Ok, if I had known what this book was about, I would not have read it. And, let me make clear that my rating is based on the genre than the writing itself. The writing is pretty good being very, very descriptive and that’s my problem with the book! This is a science fiction horror story – no doubt about it. It could be written by Stephen King and I wouldn’t have been surprised although I don’t read his books either. The story-line isn’t that difficult to come up with and it’s probably been used on hundreds if not thousands of sci-fi horror movies.
Ok, about the story. You’re on a quasi-military cargo starship just coming out of cryosleep when you find new orders telling you to head for Mars Felicity Station. While going into cryosleep did keep the boredom down from these long voyages, this one was going to done and then you had three weeks of vacation back on Earth. That is until you didn’t.
You, as Commander James Tealson, and your crew of the Perihelion, are in military service called Orbital Corps. That service was specifically designed to fight in space against the Russians, except that fight never happened. The Russians had long ago given up space and were concentrating more on their part of the planet Earth. So, with no fighting to do, you and your ship became cargo haulers. Also, being a long way from Command HQ had made you and your crew a little lax in the military discipline department. Everyone does there job, but it’s not like they are really into it since they aren’t going to be facing any enemies in space. So, you get to haul cargo usually going back and forth from and to the same place.
Now, you’ve been told to immediately head for Mars and specifically Felicity Station. Command says the Mars station has gone dark for some unknown reason so they want you and your crew to go fix it. Just like that, go fix something that is broken. Your thoughts of a vacation have gone out the window because orders are orders and the trip to Mars from where you’re at will take seven long weeks, most of which you’ll be in cryosleep with all the aches and pains that entails when you eventually wake up.
Mars Felicity Station is a huge research station with a lot of scientist, about 150 or so. They are led by a guy name Will Braun. He and his fellow scientist are in big trouble. They have accidentally cause a tear in the space-time fabric and something has came through. This something is evil, can’t be seen, and feeds on humans. Felicity Station has gone dark with all the power almost gone. You and the few remaining scientist are hold up in the cryosleep lab hoping that you can stay alive until help comes.
Ok, so by now you should know that this is not going to be an easy trip for the crew of the Perihelion mainly because you’re not fighters any more than these scientist. You’re crew are engineers, comm specialist, loadmasters, medical specialist, navigators, and such, but no one with actual combat experience. In fact, none of you have even been checked out on the weapons available to you for a long time. Lastly, there is no information coming to you as to what is happening on Felicity Station. You’re going to be walking in the dark.
Have fun reading this book. I read at night, in the dark, so it was a little tough for me to get through it. I do know one thing, book 2, “Call of the Void”, is NOT on my reading list and never will be. Thank you, but I’ll pass on this kind of horror story.