Let's give it up for creepy space zombies! I usually find that zombies + sci-fi can become a bit of an overload, but David Wellington has taken a fascinating angle on both genres. I was especially compelled by how AI was as susceptible to the virus as human, which made for some terrifying and mind-bending sequences aboard the infected ships. The pace is LIGHTENING fast making the enormous length of the book (700+ pages) feel slightly less daunting. On a personal note, I also love books with short chapters and I think David Wellington's style takes the cake with the book being divided into 170 different sections. I found the character work lagging behind plot and concept, but I was willing to let this go given the pace of the story and the compelling nature of the central mystery.

This book was relentless. A non stop, action packed, tense as hell sci-fi nightmare. It’s a monster, but I couldn’t put it down. It takes a special kind of writer to maintain the tension and pace of this over so many pages. Jaw dropping set pieces, heart stopping horror, and intriguing sci-fi abound in this must read first book in a new series! Thank to Netgalley for the ARC.

This book ticks all the boxes for things I like in sci-fi horror, but the style doesn't work for me at all. It's painfully slow and goes on far too long with background information in the beginning. I won't be finishing this book or picking up the sequel.

This book was definitely an adventure! The author does a good job of getting you hooked from the first chapter. You are immediately thrown into an intense situation that leaves you with a lot of questions. This story is told from multiple POVs which is really helpful in being able to feel like you truly know each of the characters. This book also has short chapters, which I personally always enjoy.

One thing that I did not expect from this book is that there is a character that provides comic relief. It really helps balance out the reader’s emotions since there are some tense and truly scary situations that are taking place in the story.

The author does a good job of keeping the story moving. As soon as you think one problem is solved, another problem/mystery pops up, and this is coupled with a few big twists in the story that left me shocked. This story also does have a fair amount of gore.

Some scenes toward the end felt repetitive, but I think it served a purpose in trying to fully explain the meaning behind everything and keep the suspense building.

Overall, this was an adventurous and intense read and I am excited to read more about the Paradise-1 universe!

David Wellington is a favorite author of mine. I've enjoyed all of his books and this chonky, fast paced boi is no exception. Sci fi horror is a subgenre on the rise lately. The original premise was a hit with me and I liked the characters. My only criticism is the ending went on longer than necessary but overall this is a keeper.

**I was provided with an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

DNF @34%

I do not care. I have been falling asleep while reading, not due to any personal exhaustion. The pace is painfully slow, particularly considering the nature of the genre and type of book it is shaping up to be. We have spent this long waking from cryosleep, attempting to recover from the ship being attacked, and have only just begun investigating the source. Nothing for me to invest in at this pace, though I'm sure the bones of something good are there. Wouldn't get higher than 3 stars even if I continued. Too long, so cutting my losses here. It has taken me 14 days to reach this point; I read 50 books in February alone. Nope.

Giving 2 stars to satisfy the need for rating. Rapscallion is the only glimmer of hope I had during this reading.

I'm afraid I won't be reviewing Paradise-1 online. I don't like giving negative reviews, and while I enjoyed the opening, the story quickly started to feel like it had lost its plot. I thought the premise was interesting and the first few chapters on Ganemede were neat. But I almost stopped reading during the section after their ship was attacked and before they got the message stating what's going on. I was hoping that message would regain my interest, but all I could think about was how the crew should have been told all of this before leaving so they'd be better prepared for what they found. I believe all 3 would have volunteered for the mission even knowing what could happen, and I don't think the book would have lacked tension even without some of that guesswork.

I skimmed the rest of the book and there were other things that annoyed me about how the story progressed.

I'm really sorry. Not all books are for everyone and I can see how this is an exciting read with a lot of tension, but it didn't work for me and I don't like giving negative reviews.

Oh man. This pain's me to even write this. After how much I loved 'The Last Astronaut' I was beyond excited to read this. But the opening sequence of this is so beyond cliché and predictable that I just can't go on. I've seen others talk about how much this novel would've benefited from being half the length it is and within the 25% I read, there was so much unnecessary extra stuff that I quickly became a slog to find any rhythm or any pull to get back into it. This one really missed the mark for me, which is such a shame, but I'm closing it here and moving on.

