I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Dead Space by Kali Wallace Published by Berkley on March 2 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A thrilling, sci-fi horror mystery with plenty of twists, Dead Space is a superb novel and is destined to be one of my favorite books of 2021.
It’s hard to believe, but Dead Space is my first five-star read of 2021, and folks, it’s a good one. Hold onto your hats because Kali Wallace’s latest has all the sci-fi mystery goodness of Six Wakes combined with the terrifying, pulse-pounding horror of Alien. I knew it would be hard to top one of my favorite “locked room” sci-fi thrillers—Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes is one I still think about four years later—but Dead Space comes damn close. This book has it all: complex characters and relationships, some timely social commentary, plenty of exciting action and a bunch of twists and misdirection that kept me guessing for a large chunk of the story.
The story centers around an asteroid belt controlled by a mining company called Parthenope Enterprises. Hester Marley is an AI expert who was part of an exploration crew headed toward the planet Titan. But their ship, the Symposium, was hijacked and destroyed enroute to the planet, and nearly everyone aboard was killed in the explosion, including Vanguard, the remarkable AI that Hester helped build. Hester herself barely escaped with her life and required extensive surgeries in order to survive, which included a prosthetic leg, arm, ear and eye. Parthenope agreed to pay all her medical bills, but in exchange Hester must work for them as a security officer for five years in order to pay off her debts.
Hester is only one year into her servitude when she receives a private video message from her old friend David Prussenko, who also survived the Symposium disaster. David is part of a small crew on the asteroid Nimue, a robotics genius whose job as sysadmin lets him work with Nimue’s Overseer, the AI that manages the station’s operations. The message is odd and doesn’t make sense, and Hester immediately senses that David might be trying to tell her something. Her fears are confirmed when only days later, she’s assigned to investigate a murder on Nimue—and David is the victim.
Hester arrives on Nimue with the rest of the investigative team, including Parthenope lawyer Hugo von Arendonk and Martian investigator Adisa. They begin questioning the remaining crew members—it had to be one of the crew, since Nimue is a remote station with barely any outside contact—but it doesn’t take long before their investigation turns up a number of anomalies in the station’s communications and electrical grids. As Hester, Hugo and Adisa delve further into the strange secrets that the crew seems to be hiding, they begin to realize the extent of the mystery. Something big is going down on Nimue, and David was most likely killed because of it.
Dead Space is such a well written, perfectly paced book, and I don’t get to say that very often. It grabbed me from the first page and never let up, even during its quieter moments. It starts out as a murder mystery but quickly turns into something else, and I was blown away by how layered and thrilling this story was. Wallace is also great at misdirection. She convinces you of one thing and then pulls the rug out from under you, and you only have moments to recover before the next surprise. There were quite a few twists and I loved every one of them. I will say I had an inkling of what one of the big twists was, but guessing it ahead of time only made the experience more enjoyable. I wish I could talk to you about so much more, but I do not want to spoil anything!
All of this is great, but a story without heart and emotion doesn’t go too far for me. Luckily I needn’t have worried. I absolutely loved the flashbacks where Hester and David are working with Vanguard aboard the Symposium. Vanguard is almost like a child to them, as they are teaching it how to explore and grow, and knowing that the AI was lost in the explosion cut me to the bone.
Earlier I compared this book to Alien, and although I’m not going into specifics because of spoilers, I did want to mention how scary the story is at times. Wallace has created a claustrophobic, gritty environment that rivaled the ship on Alien, and I seriously could not turn the pages fast enough!
I loved the characters too. Hester is such a multilayered character, and if you’re looking for disability rep in your reading, then you need to read this book. She’s been through a lot, and Wallace does a great job of filling in her past without taking anything away from the story in the present. Even with advanced medical technology and the ability to rebuild a person with traumatic injuries, Hester is forced to deal with her prosthetic limbs on a daily basis. Her leg hurts if she does too much, her left shoulder is always sore, and even her eye has glitches now and then. She faces some big physical challenges in this book—I mean half the time she’s running away from something that’s trying to kill her!—but she doesn’t let her pain stop her. And her physical challenges are only one thing she’s dealing with. Her dreams were shattered when the Symposium disaster took everything away from her, and she’s become bitter and unhappy because of that. Not every reader is going to like Hester—sometimes her anger at her situation takes over and affects the choices she makes—but I thought she was authentic and believable, and I ended up really relating to her.
The rest of the cast of characters are just as engaging, and I thought it was a fantastic ensemble. There’s Adisa, the soft-spoken Martian who is trying to do his job while dealing with racism; Sighra, the brash, unfriendly leader of Nimue who is clearly hiding something, and Mary Ping, the other sysadmin who worked with David and whose robotic coolness suggests she knows way more than she’s telling.
Wallace includes some timely issues in her story. Part of the backstory is that there was a war between humans and Martians, and things are still tense between the two groups. The author uses this rift to show how racism against Martians is still an ongoing issue, and including a Martian character in her story was a great way to illustrate that fact. For me, the Martians’ plight reminded me of the horrors faced by Jewish people during World War II, and it was definitely one of the more sobering elements of the story.
