dnf @ 7%

While I don't expect a book to be super interesting right from the get-go, I do at least expect it to try to be engaging? But if I don't like the writing style & the situations shown so far that are supposed to be full of tension are completely devoid of it, I think this is not the book for me.

4⭐️

I am always down for space horror and having read David Wellington’s previous work, I knew I would love this.

Space terrifies me, so the thought of travelling to another star system where the first colony planet has gone silent gave me all the creepy vibes.

This is one of those books that even though I have the ebook, I definitely need to buy the hard copy too. I want this on my shelf.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty engaging and varying-pace story that at osme points picks up pretty intensely and then has a slight lull. The chapters are short and therefore really helps the story move along. I really enjoyed the story and the 'style' of the villian in the story. Rapscallion was the greatest little side character and I greatly enjoyed the sections that we found him in.
The gripping struggle for survival on a decrepit space ship surrounded by prior failed missions in a algorithmic attempt to make contact with the Paradise colony.
Overall I really enjoyed it - if it WAS. a bit long. I hope to continue the series to see where these characters end up.

I truly wanted to love this book but unfortunately I just couldn’t. I was really hoping this was going to scratch my sci-fi, horror, itch, and while they were some interesting concept that we’re getting introduced, ultimately, there was just too many threads too much going on in a book that was too long.

Stars: 2.5 out of 5.

I was fully onboard with this book for the first 50% or so of the story. Granted, one of the main characters was too stupid to exist, and some of her choices were that of a braindead child. But the story moved along at a good pace, things were happening, there was a big mystery about, so was happy to overlook an annoying character or two. But then the book kept going... and going... and going with no end in sight. Episodes started repeating themselves without bringing anything new to the story, and I was quickly losing interest. 

As I had mentioned, the characterizations in this book are... rather lacking. And forget about character growth. I think the only character that has any is Rapscallion, and he is a sentient robot. Which tells you everything you need to know about the other characters. So if you are looking for a character driven story, move along. This ain't for you.

But the mystery of what the heck is happening around Paradise-1 and why all ships sent there stop responding was compelling enough to have me turning the pages for about half of the book. And I admit that the idea of an alien contract that can invade our minds by planting a destructive idea is rather horrifying, because our bodies have no defense against a virus that isn't biological in nature. I also really wanted to discover what was on Paradise-1 that needed to be guarded so fiercely, and why was it worth so many human lives and so many ships to try and get it.

Unfortunately, this book is at least 300 pages too long, so the story started repeating itself. We get to yet another ship that's infected with different version of the Basilisk. We encounter yet another crazy AI and see the horrors that happened to the human crew. We don't learn anything that we didn't know by reading the first half of the book. The characters flee the ship, or are saved, or take the ship over... then the action switches to yet another encounter with another infected ship.

Honestly, I think the story should have ended after their attempt to run the blockade to land on the planet. The 200 pages after that were just filler, with a few exception, like actually encountering the Basilisk, and even that could have been incorporated into the story differently. 

Oh, did I mention that the book ends on a cliffhanger? No? Well, it does. 700 + pages end with no emotional payoff whatsoever. We still don't know what happened on Paradise-1 and why it was so important to get there. The story ends mid-action.

I guess the reader would have to pick up the next book in the series to find out what happened to the colony on Paradise-1, but guess what?  I won't be along for the ride. I am not willing to sit through another overlong book and follow annoying characters just to find out that the story isn't finished and there is another cliffhanger. No thanks, I'm out.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with both an eARC and an audio of this book. I ended up reading the entire thing via audio, so I am just submitting this review in regards to the book itself and nothing about the narration.

This book started out so promising.

Okay, wait, let me go back and say that this book wasn't bad by any means. It just started off for me a lot stronger than it ended, and I think that's just because it honestly all just felt super rushed. Had this book spent more time in the action scenes, and given me a chance to really sit with and absorb what was going on, I think that I would have rated this much higher. But instead I just felt constantly pushed from one scene to the next and never had a chance to really sit with what was going on. If this would have been shorter and maybe even spaced out between two books, I think that this would have felt less hectic and maybe been a high three star or four star book. As it stands, I did not connect to the characters and the ending? WHAT WAS THAT? That is NOT an ending. It just felt so rushed to get to this point and just stops. I wish I was kidding, but IT. JUST. STOPS. It's not a cliffhanger because there's no damn cliff. It really is a shame.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me. Honestly, it's a me-issue. I went in thinking this book was more sci-fi horror while it's more... sci-fi mystery. It took me a long time to get into the story and even when I was finally hooked, I just wasn't in love. Still, I do think there's going to be plenty of readers out there who find this more compelling and exciting than I did!

