This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2019/07/12/salvation-day-by-kali-wallace/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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Review copy was received from Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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<strong>Salvation Day</strong> is a space opera thriller set in the future.  The story is told in alternating chapters by the two main characters. Zahra and Jas are linked by their past and now in the present.  They have never met really, but some of the same events are key to both their lives.

I had a little of the first book syndrome where I try to understand things as the world is being developed, along with characters at the same time. Since the world is very unlike real life now, it took awhile to grasp the state of the world and what was happening. Indeed, Zahra was functioning under a misapprehension for years as was much of the world.

Once I settled in, the plot is really very clever. There are some interesting twists. There is action, suspense, politics, and people who care about each other. I was very proud of Zahra and Jas by the end. For their youth, they were quite capable and compassionate. Both my mind and heart were engaged in reading. There are lessons here for today's government. I recommend this one.

<blockquote>Not thinking about how insidiously easy it was to convince oneself that the burden of proving one's humanity rested entirely on the shoulders of those in need of help, and not on those who could help but chose not to.</blockquote>
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Depending on what time zone you're in, it's either this book's birthday ... or it isn't ... and I'm OKAY WITH SQUISHY TIME PARADOXES ALRIGHT?

Now that that's out of the way, I thought I ought to celebrate this book the way it deserves to be celebrated, which is a lot, and possibly with a late-night binge-watch of the remaining "Stranger Things" episodes in my queue. I mean, claustrophobic body horror in space isn't all that different from claustrophobic body horror in a 1980s basement, is it?

This book went down my gullet in a blaze of textual glory, a damn fine evening spent camping in the Idaho woods while a bachelorette party on one side, made up of totally sloshed femmes with opinions about *other* femmes, just *kept on talking* about whether or not it's okay to kiss your parents on the mouth until three in the morning––and a pack of weird competitive belchers set up camp on the other side with their five-hundred-pound growly direwolf, Hannibal. Okay, so I was a little pissed that one of my Netflix downloads that I'd *specifically downloaded to drown out weird campers* didn't finish downloading, leaving me marooned with nothing but the sweet swan song of eight drunk campers for a soundtrack, but this book was a more than fair substitute.

Lots of brain matter! On walls! In space! Lots of bodies! And suspiciously cold spaceships! And relatable hijackers! In space!

Okay, so maybe the initial reading conditions weren't perfect. But being kept up until three DID mean that I got to finish this book and pass it on to a friend the next morning over New Orleansian brunch at an "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"-themed Coeur D'Alenian restaurant. And while I wouldn't quite say this is "a fun romp! the perfect beach read! timely and resonant! a light read for a weekend in the woods!" it *is* compelling and packed with the kind of details that matter to me, a queer person who happens to love the occasional body-horror-in-space kind of book. I'm waffling on a fifth star mostly because I'm still sleep-deprived and those campers have ruined at least a week of sleep hygiene, which more or less turns me into a walking horror show of bitterness, but also because I think there was some more character development that I'd like to see from future books. And I will be reading future books from Kali Wallace, that's for sure.

A competent read and perfect for throwing into backlit rings of drunk partiers while screaming "LEARN SOME CAMPING ETIQUETTE, BIATCH"

This was such a high energy, eerie adventure through space. Our main characters, Zahra and Jaswinder, had incredibly differing motivations for everything that happened, and it was easy to relate to both of their stances, though as the reader, it's clear to see that Zahra is being manipulated. Zahra is a member of what basically amounts to a cult which operates under the guise of "helping/saving" (don't they all?) Jas has absolutely no plans to throw himself into any sort of conflict, but when your ship is taken hostage... well, we do what we must to survive.

And that is the crux of it: these people are all trying to survive, but there is so much that they don't know. Obviously a good portion of the book is devoted to uncovering the myriad of things that have been shoved under the rug, things that neither character was ever aware of. And ultimately, there are a lot of questions about who they can and can't trust.

It's such an action-packed book (it would make an incredible movie, by the way, someone should get on that) that you definitely won't be bored as you try to figure out what our main characters will discover next. The entire vibe of the book really nails an eerie, creepy ambiance that fits perfectly with the world the author created. My one qualm was that I didn't feel as much of a connection with the characters as I would have liked too. The side characters especially felt a bit disposable. But overall, the plot and the unfurling secrets and discoveries were intense enough to keep me well entertained!

Bottom Line: Definitely a plot driven novel, the action and mystery kept me on the edge of my seat.

A sci fi take that travels to the stars filled with mystery , intrigue and thrills . It feels there are few too true science fiction novels these days but this one fits the bill . For over 10 years house of wisdom has orbited the earth protected . Carrying over 500 corpses with one survivor as a result of a virus two factions fight over what to do with this . Lies and coverups make this a thrilling sci fi novel

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Science fiction has always been used to tell stories that apply to today, to make comments on our current, often in settings that could be our future. And sometimes those tales grab you and force you to think about so much more than what is written on the page. Salvation Day by Kali Wallace is one of the stories.

