“Sci-fi as it should be; scary, isolating.No one will hear you scream.”–Iffet Burton, Goodreads review In the dark, empty space between solar systems, something lies in wait.It’s pretty easy being a ship kid; clean out the cyclers, avoid your sister, don’t get sucked into space. The hardest bit about it is spending a couple of decades in stasis/sleep while your ship travels to the next solar … stasis/sleep while your ship travels to the next solar system. Then rinse and repeat all the way back to a home you’ve never seen.
Except Kuma just got kicked out of stasis early, like years early. And he’s alone.
All. Alone.
Except for the fug.
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This story takes the reader on an emotional roller-coaster ride, while it is sci-fi at its core there are elements of a good horror tale woven throughout. Kuma’s dilemma of coming out of stasis early and being the only person awake and maybe alive on the ship was enough to hook my interest and the action sequences certainly kept me engaged up until the end of this first episode. While the story ends with a cliffhanger that has to be expected since this is the first of a new series. I’ll be sticking around for installment number 2. I received a review copy from Story Origin and chose to provide this review.
Interesting story. I got some interesting feelings from the scenes from the story.. Looking forward to the completed.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Usually, waking up from a nightmare is a good thing, for Kuma, it was just the beginning of the true horror. The only person awake on a generational scientific survey ship, he finds himself battling for not only his survival, but that of the ship and everyone on it, including his identical twin sister, as he slowly learns what he is up against.
Despite the limited cast and setting, this is a very fast moving compelling read. The imagery is powerful, sometimes evoking a visceral, primal reactions. Kuma’s relationship with the little rucnart added emotional depth. The world building around the various aliens on the ship and their abilities was very well done as well, adding to the richness of the story.
This is the first book in The Echo series and the ending – wow, serious reveal and I can’t wait to see what is coming in book 2!
It’s bad enough to have your own nightmares, but Kuma Darzi is in stasis and is experiencing his mother’s nightmare, oily vines wrapped around her tightly with thorns piercing her! It’s something she can’t get out of since she can’t “wake up” in stasis. But the nightmare is strong enough that her fear lashed out to Kuma. His mom is a telepath, and Kuma is an empath, so he is receiving her nightmare. Her screams go through his eardrums and, of course, he can’t cover his ears to stop it. But he is pushed away from her nightmare and Onah, not a human but a white presence around a boiling darkness, forces him to see the others who can dream are sick with the oily vines around them. And Onah tells him he must wake up! His pod opens and he can’t breathe! An AI avatar appears and coaches him on how to take a breath, telling him the stasis gel fills his lungs and will dissolve soon.
When he is breathing better, Kuma asks Citiali, the ship’s AI, to wake his mom. The AI says she cannot. Kuma tries to open her pod manually with the Revive button – but it doesn’t respond! He can feel his mom still in the clutches of the nightmare, but he cannot revive her. He goes to his dad’s pod, but when he pulls up the data, there are no heart or brain readings – he’s dead, and yet Kuma can still feel him, though the AI says he died two weeks before! And she insists all systems are functional!
Kuma goes to his twin sister’s pod but cannot see inside. He bangs on the pod’s surface and a flake of “fug” falls off. Although he gets readings of her vital signs, he cannot connect with her brain – they are twins, both empaths, and he should easily enter her thoughts. But there is nothing there! He sees the fug is thick in her pod and asks the AI about it – but the AI cannot see any fug, she says! Something is definitely wrong with the AI, and it’s something he can’t fix!
Kuma notices the absolute quiet now. Apparently he is the only living human on the ship heading toward another solar system. There are some critters that keep the ship clean, but he senses no one else. Then he senses a rucnart, p’Endr, and in a terrible mental battle right as she dies, she gives him a memory that shows him what happened and that the fug is somehow aware and is consuming everything. Can one boy fight such a terrible thing?
Wow, this one will give you nightmares of your own! The author seems to know every terror someone might face and then puts it into this story! Unfortunately, she does this so well that the reader will feel everything, all the pain, the terror, the struggling. If you dare, grab your copy and see how it all started and if there is a way to defeat it. If not, this nightmare may not end, and I’m not sure I want to face Book 2!
A roller coaster ride through all your emotions and fears, especially those dark nightmares we all dread. Fast paced.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Cold Between Stars is the first book in a new series from Aussie author Belinda Crawford. If you’re after a fast paced, and I really DO mean fast paced sci-fi, then this might be for you. Kuma wakes from stasis to find his ship under attack from a mysterious entity which he calls “The Fug.” I loved this as I can easily see a teenager thinking, “What the hell is this? No idea? Let’s just call it Fug.” Not a bad name considering it seems to be a kind of sentient fungus / blob that’s destroying the ship and seems to have killed almost everybody else. Kuma has got act fast to survive and save what’s left of his world on the ship. This book rockets along and you’ve really got to pay attention to the details, but by the end you’ll want to have “Dude” as your buddy and to own a franken-thrower.
(NB Kuma is trans gender and it’s great to see an author giving us characters who reflect the diversity within society.)