I just read Dead Silence in October and I loved it so much!!! Bummer it didn't work for you. I loved the moment I realized there were only 40 pages left for Clare's crew to get killed, and I was on the edge of my seat eager for it to happen! See, I don't read enough scifi to have realized the twist was a common trope. I kept guessing ghost, alien, virus, so when it was none of those three I was so excited!
I'm currently halfway through this novel. It feels like a combination of Alien/Ghost Ship and Star Trek Next Generation episode called Night Terrors. I'm digging it so far...
For anyone wanting space opera horror, I'd highly recommend "The Dry Salvages" by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It's only a novella, but it provides a glimpse of something genuinely horrific and incomprehensible in deep space. For me, it's one of the finest weird SF tales ever written.
Alas, that story is well nigh impossible to put your hands on now, unless one is willing to fork over exorbitant sums for the out-of-print Subterranean hardcover.
I was disappointed when we are jumped to after the ship exploration and find out too much of what was to be lead up to. There were still some nice surprises along the way. I liked how they had to figure out how to escape the room etc. Yes, a few too many similarities to Alien but I still had fun reading it.
You look and sound A LOT like Martin Wagner, the old co-host of The Atheist Experience with Matt Dillahunty. Wow... Are you him? Did you change your name to Thomas? If this is you I must say I used to LOVE watching you on the show! I still watch old clips of you on the show on TH-cam. You were brilliant, one of the greatest hosts ever on that show, as well as being one of the greatest, most critically thinking and well spoken atheists in general I've ever come across!! Sorry for rambling, I'm just so excited I accidentally discovered you here on this channel! I just happen to be reading Dead Silence right now and was looking for reviews of it on TH-cam, and I came across you!!
Thank you very much for the kind remarks. Yes, that was me. Thomas is actually my legal first name, and I adopted it for regular use after my dad died in 2015.
For the life of me, I can't figure out why no one has just gone all in on space opera meets gothic horror. Event Horizon is the only thing that comes to mind. I can't think of a single book or short story. I'm sure there is at least one out there, but I've never read it.
I'm currently reading Dead Silence and wanted to get a feel from others out there who have read or are reading the book. I've muted the section in your video containing spoilers and saved this for another day when I've finished reading. So far I'm 30% in and the horror elements are great and I'm turning the pages, though I'm a little disappointed in the authors writing in terms of the characters are 1 and 2 dimensional at this point and the science is lacking to my taste and at times I'm taken out of the story having to go back and reread some paragraphs, I'm chalking up to being spoiled by other Sci-fi authors who nailed it early on. I really like what you said, critique the book on what it is rather than what you wish the book would have been, I'm going back into Dead Silence with this in mind. Anyhow, I'll be coming back to this video shortly to hear all that you say about Dead Silence.
"And all we hear is... Dead silence." NICE! I just finished the book and was so aggravated. I loved it, and then I didn't. It was like meeting the most fascinating person - until you discover they have a fatal flaw like racism or pro-Trump politics, and now you're dying to extricate yourself. I'm going to link your review to mine over at GR, because you said it perfectly 👍👍😻
I started reading an ARC of this because this is one of my most anticipated books of next year. I'm not far in it so it makes sense why I haven't encountered the problems you did. Based on your review, I will say that the comp to EVENT HORIZON is pretty good one seeing as the writers of EH also made choices that in my opinion didn't pay off. I think that movie also suffered from contractions in world building.
Yes, everyone would love to see the legendary director’s cut of EH, but sadly, all that footage the studio removed was apparently destroyed. So the version of the movie that makes more sense is no longer available to us, but I will say one thing: at least Event Horizon was a horror story from beginning to end, and didn’t switch gears halfway through.
Wow I have come so close to reading this... I think I may still read it even if the pay of is uneven. Gotta take the bad to get the good sometimes. Another awesome review.
