Dead Silence

Product Information

S.A. Barnes’s Dead Silence is a creepy and incredibly at­mospheric horror novel that bridges the gap between Gothic horror and extreme horror while simultaneously exploring the role that past trauma and PTSD can play when someone who suffers from them is exposed to fresh trauma. At least for this novice of the genre, Dead Silence was really creepy. I made sure not to read it before bed, lest my nightmares take me to the Aurora, where all manner of ghosts and malaise await. Barnes does a great job setting a chilling atmosphere, using the dissonance of horror and luxury to great effect. A scene is set of great opulence—a spaceship full of art and precious materials—which makes the remnants of the massacre all the more jarring. I’ve always considered Alienthe high mark of sci-fi horror. No longer. Dead Silence leaves it in the dust.”— Lisa Shearin, New York Timesbestselling author Big Bad Friend: Max, who seems to be the one person in Verux on Claire's side and willing to accept her story, is actually leading the mission into destroying the Aurora and evidences of Verux's wrongdoing, and using Claire as the Fall Guy. Dead Silence, by S.A. Barnes, comes storming out of the gate with some incredible ideas, and an author with the skill to combine them into one delightfully terrifying novel.

With a compelling haunted-house-in-space frame, excellent worldbuilding, vivid imagery, biting social commentary, sustained tension, and a storytelling style that seamlessly moves between the mortal danger of the present and Kovalik's unsettling past, this sf-horror blend will resonate loudly with readers.” — Library Journal Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Are Claire's hallucinations just that, or does she see ghosts? She seems to think so, given her mother's ghost talked her through using complex communication equipment when she was a child to get help. On the other, she was isolated for over a month with dozens of corpses. Later on, she speculated that the device Verux used to sabotage the Aurora was somehow amplifying or even destabilizing her abilities, allowing her some Postcognition. Claire herself finds herself somewhere in the middle, under the assumption that she can see dead people, and both Becca and her mother are really ghosts that appear to her, but that she is also under the influence of the MAW and at least some of what she sees are hallucinations induced by it. The story gives credence to the supernatural considering the first ghost Claire sees happens before the traumatic event, her explanation that she couldn't have known how to operate the comms that saved her as a child, and that she can see the ghost of a mercenary named McCaughey, someone she never met or heard of, but that another mercenary, Diaz, confirms to have existed and died. He sighs, the noise right on the edge of a petulant whine. “Lourdes says we’ve still got a wobble in the signal, TL. And we’re going to miss the rendezvous with the hauler if we don’t leave soon.” As if I’m unaware of those things as team lead. But then again, Voller excels at stating the obvious and being exceptionally annoying while doing so. After twenty-six months in close quarters, I’m ready to murder him for that as much as for the snoring that rumbles through the air vents into my quarters, keeping me awake. Unfortunately, he’s a good pilot. I really enjoyed the way that it was told. We had little snippets of the present, and then the bulk of the story when Claire and her team find the ship. And then we hit that point where things transition to the present, and oh, do things really take a turn there!In the hands of lesser writer, it could have been hard to follow, but it absolutely isn't. Despite the disjointed presentation--in fact because of it--the tension builds to an incendiary level that I suspect will be hazardous for readers with heart problems. Or night terrors.

Dead Silence gives you the suffocating claustrophobia of 2001: A Space Odyssey mixed with the horrors of Alien. I couldn't stop reading.” —Mur Lafferty, Hugo Award-Winning author of Six Wakes Kade had to restart the novel "about six or seven different times to find the right way in" and that "for me, trial and error plays a large role in writing, especially at the beginning of a book." She initially included scenes written from the point of view of the man interviewing Claire, Reed, but chose to eliminate these scenes as "It’s Claire’s story, not his". [4] Publication [ edit ]

I've always considered Alien the high mark of sci-fi horror. No longer. Dead Silence leaves it in the dust." —Lisa Shearin, New York Times bestselling author I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own. Hallucinations: And hearing things. The passengers of the Aurora and crew of the LINA start witnessing visions of dead and living people aboard the ship.

Barnes, S. A. (2022), Dead silence, Lauren Ezzo, [New York], ISBN 978-1-250-84134-6, OCLC 1295847910 , retrieved 2023-04-20 {{ citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) There is pure darkness and mayhem at the heart of Dead Silence. This is a novel about space travel, sure, but it’s also about other things: ‘‘Murder, suicide, confusion, and chaos without an explana­tion or any reason.’’ However, there is also a dash of humor and a blossoming love, both of which work to balance out the constant sense of dread and impending doom as well as the presence of bloody ghosts, including some from each crew member’s own past. I ate this book in one sitting because I was in the mood to be freaked out and it delivered tremendously. Truly un-put-downable in its purest sense.”— Chloe Gong, #1 New York Timesbestselling author of These Violent Delights I take a deep breath and blink to clear my vision. “Negative,” I say, forcing my fingers away from my tether. “I copy. Five by five. Momentary … glitch.”Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2022". Gizmodo Australia. 2022-12-14 . Retrieved 2023-04-20. This story slides and slithers from creepy and atmospheric to skin-crawling, edge-of-your-seat terror." — T. Kingfisher, author of What Moves the Dead Stomach-turning, sinister space horror perfect for fans of Alien and Event Horizon." — Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author Corrupt Corporate Executive: Played straight and averted. Junior exec Reed is more interested in a promotion via "proving" Claire killed her crew.Max averts this by being the one Verrux executive who is supportive and cares for her. Later on it's double subverted, Max is perfectly willing to use Claired as a catspaw in the Aurora disaster coverup. The second thing Barnes does very well is build atmosphere. Things are tense from the start, but as the crew discover bodies under beds, people horri­bly mutilated, messages on the walls, and fragments of messages on the Aurora’s communications sys­tem, that tension increases tenfold and fear makes an appearance, and then stays for the duration of the novel. Knowing some of the things that happened on the ship is awful, but the things we don’t know and the things that the fragments the crew find hint at are worse, and those things are the ones that truly build a creepy, immersive atmosphere.

The earplugs in the first officer's ears. He was aware of what was really happening in the Aurora. While not 100% efficient, they help ease the effects of the MAW and are useful for Kane to survive months in the Aurora. If you are after a blood and thunder Scott Sigler style of science-fiction horror novel, this might not be the book for you, as it is rather slow, patiently setting the scene and relying upon atmosphere rather than jump scares or bloodletting. The sequences on the ghost ship Aurora are outstanding, described in supreme visual and hallucinogenic detail, vividly bringing to life the famous luxury space-liner which disappeared twenty years earlier. The reader genuinely walks every step with Claire and her crew as they explore the giant tomb, uncovering the bodies of long-since-dead famous starlets of two decades earlier, whilst trying to fathom the reason for the disaster, and slowly developing a nigglingly bad feeling that things are not right. Although I did enjoy these sequences, they go on for just a tad too long and perhaps another edit would have moved the story on at a slightly speedier pace.Gone Horribly Right: Verux just wanted to cause bad press for CitiFutura with the MAW device inducing headaches and nausea among the wealthy passengers. Instead, interactions with the state of the art hull alloys amplified the power of the device and caused mass panic and hysteria, along with paranoia, suicides and homicidal rage. Sonic Stunner: The MAW device was originally meant to be only this, with applications in crowd dispersal and causing mild discomfort at low settings. Cue Gone Horribly Right, when it causes mass hallucinations and violent tendencies.