SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

A few questions to get us started:


1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

I think the world worked well and there's just enough detail about how things worked without being bogged down in excessive details. I also liked the characters well enough, though I wish there was a little more nuance to some of them. Kane seemed too good to be true and Voller was a textbook asshole. Even Lourdes didn't get much development beyond religious, sweet naïve youth. I wish there was more detail about what happened to Lourdes and Nysus. I mean we know they die but their deaths were off screen (in a manner of speaking) which was annoying. I also wish we got just a little more, maybe in the epilogue, about Claire's abilities. That was the most unique part of this book, tbh. Seeing ghosts in space is kinda cool (not for her but like...in general).

I was really excited about this one. It was already in my TBR after I saw someone compare it to the movie Event Horizon - I LOVE that movie. But I couldn't get over the writing and how immature the crew was. I kept having to remind myself that they were adults and not The Breakfast Club in Space. I tried to get through it for the sake of Bookclub...I really did... but I put it in the DNF pile right around when they find the ship and then Googled the plot summary. NO RAGRETS

Read it in 2 days, couldn’t put it down. Totally reminded me of Event Horizon, so creepy. I enjoyed the blend of scifi and horror, I found it to be believable enough.

There are 2 different books in between these covers.

The first one is an absolutely excellent haunted-house-in-space, utterly engaging, full of tension and jumpy nerves. I agree that the rest of the crew was fairly thin on characterization, but easily forgave that in the moment because that's how Claire likes it - she doesn't get attached/involved so doesn't know them all that well on purpose.

But then we jump forward again to "now" and Claire doesn't have a clue how she got off that ship, and it's frustrating that we don't ever get to, either. Instead of the haunted house, we're dropped into a "corporate greed is bad" story, and that left turn is so sharp it feels like a cheat, like Barnes wasn't able to write their way out of the house of horrors so pulled a vague handwaving to pluck Claire out of it and move her elsewhere.

First chunk of the book, solid 4* read; final part 2*.

I was really hoping for more of the creepy ghost stuff that happened early on to continue but this turned into a story about evil corporate goons and lost the spookiness factor for me. I loved the first part of the book and was genuinely watching my back while reading it to make sure there wasn’t a ghost behind me, I wish that would’ve lasted longer. 3/5 for me because I still enjoyed it but was expecting more based on how many reviews said it was super spooky!

I just became a member of this group (hi everyone!), but I happened to read Dead Silence earlier this year, so I figured I would go ahead and comment on it here. I enjoyed the super creepy premise and loved the characters, though I wanted to know more about them... then again, I didn't- knowing that they probably weren't going to make it out based on the flash forward parts of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the creepy aspects and was glad she was able to make it out both times, but was also frustrated about the memory gap and lack of resolution there.
Overall, I enjoyed this read a good bit (4 stars). It made me stop several times early on because it was so intense and it made me incredibly anxious. I have always enjoyed scary stories and this did a pretty fine job of unsettling me. I wanted there to be more to her connection with those who passed and more growth and acceptance in it, like it is something she is scared of but realizes its a very useful talent she can harness- which I suppose did happen some if my memory serves correct but I suppose I wanted more her to experience more empowerment from it. It also reminded me a lot of From Below by Darcy Coates with the haunted and famously lost ship and even the seeing "ghosts" and expecting the bodies to animate (despite this being set in space and the other being undersea).