Review: Cold Eternity by S.A. Barnes

Title: Cold Eternity

Author: S.A. Barnes

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, horror

Publication date: April 8th 2025

Published by: Tor Nightfire

Source: eARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis: 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 cryo program, created by trillionaire tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram "hosts," ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. 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 rating: ★★★★☆

I have really enjoyed the novels by S.A. Barnes. They aren’t quite 5-star reads for me, but they are definitely enjoyable and deliver on both the sci-fi and horror aspects! Plus, the mystery in this book was intriguing and I enjoyed trying to unravel it! And two pages into this book and I was already loving the premise of it as well! Halley has had it rough and accepts a shady job as a caretaker/security on this sort-of abandoned spaceship. And I say sort of because this ship holds a bunch of cryogenically frozen bodies.

Review: Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Title: Ghost Station

Author: S.A. Barnes

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, horror

Publication date: April 9th 2024

Published by: Tor Nightfire

Source: eARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis: A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.

Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.

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?

Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by… and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.

My rating: ★★★★☆

I read and loved this author’s debut Dead Silence so I was really looking forward to reading another spooky sci-fi book from her! And overall, I liked it! Not as much as Dead Silence, but it was still good.

Review: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Title: Dead Silence

Author: S.A. Barnes (pen name of Stacey Kade)

Genre: Adult, sci-fi, horror

Publication date: February 8th 2022

Published by: Tor Nightfire

Source: eARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Synopsis:

A GHOST SHIP.
A SALVAGE CREW.
UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.

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 rating: ★★★★☆

I was insanely excited when I first heard about this book! I read Stacey Kade’s The Ghost and the Goth series a couple of years ago, and I really loved it! (Well, I read the first two books... but we’re not talking about my terrible habit of not finishing series 😅) I was particularly excited to learn that she would be writing something a little different than she usually does with this adult sci-fi horror, and I gotta say, I really enjoyed it!