I quite like the Aliens franchise and Event Horizon, so I might give this a try. Most derelict or lost and damaged etc. spaceships I like to read about are in the novels of Jack McDevitt, mostly in his two series about Academy space pilot Priscilla ''Hutch'' Hutchins and about space grave robber/ancient space empire relic hunter Alex Benedict. No horror involved. Hutch lives a couple of centuries in the future and it's not clear if Earth wants to continue manned FTL interstellar spaceflight. Alex Benedict lives many thousands of years in the future. Earth is still inhabited but he hardly goes there. His job is to find ancient artifacts from long forgotten human space empires and sell them for a good price.
SPOILERS Since it’s a scifi horror book I like to think the main character is a horror character in a scifi story. She’s definitely a medium who can commune with spirits, it shows her doing so when she’s a child, but the frequency of the weapon must’ve heighten her ability to see not just her ghosts but the ghost of others around her.
This is where the book is such a confused and inconsistent mess for me. The plot reveals the hauntings on the ship to be the result of infrasound, which is known to cause hallucinations. But in the denouement, we discover that there really are ghosts and our protagonist can see them. So if this is a universe where ghosts do exist, why not just… have the missing vessel be a real haunted vessel? Why not tell that story?
@@SFF180 I would even respect it if they could only see the ghost with the infrasound active, that only the protagonist could see all the ghosts the only individuals can see. But that time jumped killed me, i understand that her time during the jump was a jumbled mess of hallucinations and memories. But damn would I want to read the first hand. Maybe she’ll write a sequel from someone’s else perspective that stayed after she left
I'm halfway into Ship of Fools and quite liking it. The tension is still there. In the comments, I see you've read it too. I'd like to try Dead Silence, but it's not being released till Jan. I'll keep an eye on the library for it (I skipped your spoiler section--love the way you do that).
Listened to the spoiler section since I've read Dead Silence a couple of months back. I liked it, but was also disappointed in the way it flashed forward. I didn't want to know what had happened--I wanted to see what happened, to live through the experiences. And I did see the cause coming and hoped I was wrong about it, but subsequent clues just confirmed that's where the book was going. Also I found the ending just too neat. And I didn't really feel the romantic subplot...I tended to skim through all their dialogue as I'm a curmudgeon: "yeah, yeah, you like each other, now stop emoting and get back to the story". :)
I would have liked it to go more in the direction Ally Wilkes went with All the White Spaces, and less in the direction of breaking its own rules and knocking off Alien and Event Horizon.
Great review. I had a similar frustrating experience with Jeff Vandermeer's Authority. The creepy Southern reach setting could have been used to horrific effect but he sort of like 'pulled back' from everything that made Annihilation interesting. I have listened to your review of Authority and know you liked it. But I really wish it would have been different. Do you have any other suggestions for space opera horror works?
Authority wasn’t problematic for me because it was a *sequel* intentionally striving to give readers a different perspective and approach to the material. Though that naturally won’t satisfy everyone, but at least Annihilation got to be a consistent, rewarding experience.
@@SFF180 Yes, I did really enjoy Authority towards the end, just wish it had less of office politics which unfortunately put me to sleep. Are there any good space opera horror books you can recommend?
The best examples that I've read are books that are not so much space opera horror, but SF that is what you might call horror-adjacent, like Peter Watts' Blindsight and Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools. I hope to discover more soon though.
I think the real horror is that this story is set in 2149 and influencers are still a thing.
Well of course, nearly every SF future is just the present with the serial number filed off. 😁
I just read Dead Silence in October and I loved it so much!!! Bummer it didn't work for you. I loved the moment I realized there were only 40 pages left for Clare's crew to get killed, and I was on the edge of my seat eager for it to happen! See, I don't read enough scifi to have realized the twist was a common trope. I kept guessing ghost, alien, virus, so when it was none of those three I was so excited!
I'm currently halfway through this novel. It feels like a combination of Alien/Ghost Ship and Star Trek Next Generation episode called Night Terrors.
I'm digging it so far...