3/5 stars - This was actually a decent space horror, but stars knocked off for being such an annoying cliffhanger after a nearly 700 page book. I can't say if I'll invest as much time just to keep reading, but this book was well-paced, had interesting concepts of aliens as "thoughts," like an earworm song you can't get out of your head but for self-destruction. The stuff with all the ship AI versus robot AI, etc., was all pretty interesting too. I just wish it could've wrapped itself up more satisfyingly than "to be continued" - literally.

This book had an interesting premise and setup, but about halfway I just think it stalled and I never cared about the characters or the stakes involved. I think I would read more from the author though because there were some cool scenes and I think the premise is great.

Alexandra Petrova screwed up. As punishment she's been tasked with a deep-space mission to check on Paradise-1, a colony her own mother relocated to less than a year ago. Along with a brilliant by troubled doctor, a snarky AI, and their pilot, the small crew is to travel to the planet to find out why there's been no recent contact from the colony.

Unfortunately for the crew, they're awakened from cryosleep only to find that they're under attack and the ship has been severely compromised.

This is a chonker that clocks in at almost 700 pages, which obviously requires a bit of a commitment. But only a bit because this book moves FAST!

I've been reading Wellington for some time now. I love his Monster Island series, the Cheyenne Clark series, and the Laura Caxton series. So yeah, he's a bit of an auto-buy for me. And he certainly did not let me down with this latest.

I will warn you, though, this is the first book in a trilogy...

I love the characters and their backstories. Petrova is a member of Firewatch, essentially the police. Her mother was their former head and the new person in charge definitely seems to hold it against Sasha. But it's nothing compared to the training instilled in her by her mother. So though she's not exactly happy about her new assignment, she knows fighting against it is futile.

Zhang Lei has his own problems to worry about, not the least of which is the fact that he has a government ordered "babysitter" that injects him with drugs any time he gets a little too excited. But he has seen things that no one else can even comprehend. And, as mentioned above, he's undoubtedly brilliant.

Sam Parker, the pilot of Artemis is an interesting part of the mix because he and Sasha have a past. And neither of them is exactly thrilled to be thrown together now. But they can both be professionals. Mostly.

There are other side characters that make an appearance, including the ship's avatar. But my favorite character of the bunch is Rapscallion. He's a sentient robot tasked with being part of the mission. He's snarky as all get out but exactly what the crew needs for this mission in particular.

I don't want to ruin anything but I'll add that this is an absolutely perfect read for fans of sci fi horror (which I adore), anyone who enjoyed Martha Wells's murderbot books, and James S. A. Corey's Expanse series!

Paradise 1 had a compelling cover: a cracked space helmet and the two phrases Endless Dark and Endless Terror. The author, David Wellington, is known for his dark fantasy and horror novels and I did notice a space-related one a while back, so I thought I'd give Paradise 1 a try even though my tolerance for horror is extremely variable. Is there horror? Yes, there is, but it's more psychological than visceral though I admit there's a pretty hefty ick factor in some parts of the story. Read a sample if you get squeamish to see how you feel about committing to six hundred plus pages. There are no zombies, but there are cannibals, torture, and a lot of crazy dangerous people doing awful things to each other.

On the other hand, the story is a truly interesting variation of the first contact trope. Paradise is a newly discovered planet and many people are willing to travel to settle and get a second chance at a good life, knowing there will be a lot of work to be done once they arrive. At first, everything goes well, and then suddenly all communications with the colony ends. Lieutenant Alexandra Petrova and Dr. Lei Zhang are sent to Paradise to find out what happened and report back. They are put into cryochambers for the trip, knowing they and the pilot are the only people on board. They wake to blaring klaxtons, smoke, and having to immediately get to safety as the ship is being attacked. A warning is being broadcast telling them they will be destroyed if they attempt to land on Paradise. The pilot, Sam Parker, along with Rapscallion, the onboard robot, were the only crew as the ship's AI, Actaeon, was continually rebooting but basic system still functioned.

At this point, all they knew was the nearest colony ship was attacking them. It looked like there were over a hundred ships in orbit above Paradise and no one was answering their hails. It was up to these three, plus Rapscallion, to figure out what was going on while onboard a ship that was severely damaged.

It quickly becomes obvious that Petrova and Zhang have a dark history. There was a bit of setup hinting at this prior to them getting on board. Throughout the book, you get more backstory that explains their behavior. Making them not necessarily likable but interesting, three-dimensional, and believable.

While there's a lot that is dark in this story, there are some wonderful bits of humor and whimsey to lighten it here and there. Rapscallion is an independent sentient AI with an attitude and also a bit of a curmudgeon. His interactions with the living crew members really keep me reading because there were times when even the innovative plot line and my curiosity about what would happen next was having trouble dealing with the serious, but relevant, awfulness that was happening on some of the other ships.

