), Hooked (by Nir Eyal), and Broken Heart (by Tim Weaver). Let’s see which one I end up starting with 😀

As always, thank you for stopping by and reading my two-cents’ worth on another book!

– Rishika