For anyone wanting space opera horror, I'd highly recommend "The Dry Salvages" by Caitlin R. Kiernan. It's only a novella, but it provides a glimpse of something genuinely horrific and incomprehensible in deep space. For me, it's one of the finest weird SF tales ever written.
Alas, that story is well nigh impossible to put your hands on now, unless one is willing to fork over exorbitant sums for the out-of-print Subterranean hardcover.
@@SFF180 Yeah you're not kidding, just looked it up :(
Well thoughtout review.
Finished reading Dead Silence and yup you hit the nail on the head.
I was disappointed when we are jumped to after the ship exploration and find out too much of what was to be lead up to. There were still some nice surprises along the way. I liked how they had to figure out how to escape the room etc. Yes, a few too many similarities to Alien but I still had fun reading it.
You look and sound A LOT like Martin Wagner, the old co-host of The Atheist Experience with Matt Dillahunty. Wow... Are you him? Did you change your name to Thomas? If this is you I must say I used to LOVE watching you on the show! I still watch old clips of you on the show on TH-cam. You were brilliant, one of the greatest hosts ever on that show, as well as being one of the greatest, most critically thinking and well spoken atheists in general I've ever come across!! Sorry for rambling, I'm just so excited I accidentally discovered you here on this channel! I just happen to be reading Dead Silence right now and was looking for reviews of it on TH-cam, and I came across you!!
Thank you very much for the kind remarks. Yes, that was me. Thomas is actually my legal first name, and I adopted it for regular use after my dad died in 2015.
that last sentece was ssshhaaadddyyy... lol
For the life of me, I can't figure out why no one has just gone all in on space opera meets gothic horror. Event Horizon is the only thing that comes to mind. I can't think of a single book or short story. I'm sure there is at least one out there, but I've never read it.
Closest would be George RR Martin’s Nightflyers.
I'm currently reading Dead Silence and wanted to get a feel from others out there who have read or are reading the book. I've muted the section in your video containing spoilers and saved this for another day when I've finished reading. So far I'm 30% in and the horror elements are great and I'm turning the pages, though I'm a little disappointed in the authors writing in terms of the characters are 1 and 2 dimensional at this point and the science is lacking to my taste and at times I'm taken out of the story having to go back and reread some paragraphs, I'm chalking up to being spoiled by other Sci-fi authors who nailed it early on. I really like what you said, critique the book on what it is rather than what you wish the book would have been, I'm going back into Dead Silence with this in mind.
Anyhow, I'll be coming back to this video shortly to hear all that you say about Dead Silence.
Excellent review Thomas and a very fair star rating.
"And all we hear is... Dead silence." NICE!
I just finished the book and was so aggravated. I loved it, and then I didn't. It was like meeting the most fascinating person - until you discover they have a fatal flaw like racism or pro-Trump politics, and now you're dying to extricate yourself.
I'm going to link your review to mine over at GR, because you said it perfectly 👍👍😻
I started reading an ARC of this because this is one of my most anticipated books of next year. I'm not far in it so it makes sense why I haven't encountered the problems you did. Based on your review, I will say that the comp to EVENT HORIZON is pretty good one seeing as the writers of EH also made choices that in my opinion didn't pay off. I think that movie also suffered from contractions in world building.
Yes, everyone would love to see the legendary director’s cut of EH, but sadly, all that footage the studio removed was apparently destroyed. So the version of the movie that makes more sense is no longer available to us, but I will say one thing: at least Event Horizon was a horror story from beginning to end, and didn’t switch gears halfway through.
ugh the fact that it was pitched as the shining meets titanic made me read this book and there was like. nothing. re: the shining
Wow I have come so close to reading this...
I think I may still read it even if the pay of is uneven. Gotta take the bad to get the good sometimes.
Another awesome review.
Did you say COOPER? as in K-eye-per?
Ha ha, I’ve heard it pronounced both ways. 🤷🏻♂️ Very me to go with the wrong one.
Now I'm glad NetGalley rejected my arc request 😆
Reminds me of dead space the video game
I quite like the Aliens franchise and Event Horizon, so I might give this a try.