From the moment I received my advance copy of Salvation Day I was all in. It's billed as a story with mystery, horror, science fiction, and survival. And I was intrigued by the author. Kali Wallace has a PhD in geophysics and uses her love of science to help build her story.  As an environmental scientist, I was intrigued. And not disappointed. Please forgive my vagueness in the coming paragraphs, but I don't want to spoil anything for you. 

Salvation Day is one of those rare novels that gives you room to breathe while also stealing your breath. The harrowing moments on space craft had me feeling claustrophobic. The clues to the mystery are brilliantly dropped before you leading you to discover the answer before it is revealed. And yet somehow the reveal is that much more astonishing and meaningful. 

But the book is so much more than the horror and the mystery. At its core, it is about humanity, about our past and the lessons we do or don't learn.

"The past is a mirror and only by examining it can we examine ourselves."

This story is about humanity's survival. And about how humanity, and governments, treat others. There are lessons and warning about immigration, destruction, fear, isolation, cults, and more. And despite the horrors and cruelties in this book, there is hope and there is love. There is love in this story, between two males. And it is natural and just there, as it is in our world. 

Kali Wallace has written a book I loved and devoured. It's one I can and will read again and again. I highly recommend you read it too.

Salvation Day is available from Berkley on July 9, 2019.

"A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.

They thought the ship would be their salvation.

Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya - the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.

But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship - a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.

And then they woke it up."

Spaceships and catastrophic thrillers are the perfect summer read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to be completely honest here... I was ambivalent about this one when I accepted the ARC. I put off reading it, fiddlefarted around, avoiding it. But I'm so glad I finally picked it up! Once I got sucked in, I couldn't put it down! I read huge chunks every sitting!

It's an almost-horror sci-fi thriller novel, set in space, on an abandoned spacecraft... haunted in a science fiction technical kinda way. The pacing is fast, but not so fast that it blows past the story. You get depth and developed characters, but it never sits down or goes so slow that you get bored.

I won't say more about the plot, because spoilers, but I definitely recommend this book to readers of sci-fi/space thrillers who like a little bit of potential horror mixed in. It wasn't really horror, but horror-adjacent, as I never found any of it SCARY. But it was on the cusp of being something terrifying, so that added stress really set a darker, higher stakes tone for the book.

Overall, I really liked it. 4 stars!

This was a terrifying space ride. OMG! We meet our characters in the midst of their devious plan to take over an abandoned space ship. From the get go, there is so much excitement and thrills. You don't know who to trust, who is going to catch this "disease" that plagued the ship and killed the entire crew years before. Bodies floating dead in the vacuum of space. Some with visible wounds and some with no sign of what killed them. I was so scared the whole book. My fingernails are no more. Who will survive the dead ship, and who will succumb to whatever it is that lies in the cold void of space?

Salvation Day is a sci-fi adventure story that focuses on a derelict starship. It takes place in what seems to be pretty far in the future, after humanity nearly failed in "The Collapse", but was able to pull itself together and eventually get back into space. Just what happened during The Collapse is only hinted at. It's one of those things that you wish you'd get more details on, but is largely left to the imagination. Seems to be a combination of climate change and war.

In any event, post-Collapse, the ruling world government is called The Councils, and their goal is to be a kinder, gentler version of humanity that doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past. But. There are also the have-nots, non-Council citizens, who live in the desert wastelands (which seems to be most of North America). Sometimes these folks are Council cast-offs or people who try to get Council citizenship, but can't for whatever reason. A lot of the folks who live in the wasteland resent the Council for their rules.

Enter a cult that lives in the wasteland led by a guy named Adam. They hatch a plan to hijack this derelict ship and use it to fly off and live free somewhere. Problem is, the ship is derelict because a deadly virus tore through it, killing all aboard except one 10 year old who was sent away before he got sick.

This book is a quick read that focuses mostly on two characters, one from the cult and one from the Councils. Their points of view are both in first-person, which normally I am not a huge fan of, but it was fine in this book. There was action but also a lot of introspection that really let you see that, while the Councils sound good, the wastelanders do have a point about the way things are run.

Still, any time this Adam guy opened his mouth, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how over-the-top fanatical he was. Trying to put myself in the shoes of his followers, I guess it would be possible, given their circumstances, to pick up what he was putting down. Still, it seems like even just a little time apart from Adam led some of the culters to suddenly question why they listened to him.

In the end, the central mystery of the story is brought to a fairly satisfactory conclusion. There's still more I'd like to know, but I guess that's the rule in showbiz, always leave them wanting more.