In an inadequate but recognizable way of describing this novel in a nutshell, it's The Walking Dead meets Event Horizon with some 2001: A Space Odyssey thrown in. But that's only half the story.
After failing to obey orders causes an operation to go bad, Sasha Petrova of Firewatch, the para-military/security force of the galaxy, is sent on a a somewhat punitive mission to Paradise-1, Earth's first long-range colony on a faraway planet, where communication with the colony has ceased. Alongside her are Dr. Lei Zhang, the lone survivor of a bizarre plague on a station on Saturn's Titan moon, who has a special device attached to him to keep his emotions in check, pilot Sam Parker, with whom Petrova was previously acquainted, and their on-ship robot Rapscallion. As they near the planet, their ship is nearly torn asunder, and their ship's AI is caught in an endless reboot loop. And the closer they get to Paradise, the more they realize that a mind parasite, of which Zhang is the only one to have found a cure, may be worse and different than what they originally thought.
This novel is chock full of concepts that would take too long to summarize. Though it's pretty long, the story is almost constant action or at least tension, and as it's written in very short chapters, the narrative just bursts along. As the action heats up and revelations begin to become clear, it's a little frustrating that there's still so much to get through to find the answers. It feels a lot like the serials of old, where every time the heroes narrowly escape one disaster, something else crops up to endanger them. I know the author mentioned something about serializing a story in the preface, so I'm guessing that's the format in which he originally wrote this. On the upside, the more things happen, the more it makes you want to keep reading to find out how the intrepid heroes will get out of the next mess. The one gripe I do have is, after almost 700 pages and all the mishegoss that goes on, the book has a non-ending - it just says "to be continued." Gaaaahhh. I don't think I can take another 700 pages of this. The sequel better be a novella.

My thanks to Orbit books, David Wellington and Netgalley.
No long or extensive review.
Truth is that this is a freaking David Wellington book!
If you've yet to read Wellington, then as far as I'm concerned you're missing out!
I have enjoyed most of Wellingtons books.
He's one of a few authors that I still buy to keep on my bookshelves. Even though my arthritis makes it impossible for me to read!
As for a review? Puleeze! Homey don't play dat!
It's Wellington. It's in space. Shit happens!
I was never bored, and was happy to see that this is at least a duology or trilogy.
Encore!

Thanks to netgalley for this arc.

I'm not sure how to review this book, as I did like the book enough to read through it pretty quickly, always a good sign, but I wasn't left desperate for more.

How to describe the book....it's a cross between a first contact novel, with some zombies thrown in and some psychological thriller bits mixed in. The twist wasn't a great surprise, but the characters were reasonably well fleshed out, and the robot was a good dry comedy-sidekick.

I would probably give this 2.5 stars, as it had some good elements, but was just too many bits mixed together that didnt quite gel for me.

It's worth a read, if you're looking for something a little different, but ymmv.

Paradise-1 is a nonstop, action packed, thrill ride. Wellington does a great job of blending Sci-Fi and horror with a bit of thriller mixed in too. While it is a long book, it had me turning pages as fast as I could. I can’t wait to read the next installment!

Thank you for allowing me to read this book early!

[Blurb goes here]

Dr. Zhang witnessed how the Titan colony under his care died from a strange desease, all inhabitants just stopped breathing, they had to make a conscious effort to keep inhaling and exhaling air, that is, until they couldn't keep up. Now he's forced to go to Paradise-1, an Earth-like planet inhabited by a human colony.

Special Agent Petrov, from the Firewatch military force, botched her last mission, going against orders, she follows and subdues a doctor, the man accused of kidnaping colonists from Ganymede. The man has put all of them in an abandoned mine. He's saving them, he argues, since all of the kidnaping victims are unable to speak.

Instead of demoting Petrov, her superiors give her a mission, she's to go to Paradise-1 along with doctor Zhang, Sam Parker and Rapscallion, a robot, on the spaceship Artemis.

As soon as they arrive to the star system where Paradise-1 is located, they're attacked. Another ship is throwing containers at them, using some sort of railgun. Their ship is in ruins. Their survival chances, slim...all through out the book!

Now I have to say that I enjoyed this adventure to no end. All characters are fleshed out and rich in detail. Rapscallion, the robot, is my favorite character by far. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the heroes in this story, they way they are written, the way they have flaws, but try to do better.

The 'enemy' is amazingly conceptualized. This is not your average creature feature. It goes a few steps beyond that...No, I won't elaborate, wouldn't dare ruining the surprise for those who decide to give this fast paced story a try.

I'm eagerly awaiting for the next installment!

Thank you for the advanced copy!

David Wellington's Paradise-1, the first in a new series, is a fine example of just how fresh and enjoyable sci-fi horror can be when an author fully commits to an original premise instead of being merely content to regurgitate any or all aspects from the ALIEN franchise.

After screwing up and interfering with a larger investigation while tracking a serial killer, Special Agent Petrov is booted off-planet to explore why all communication with the Paradise-1 colony has suddenly ceased. She's joined by Dr. Lei Zhang, an impersonal screw-up required to wear a drug-injecting bracelet to keep his moods and behavior in check, and their pilot, Sam Parker, a former lover Petrov hasn't seen in ages. Before they even have time to wake from cyrosleep, they find their small ship under siege and vastly outnumbered by hostile forces encircling Paradise-1.