Most derelict or lost and damaged etc. spaceships I like to read about are in the novels of Jack McDevitt, mostly in his two series about Academy space pilot Priscilla ''Hutch'' Hutchins and about space grave robber/ancient space empire relic hunter Alex Benedict. No horror involved. Hutch lives a couple of centuries in the future and it's not clear if Earth wants to continue manned FTL interstellar spaceflight. Alex Benedict lives many thousands of years in the future. Earth is still inhabited but he hardly goes there. His job is to find ancient artifacts from long forgotten human space empires and sell them for a good price.
Love McDevitt’s stuff.
I'm glad I saw your review before reading the book, I would be furious haha do you have any space opera horror recommendations?
Please check my reply to Augustine George.
SPOILERS
Since it’s a scifi horror book I like to think the main character is a horror character in a scifi story. She’s definitely a medium who can commune with spirits, it shows her doing so when she’s a child, but the frequency of the weapon must’ve heighten her ability to see not just her ghosts but the ghost of others around her.
This is where the book is such a confused and inconsistent mess for me. The plot reveals the hauntings on the ship to be the result of infrasound, which is known to cause hallucinations. But in the denouement, we discover that there really are ghosts and our protagonist can see them. So if this is a universe where ghosts do exist, why not just… have the missing vessel be a real haunted vessel? Why not tell that story?
@@SFF180 I would even respect it if they could only see the ghost with the infrasound active, that only the protagonist could see all the ghosts the only individuals can see. But that time jumped killed me, i understand that her time during the jump was a jumbled mess of hallucinations and memories. But damn would I want to read the first hand. Maybe she’ll write a sequel from someone’s else perspective that stayed after she left
What are some "Space Opera Horror" Books of the last ten years would You recommend?
I'm halfway into Ship of Fools and quite liking it. The tension is still there. In the comments, I see you've read it too.
I'd like to try Dead Silence, but it's not being released till Jan. I'll keep an eye on the library for it (I skipped your spoiler section--love the way you do that).
Listened to the spoiler section since I've read Dead Silence a couple of months back. I liked it, but was also disappointed in the way it flashed forward. I didn't want to know what had happened--I wanted to see what happened, to live through the experiences. And I did see the cause coming and hoped I was wrong about it, but subsequent clues just confirmed that's where the book was going. Also I found the ending just too neat. And I didn't really feel the romantic subplot...I tended to skim through all their dialogue as I'm a curmudgeon: "yeah, yeah, you like each other, now stop emoting and get back to the story". :)
I enjoyed the ending. I'm interested in what direction you would have taken it. 🤔
I would have liked it to go more in the direction Ally Wilkes went with All the White Spaces, and less in the direction of breaking its own rules and knocking off Alien and Event Horizon.
@@SFF180 I don't know what any of those did but thanks for the answer! 😄
Great review. I had a similar frustrating experience with Jeff Vandermeer's Authority. The creepy Southern reach setting could have been used to horrific effect but he sort of like 'pulled back' from everything that made Annihilation interesting. I have listened to your review of Authority and know you liked it. But I really wish it would have been different. Do you have any other suggestions for space opera horror works?
Authority wasn’t problematic for me because it was a *sequel* intentionally striving to give readers a different perspective and approach to the material. Though that naturally won’t satisfy everyone, but at least Annihilation got to be a consistent, rewarding experience.
@@SFF180 Yes, I did really enjoy Authority towards the end, just wish it had less of office politics which unfortunately put me to sleep. Are there any good space opera horror books you can recommend?
The best examples that I've read are books that are not so much space opera horror, but SF that is what you might call horror-adjacent, like Peter Watts' Blindsight and Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools. I hope to discover more soon though.
@@SFF180 Thank you 😊
@@SFF180 what about Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds?.. Although maybe it's more baroque than out and out horror
second half of the book did not hold up, especially as it got towards the end
Shame. At least there's always The Luminous Dead.
Fair.