Salvation Day, by Kali Wallace, is a standalone novel. At an unspecified future time when dramatic changes have occurred on earth and inter-system space travel is standard, the House of Wisdom is a space ship where all inhabitants but one suffered a mysterious death. When a group of people, many of them with very different aims, gain access to the ship, they will find the truth is much more dangerous than they had anticipated.

The body horror in here was very effective, and the tension remained high. The worldbuilding was effective, though it could have been a bit more fleshed out. All in all, it was a very satisfying futuristic thriller.

I received a free electronic advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Although I do enjoy science fiction, I haven’t read much of the genre lately. Perhaps that’s why I welcomed the chance to read Salvation Day. I was not disappointed. Told from two alternating perspectives, it’s the story of a small group of hostages and their captors aboard a huge spaceship that had been abandoned ten years prior when everyone, except one little boy, died in a matter of hours from a virus outbreak. As this group slowly awaken the behemoth, they are facing not only what attacked the ship’s original occupants, but also the captor/hostage dynamic. There is also dissension amongst the hostage takers, not to mention the fact that the authorities will soon become involved. Yes, this is, first and foremost, a science fiction story; but it also has elements of a thriller with a touch of horror and a dash of moral commentary added in.

The plot was intriguing and the action was non-stop. And, perhaps, the fast pace was a problem in this story. At times, I felt the need to stop and wrap my head around things. Several times I had to go back and reread passages to see if I missed something. I was surprised to learn this was not the author’s first book. To me, there were times when it read like an expanded short story. I also thought this was a YA book until I read this was the author’s first novel for adults.

All things considered, this was an entertaining novel that I think any sci-fi fan would enjoy. I would definitely read another science fiction adventure from this author. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It is wholly appropriate that Salvation Day is slated for a July release as it is akin to a Summer Blockbuster popcorn movie: fast-paced with plenty of action, plot twists and surprise reveals. But unlike so many of those movies, author Kali Wallace’s lead characters are fleshed-out and subject to complex feelings and motivations. It was a captivating and wholly enjoyable read.

This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for that purpose. The book will be available on July 9, 2019.

For ten years, the research and exploration ship House of Wisdom had silently moved through space on a fixed course, orbiting the Earth. The great ship was unapproachable, protected by an automated security screen that was most likely activated by one of the last living people onboard before that person joined everyone else in death. In all the ship carried nearly five hundred corpses as it circled the Earth; just one boy survived what was described in frantic messages as the sudden outbreak of a deadly virus.

The official story put out by the authoritarian United Councils of Earth is that a disgraced scientist out for revenge had loosed the virus on the ship. But while many see a charnel house floating in space, others see opportunity. A cult of dissident exiles decides House of Wisdom can be the instrument of their freedom from the oppressive Councils, and they devise a plan to use the lone survivor, now a young man of science, to crack the security screen.

As someone once said, plans are made to be changed, and when the cult’s boarding party gets to the ship they discover what really happened onboard House of Wisdom. Told from the alternating perspectives of Zahra, leader of the cult’s boarding party, and Jas, the sole survivor of the viral outbreak, to say more would spoil the great fun as the layers of this puzzle-box of a story are peeled back.

My review scale:
-- 5 Stars: Outstanding and highly recommended. The total package executed exceptionally well: characters, plotlines and prose. A joy to read.
-- 4 Stars: An excellent story that I recommend. A fun, thrilling, exciting or enlightening book that I wish had not ended.
-- 3 Stars: A good read, worth a reader’s time in my opinion.

This was a really cool (and somewhat terrifying) tale. The virus gone wrong is always a fear of mine. Not that I'm out of my mind about it, but it would be the worst thing, I swear.

Sort of reminds me a bit of an adult Illuminae Files story. Gave me those kinds of vibes.

I really enjoyed it!

A tense thriller about a group of people trying to escape the oppressive world earth has become and start a new life on an abandoned Space ship and search for a more suitable. However the ship is abandoned because all the passengers died from a quick acting virus that may not be dead. This is a creepy yet strange book. A good mix of action , suspense and horror that is hard to put down.

I enjoyed the premise of this book. Especially the way that it was told from 2 different points of view. I really liked the end.

This book was really fantastic! I just had to read it right away, because it sounded intriguing and I wanted to explore the mystery/horror of what happened and what's going to happen to House of Wisdom!

There were two things that I really enjoyed about this book. The first is the characters. They were different people, Zahra with a personal connection to House of Wisdom, and Jaswinder, scared from what happened. The second was the world. Yeah, the world has been through some horrible things between now and then, and a big reason why the characters were doing what they were doing. Yeah.