However, I'm glad I read the book. The underlying issue of what was wrong at Paradise along with the two separate backstories for the major characters was worth the effort. Then the shock of the final line: To be continued...

There's so much still to learn about Paradise and what these characters will learn. I'm going to need to read the next book in the series. So, when I say that the ick factor is high and nightmarish, I mean it ... but the characters, plot, and writing are worth it to learn what happened/is happening/will happen.

A crew gets dispatched to check in with a deep space settlement that has gone quiet. From there, you live through the survival of discovering why it’s gone no contact.

What an awesome rollercoaster of a book. So spooky, filled with tons of claustrophobic scenes that freaked me out. The twists and turns are spectacular, one in particular absolutely floored me. Still not positive I’ve recovered from it. My only gripe with this book is that it ended. Im dying for the continuation.

TL;DR

Paradise-1 by David Wellington is a big book full of big ideas. It’s also a fun read with interesting characters like Alexandra Petrova. Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: Paradise-1 by David Wellington

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. Science fiction is the perfect setting for horror stories. Space is scary and hostile to life. But, for the safety of the human species, we need to become explorers and colonizers of space. Eventually humans will want to look beyond our local solar system for deep space colonies. When this happens, what new horrors will we encounter? In Paradise-1 by David Wellington, a deep space colony has stopped responding to Earth. It’s up to Fire Watch agent Alexandra Petrova and a crew of two other humans and an artificially intelligent robot to figure out what’s happening. When they arrive in the space above Paradise-1, they’re unprepared for the horror that awaits them.

Alexandra Petrova has lived her entire life in her mother’s shadow. She joined Fire Watch; well, her mother ran it. But her mother left in disgrace; she shipped out with colonists to the deep space colony, Paradise-1. Being out from underneath her mother’s shadow, Petrova finally had a chance to make a name for herself. And she has just the case to do it; Petrova is going to catch a serial killer. On the eve of her big arrest, Alexandra is stymied by the Fire Watch bureaucracy. Ordered to return; she instead chooses to follow the alleged killer. Instead of bodies, she finds feral human beings and learns that she’s made a huge mistake as the new head of Fire Watch ships her, a doctor, and a pilot on board a ship bound for Paradise-1. It turns out that humanity hasn’t heard from the deep space colony in some time, and Petrova’s new mission is to find out why. While waiting to board the ship, Petrova receives a message from her mother. It’s come from Paradise-1; only there’s something wrong with it. Her mother is happy. When the crew awakes from cryosleep in the space around Paradise-1, they find a ship on fire. Someone or something has attacked Petrova and crew. All is not well in the orbits around Paradise-1, and Petrova has to survive long enough to figure out what’s going on.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington is a third person novel set in the far future. The book features three narrators: Alexandra Petrova, Doctor Zhang Lei, who is haunted by his past, and an artificial intelligence named Rapscallion who occupies a 3D printed body. Paradise-1 is fast read but a long book. My ARC weighed in at 677 pages. This is the first novel in a series.

Fire Watch Agent Alexandra Petrova

Petrova has a chip on her shoulder. She has to prove that she earned her spot in the Fire Watch; she didn’t get it because of her mother. That makes her a good agent; that also makes her reckless. When she and her crew get to Paradise-1, she’s running around putting out a lot of fires, in some cases, literally. However, in crisis mode, she’s actually more effective and competent than when not in crisis mode. In space above Paradise-1, she’s trying to survive and not dwelling on whether she measures up to her mother.

In fact, the mother plot gets pushed back to near the end of the book, and it was an unexpected turn of events, which I liked. So much emphasis is put on her mother at the beginning of the book, and then it remains dormant as more immediate survival issues take place. I began to suspect that we wouldn’t meet Petrova’s mother in this book. But we do. Wellington doesn’t make us wait until Book 2 to learn her mother’s fate.

Artificial Intelligence

Paradise-1 by David Wellington makes good use of fictional AI in it. Rapscallion is a fun character, and I might like it more than any of the human characters. Wellington includes AI as characters in this book; they aren’t immune to the ills plaguing people above Paradise-1. Wellington also uses their inhumanity as good horror set pieces. It’s interesting seeing the novel flit back and forth between human and machine horror scenes.

As AI is currently big in the news now, I have to say that Wellington’s depictions do not resemble modern AI like ChatGPT. He’s writing about the real thing, not just statistical programs plagiarizing from the material human authors upload to the web. The AI that Wellington describes is the AI that everyone fears; yet we are so far away from true, autonomous AI that I find the comparison laughable. I also find it hard to extrapolate from ChatGPT programs to the sentient robots like Rapscallion. More of what should bother us is that ChatGPT is just remixing in statistically significant ways concepts and ideas someone else created. Rapscallion is a character readers will come to know and care for. In a way, it’s funny to think that ChatGPT might be one of Rapscallion’s ancestors.

