Title: Paradise- 1
Author: David Wellington
Published: April 4, 2023
Format: e-ARC
My Rating: 3.5 stars/5
Synopsis: When Special Agent Petrov and Dr. Lei Zhang are woken up from cryogenic sleep, dragged freezing and dripping wet out of their pods with the ship’s alarms blaring in the background, they know something is very wrong. Warned by the Captain that they’re under attack, they have no choice but to investigate.
It doesn’t take much time to learn that they’ve been met by another vessel—a vessel from Paradis-One, Earth’s first deep-space colony, and their final destination.
Worse still, the vessel is empty. And it carries with it the message that all communications from the 150,000 souls inhabiting the Paradis-One has completely ceased.
Petrov and Zhang must board the empty ship and delve further into deep space to discover the truth of the colony’s disappearance—but the further they go, the more dangers loom.
My thoughts from the Vault
Disclaimer: I received an audio e-ARC of this book. I chose to review it and this in no way impacts my opinion of it.
When I read the synopsis of this book I was instantly interested. I’ve been getting into Sci-Fi more lately and I’ve been really enjoying my dive into the genre and this novel was perfect to read next.
The story begins with Agent Petrov disobeying a direct order and getting herself into a lot of trouble with FireWatch and getting herself put on a ship to spend three months in cryogenic sleep to check on Paradise- 1, Earth’s first deep-space colony. When Petrova and the rest of the crew, Sam Parker (pilot), Zhang Lei (Doctor), and a robot named Rapscallion are abruptly awoken, they begin to realize this mission they’ve been sent on is not a routine check up.
This novel was incredibly fast paced and action packed. I really enjoyed the action and slight horror aspect to this novel and found it to be creepy at times which I loved. It wasn’t really scary at all for a novel packaged as horror first and Sci-Fi next, but that could be due to my inability to be scared.
I wasn’t aware when I began this book that it was going to be a series so I was quite shocked when I was finally nearing the end of this massive novel only to realize that there couldn’t be a conclusion in the short time left. I was right. This novel leaves off on a huge cliffhanger with no sort of conclusion to any of the questions that were left open.
Lastly, I just want to mention how incredible the narrator of this audio book was. I was hooked instantly and found her voice to be very fitting for the role and was downright creepy at the right times when it needed to be. I’m very glad I had the audiobook of this novel because it was thrilling.
I believe if you’re into Sci-Fi and like things to be a little bit creepy, you’ll enjoy this novel! I know I’m definitely going to have to check out more work by Wellington myself.
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