There was something off about the way that Zahra's leader, well, leaded. He was just a little bit too angry, controlling, and the way that they followed him, without question, yeah, I was uneasy about that whole situation.

Honestly, I'm left with a few questions. To try and not spoil, that threat, well, I still have questions about it. And if we got a sequel answering those questions, yeah, that would be pretty awesome, because yeah, this was a pretty great book!

Loved this book, and yeah, I wouldn't mind a sequel!

For those who like to journey into the future to the stars and beyond, Kali Wallace has a science fiction tale filled with mystery, intrigue and the possible final demise of humanity, SALVATION DAY.

After almost completely destroying Earth’s ability to maintain life, ships were sent out to explore other avenues of survival, but one exploration vessel became a tomb for its inhabitants, killed by a deadly virus, now condemned to space as so much flotsam. Now one group will discover the truth about that virus and learn the secrets buried by the government. For some it will bring redemption, for others it will bring death, but no one ever said the truth was always pretty…

High octane action, emotionally charged characters and a mission never meant to succeed, who will survive the House of Wisdom’s horrors?

I do love a good science fiction drama, one that unveils some of the possibilities in the future and the seemingly endless ability of humanity for destruction and deceit in the face of complete annihilation. I also love heroes who will do the right thing at any cost.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Berkley!

Publisher: Berkley (July 9, 2019)
Publication Date: July 9, 2019
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Print Length: 320 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

Kali Wallace brings us an exciting space adventure filled with mystery and intrigue.

It starts off with the hijacking of a shuttle of students bound for the Moon. Soon the shuttle is diverted to a spaceship that has lain dormant under a decade-long quarantine after an unknown disease swept through and killed nearly the entire population. The group of students on the shuttle was not selected randomly, among them is Jaswinder, the sole survivor of that earlier tragedy and he is the key to accessing the ship. Although they access the ship, the entire mission begins to go drastically downhill from there and that is before they reactivate whatever it was that killed the former inhabitants. The story is split between Jaswinder and Zahra, leader of the hijacking crew, as they try to gain control of the ship, seek rescue, and avoid whatever killed everyone.

The book is an exciting read and there is some interesting world building, but it also does not offer anything really new in the genre. If you enjoy The Expanse series from James S.A. Corey, then you will very likely enjoy this.

Received via NetGalley for review.

This book ticks all my boxes: science fiction, cults, horror, and alien parasites. I knew I HAD to read it. And I am so glad I did. There are a few VERY minor quibbles I have (sometimes Jas and Zarah's narrations are too similar, and there are two instances where information is repeated almost verbatim), but the horror and slow reveal of what had happened was so well done and engaging that they don't distract anything from the reading.

House of Wisdom floats in space, surrounded by a deadly impenetrable security net, as evidence of humanity's greatest failure: a research vessel meant to spend years traveling space but instead was infected by a virus deployed by a jealous ex-employee, killing all those aboard. There was one survivor, a young boy who claims to have no memory of what happened. 10 years later, when a cult decides that the sprawling abandoned ship is the prefect new home for their family. But when they force their way aboard with the lone survivor, they quickly realize that what they knew was a lie, and there was so much more violence and terror on the ship than they had imagined.

The story is told by both Jas and Zarah, the survivor of the initial outbreak and the leader of the cult's seizure mission, respectively. It was a good choice to lead with Zahra - her belief in Adam was solid and true, and it seemed as though there was no reason for it to be otherwise. The world was a dangerous place, and the government wasn't helping. Why not take control of an abandoned and (as far as they knew) harmless ship so they could escape peacefully? By the time Malachai reveals that Adam has made it all up, so many things have gone wrong that Zarah could no longer deny the sense of wrongness that was always there. Zahra is a true believer, yes, but she is pragmatic and only wants a better life. I wish we had spent a little more time on the Homestead, to see what Adam was truly capable of, but Zahra's fear and reverence of him, combined with the flashes of the deteriorating situation on the ship, did the job.

Jas's sections were the truly scary ones (the scene where Anita's parasite reawakens his father's and starts repeating his mother's last words to him? Truly chilling and dreadful). He never fully elaborates on what he experienced before his mother sent him on a suicide escape pod, but the information we do get and the state of the bodies left behind are more than enough to fill in the blanks. And when the parasites begin to reawaken, struggle, and repeat phrases, to imagine that happening ship-wide... no wonder he doesn't want to remember.

All of the actions and choices undertaken by the characters rang true, and the history of the future and the current situation, while never fully explained, didn't need to be. It's all too easy to imagine the hope the stars bring, and the terror and despair when we realize that hope was in vain.

Very excellent. Compelling story and characters. Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy. I am not normally a big Science Fiction fan but this one intrigued me, I couldn't stop reading. Bits of horror, bits of human emotion and drama. I will recommend this book to any sci fi or horror fan.