I absolutely loved the hell out of this book, in case you haven’t guessed by now. I believe Dead Space is a standalone, and the ending wraps up perfectly (with a nice emotional surprise no less!), and yet I want to know what happens next! Such is the curse of finding such an excellent story with no planned sequel. With this book, Kali Wallace has secured a spot on my “must read” list, and I can hardly wait to see what she does next.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Great review. Your enthusiasm always inspires me.
Thanks Marian, it’s hard not to be enthusiastic over this one:-)
Read this one too, rly cool to see where our opinions meet and differ. Awesome review Love me a good sci-fi mystery!
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I want to read your review!
Oh joy! Your review tells me everything I had hoped for with this book, and more!
I have not read Six Wakes yet (it’s on my TBR though….) but the reference to Alien was intriguing, and your description of the murder investigation and the characters makes me more than eager to get my hands on this novel as soon as my reading queue permits. Thanks for sharing!!!
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…BEHIND HER EYES: Netflix miniseries
I hope you get the chance to read it!
This sounds amazing, definitely adding this to my TBR. Great review!
Thanks Ollie!
If your review doesn’t convince people to pick this book up, nothing will! Wallace is one of my favourite authors (isn’t it amazing that she can write great books in more than one genre/age range?), but – while I loved Shallow Graves and The Memory Trees – I had some reservations about Salvation Day…it sounded a bit less…original to me. This one was awesome though. I particularly loved the social commentary and the AI angle. Again, fab review!
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I tried not to mention the AI angle much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it was one of my favorite parts:-)
Haha, I hear you!
Roberta R. recently posted…Tell Me Something Tuesday: What Are Your Favorite Tips and/or Tools to Help Keep Your Blogging (or Real Life) Organized?
Ooh. Sounds amazing. Another for my TBR!
I need other bloggers to read it so I can talk about it:-)
I desperately need and want to read more scifi because it’s a favorite genre of mine and this one sounds amazing!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…March 2021 Of Books Giveaway Hop (INT)
If you’re looking for sci fi definitely consider this!
This was an amazing review!! ❤️
Thanks Susy:-)
Wow, Tammy, this sounds like it has it all, and I loved your exciting review! Another for my list!
So so good! I know I get a little out of control when I love a book, lol.
Excellent review. Excellent book.
Anne – Books of My Heart recently posted…Dead Space by Kali Wallace
Glad we agree!
Fantastic review, Tammy! I’m going to HAVE to track down this book, with a review like that! Given how much I love my sci fi – especially my sci fi mysteries – then this one has my name on it!! Thank you for sharing:))
Thanks Sarah! I think you would like this a lot:-)
I am so much more excited to read this one now! I enjoyed Wallace’s Salvation Day, but I think this sounds even better. The characters sound so great.
Jordan @ Forever Lost in Literature recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Characters Whose Occupations I’d Like to Try
I enjoyed this more than Salvation Day:-)
I just cannot wait to read this!!
I saw you just bought a copy, as soon as I saw your Tweet I bought one too!
This sounds like something I totally need 🙂
You do need it, Greg:-)
Oh sweet, bumping this one right up the list! I loved her last book, so I had high hopes for this one – glad it was everything you wanted!
Enjoy!
YAAAAAS, I’m so happy you loved this! I adored Kali Wallace’s previous sci-fi horror Salvation Day and was psyched to see another one from her in this genre and THIS WAS SO DARN GOOD, OMG. I inhaled it in one night and was sad it was over, but good lord, that was an epic binge-read <3
I've had Six Wakes on my wishlist for a while, I've never heard much talk about it, so I'm intrigued to see you mention here in such a positive light, I'll have to look for it!
I think you’ll love Six Wakes if you loved Dead Space! It’s a very different story but it’s got that tension that never lets up and a great cast of characters.
Sounds great! And I like the idea of a stand-alone sci-fi! Thanks for the rec 🙂
I’m actually glad it’s a stand alone. That way it ends strong and I don’t have to worry about the next book not being as good:-)
It’s so great to hear when you really enjoy a book. I love all the elements you describe, this sounds like one I’d really enjoy. I’ve made sure it’s on by TBR. Can’t wait to give this one a read. Great review, Tammy!
Thanks Todd, definitely check it out!
Oooh, this sounds amazing! I remember being curious about it when you first mentioned it because I do love books that mash up genres. I am going to have to check this one out.
It was better than I expected:-)
This sounds like such a unique and brilliant read and yay for your first 5 star read of 20201!
I was surprised it was my first 5 star read, that’s unusual for me…
I haven’t read Six Wakes but I have watched Alien — so I can already feel the creepy awe-inspiring vibes from this book. A locked room scifi mystery? Totally on board (pun intended). Thanks for a great review!
I didn’t know a lot about this one, other than the cover reminded me of another book from a while back. Your comparison to Alien makes me really want to read it though! Great review! I’ll have to add it to my TBR!
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Excellent review, Tammy. Congratulations on your first five star read of the year.