Intelligent and action packed sci-fi thriller that will keep you thinking long after you finish. Non-stop suspense and space adventure woven with strong messages on greed, belief, and human egocentrism and where it can all lead.

2.5

I enjoyed the first half of this book. Fantastic setting and the group of characters was pretty good, aside from Sarah. I liked the discovery of Kara and the initial questioning and confusion, and the introduction of the other team and their mission.

But not so much the second half. I struggled to stay engaged and found myself skimming to the end.

I found this sci-fi thriller pretty interesting with some intense scenes. The characters were well written with realistic dialogue and emotions.
The mysteries that started to pile up kept me intrigued and wanting to know more, it was hard to put this book down once you got through the initial slower pace (soooo slowwww at the beginning).

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & Dropship Publishing for a copy.

The crew of the Paralus is heading to Jupiter to mine Helium, which is used on Earth for energy. Suddenly they find themselves off course as Jupiter moved somehow but that isn't the only strange occurrence they face. They also discover an escape pod floating nearby with a young girl inside, who claims to be another space explorer that was killed hundreds of years ago. Who is she? What does she want? Where did she come from? Most importantly, will she stop the mission?
Dark Dweller by Gareth Worthington is an action packed scifi that reminds you of so many scifi shows that came before it but with an unique perspective that sets itself apart from the rest. The twists in the plot and the themes of the plot are original to any scifi story you've read before. The interwining of space, mythology, and religion is common but not done it quite the same fashion as Dark Dweller.
The characters are stereotypical space explorers. You have the doctor who is Irish, the commander who is a hard nosed leader, the tall strong engineer, the tough as nails pilot, and the pretty psychologist. You think you know where each one stands in the overall scheme of the story but you will be surprised when you discover that they don't fit in the niche you put them in.
The world is vastly described. Scifi fans will be impressed by the author's knowledge and his ability to explain science in a way that isn't boring or drawn out. You can read this with little knowledge of quantum physics and outer space, yet still understand what they are talking about.
If you are a scifi fan, you will enjoy this fast paced action adventure. You will enjoy the original plot and the surprises you don't see coming.
Thank you to Netgalley and Dropship publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

I cannot wait for the hardback to be released so I can see all the amazing pictures! This was a great piece of hard science fiction. There were a lot of plot twists and an ending I didn't see coming. Whether you're new to the genre or a die hard geek, this book is sure to please

Edited 1/15/23: Updated from 4 to 5 stars. Gareth Worthington reached out to me and I showed him some of the copyediting issues in the arc. He took it in good stride and said that he'll have these issues fixed before publication.

I saw this auto-approved sci-fi novel on NetGalley and thought it'd be a good start to get back into ebook reading (since I'm mostly an audiobook consumer). And wow, honestly I have no regrets!

In Dark Dweller, a futuristic Earth is dependent on helium collected on Jupiter. The largest helium conglomerate employs crews to fly to Jupiter to collect helium. When the crew of the freighter Paralus reach Jupiter, they encounter a teenager named Kara Psomas who says that she is a captain from a failed mission that occurred over a hundred years ago. The psychiatrist on board is tasked to figure out who she really is and why she's been stuck in an escape pod for over a hundred years.

From there (and without giving out any spoilers), it spirals into a space adventure and exploration, and a philosophical take on life in space and the meaning of consciousness.

I really liked this book! It has the perfect balance of science fantasy and drama. The characters were well-rounded and felt human with their desires and flaws. Even though there were multiple POVs, you could tell who was narrating most of the time because the different narrators had their own quirks. The pacing is great. It kept me reading until later at night.

I think the one huge thing that really needed to be worked on is another round of editing. Sometimes there would be missing verbs and nouns and misplaced punctuation marks. It was pretty easy to understand context clues and what was being said or conveyed, but these mistakes were numerous enough that it interrupted my reading flow. I plowed through because I really liked the story. I would've definitely given this 5 stars if these mistakes weren't so numerous.

Edited 1/15/23: This was determined to be a NetGalley upload issue. Please disregard.
Also, this might be a Kindle issue, but the file I downloaded had a lot of formatting problems with paragraphs, so it made it harder to understand which character was talking when the paragraphs were mashed together.

All in all, I really liked this book! I'll definitely read another one of the author's novels and might even order the special edition of Dark Dweller if these issues are fixed.

Thank you to Dropship Publishing and NetGalley for the arc.

It was ok, but not for me. I loved the premise and was really excited to read this book, but for me the premise was the best part. I didn't connect with or particularly like any of the characters.

It is written in the first person point of view and switches between different characters for different chapters. I think this would have been very effective if they had their own voices but they all sounded like the same person. They used the same words, explanations, and had very similar reactions. The first half of the book was pretty slow but I did want to find out what the threat to humanity was. When it was reviled however it was a little disappointing.

I did like the premise, and some of the themes address in this book. For others this might be a great read but it didn't really work for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for this honest review.