Space Battles

Most of the book takes place in space. The planet-side scenes that I remember happened in the first few chapters of the book. This was a bit of a disappointment. I really wanted to meet the colonists, but I’ll have to wait until Book 2. All the action in space was enjoyable and heightened the mystery of what was going on, but at the end of the book, I still don’t know what’s going on. I have a better idea, but a lot of unanswered questions linger through the last page.

As an aerospace engineer, I usually nitpick how space is portrayed in fiction. (Although it is getting better every year.) Wellington does a great job portraying space as the other-worldly place it is. At one point, he uses a crate of yams as a weapon. While silly, this is something that can be done in space.

Also, there’s a lot of space battles. Some felt redundant, which I know intellectually it wasn’t redundant, yet it felt that way. Over 600 of the 677 pages took place in space above Paradise-1. A lot of interesting stuff happened, but I soon found myself wondering when we were gonna make down to the planet. This, though, is a small complaint and is, also, very subjective. With any criticism, you should take it with a grain of salt.

Conclusion

David Wellington’s Paradise-1 was a fun, huge, fast novel set in an interesting world plagued with interesting problems. Alexandra Petrova carried the novel for me despite Dr. Zhang and Rapscallion being wonderful characters. Paradise-1 leaves readers hungry for more, and I know I can’t wait to read Book 2. Highly recommended.

This book was chaotic, has some really near futuristic concepts, but also works well with the idea of having a minimal crew locked up in a spaceship, fighting for their survival.
One of my problems with it was that the collection of chapters did not seem cohesive enough, and this might be due to the nature of their compilation. They were short, flew fast, and within these pages is a good story.

Detailed review to come.

Overall, "Paradise-1" is an enjoyable read for fans of science fiction and space exploration. While the plot may be somewhat predictable at times, the fast-paced action and engaging characters make for a thrilling ride. If you're looking for an entertaining and exciting science fiction novel, "Paradise-1" is definitely worth checking out.

I loved the first few chapters of this, but sadly after that it went downhill for me. This book is written like an action movie. Big boom scene after big boom scene. Unfortunately, that didnt leave much room for characters or plot. The horrible cliffhanger didn't help much either...

Great sci-fi adventure series starter! It started quickly and then totally sucked me in and I couldn't put it down easily! Looking forward to the rest of the series to get the full story!

DNF at 31%, but not because it's poorly written. This is clearly a case of "it's me" and not the book. Since the book did nothing wrong in this relationship, I won't be giving it a rating.

I received this eARC courtesy of Netgalley and Orbit/Hachette Book Group. At the time I completely missed a crucial fact when I started reading it. It's classified as horror, then science fiction. Horror and I don't get along; I diligently avoid the genre like the plague. So shame on me for not paying attention! That said, it's a very well-written story, just not for me. I think there are plenty of readers that would enjoy this, particularly those who enjoy horror.

After the peaceful colony planet of Paradise-1 goes radio silent, Inspector Alexandra Petrova and Dr. Lei Zhang are sent to investigate. However, what they find is far stranger and more horrifying than they could have ever imagined.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington is a riveting sci-fi horror filled with rogue sentient AI, phantasmagorical holograms, and hungry space zombies.

First off, I really loved the depth of Petrova and Dr. Zhang’s characters. Zhang is a man haunted by his past, and Petrova is a nepo baby with unresolved mommy issues looking to prove herself.

However, I wish we could have dived deeper into Captain Parker’s character—especially since he is also Petrova’s ex-lover. Their history is barely reflected in their actions and dialogue with one another, and I would have loved to have seen the awkwardness of them being bring forced to work with one another and dealing with lingering emotions. For me, it felt like it was a huge missed opportunity that would’ve amped up the emotional stakes of the story.

I think my biggest complaint though is the book’s uneven pacing due its whopping length of 700 pages. The first half is an excellent edge-of-your-seat mystery thriller. However, by the second half, the story starts losing its steam and feeling repetitive. I really feel like the book could have been cut in half or at least ended on a less abrupt cliffhanger because where it ends is inconclusive and frustrating to say the least.

However, despite its flaws, the book still delivers some genuinely creepy moments and phycological horror that fans of Event Horizon will appreciate.

After a botched arrest, Firewatch inspector Alexandra Petrova is sent on a mission to Paradise-1 to see why the colony has gone silent. She is joined by Pilot Sam Parker, Doctor Zhang Lei and AI Rapscallion.

This book was packed with intrigue and action. Once I started reading, I found it hard to put down. Petrova, Sam, and Zhang' were uncomfortable with each other. After being thrown into one life situation after another, they learned to work together with the help of Rapscallion.

I definitely do no like the cliffhanger at the end of the story but it does motivate me to read the next book in the series whenever that is slated to be published.