Paradise-1 carries the weight of its 700-plus pages rather well, rarely feeling like the bulky brick of a book that it is. The pacing, for the most part, is marvelously spot-on thanks to frenetic, unrelenting, break-neck action sequences piled high and deep, some truly well-earned scares, as well as Wellington's skillful use of cliff-hangers to propel readers forward and keep those pages turning at a rapid clip. Wellington got his start back in 2003, serializing online what would later become his debut novel, Monster Island. Paradise-1 proves he hasn't lost a step, often feeling like a serial adventure. His story is routinely riddled with various hooks to keep readers' attention, and nary a chapter goes by without some new hair-raising peril or revelation. Coupled with the chapters themselves being fairly short and punchy, Wellington has that compulsive "just one more chapter!" need for a fix down to a science.

What I most appreciated, though, was the total lack of bug-like creatures wreaking havoc and jingoistic militarism run rampant. Wellington aims much higher, delivering a startlingly scary alien pathogen that infects the mind, targeting and destroying both sentient and artificial intelligences and driving them beyond the brink of madness. Over the course of Paradise-1, Wellington exhibits how this parasitic idea unfolds and interacts with those it infects, to wonderfully deranged effect. On some of the affected ships, it plays out more like a zombie horror with the crew consumed by an unslakable hunger. Where it gets really trippy, though, is how one ship's AI responds to this need and the demented lengths it goes to try and satisfy its compulsions. On another ship, this rabid meme has turned its crew into a cult that poses unstoppable danger for all that cross its path. Wellington keeps readers on their toes the whole way through, shocking us with scenes of dark, grotesque body horror, then veering into mental instability as Petrova and her small company is forced from one damned ship filled with the mad to another orbital house of horrors.

While Paradise-1 is firmly engaging, it does start to get a bit creaky in the extended climax, wherein Petrova and Zhang are forced to confront past traumas. After we've already been hit with some repetitious scenes and explanations, the grand finale becomes a bit of a slog, even before hitting the dreaded TO BE CONTINUED... at story's end.

That said, I'd rather take a 700 page book with a unique premise that maintains so much momentum it only starts to feel stale in the last 100-odd pages than a 250-pager filled with derivative been there, done that riffs on pop culture staples we've already seen done better a hundred times before. Despite the finale being a bit of a slog, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than ready for Paradise-2 by the time I hit that last page.

A colony ship of 15,000 people goes offline. Over a hundred space craft are sent to investigate and are never heard from again. One more crew is sent.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC.

Paradise-1 is an interesting book. There are definitely some things about it that feel fresh for the space horror/sci-fi horror subgenres, particularly some of the gruesome body horror and the wonderful worldbuilding.

There are also, however, a lot of things that feel familiar about it. It’s sort of like for every part I enjoyed, there’s some other related detail that doesn’t so much frustrate as disappoint me.

For example, there’s the length: Over about 700 pages, we get the opportunity to know our two protagonists, Petrova and Zhang, in detail…to an extent. Petrova’s relationship to her mother (trapped in the Paradise solar system) is supposed be a driving force for her—but up until some key moments very late in the story, she’s treated more as an afterthought than anything, with the history of abuse Petrova experienced from her and how that impacts their current relationship being somehow both under-explored and predictable at the same time. They could have had a very interesting dynamic, but instead, events play out almost exactly as you’d expect they would (extremely late in the book, I might add), with very little charted growth from Petrova in realizing what she went through.

But then there’s a flip-side to it being 700 pages, which is that it rarely felt like a chore to pick back up and read. Wellington keeps events moving at a pretty good pace over the course of the novel, with a lot of satisfying tension and action that never feels unearned—the Artemis’s entry into the Paradise system in the beginning is of note as being some of the best-written space action I’ve encountered. There are some incredibly well-done body horror moments and a relentless tension that I really enjoyed, even as things started to get a bit slow around the middle. The changing POVs offer a good shift in perspective to keep things fresh, even if sometimes the dialogue falls a bit flat with characters repeating the same observation ad nauseam in every situation. And, of course, there’s a lot of well-realized, if under-utilized, worldbuilding…though with the eventual reveal that this will be followed by at least one more novel, I can forgive that.

There are a few loose ends I can only assume will be dealt with more in the follow-up, namely the connection between the basilisk and Ganymede from the book’s opening, and the admittedly frustrating fact that the actual planet Paradise-1 isn’t reached until the very last chapter.

Verdict? Paradise-1 isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it’s a welcome addition to the space horror genre, with a lot of time to explore its characters and environments in interesting ways, even if sometimes things drag or feel repetitive.

4/5 stars.

I don't know the last time I've been this upset at a book. Make no mistake, I will be recommending this book widely.

But!

This is an excellent novel. It's a dash of hard sci-fi, mixed liberally with horror and mystery.

It has characters you grow to love and be invested in: a damaged doctor, a burdened cop, an insane AI, a curmudgeonly robot.

It has intense action and blood-chilling terror.

*spoilers*





AND IT HAS NO ENDING!

This is (evidently) the first book in a series. It ends on a cliffhanger. I was reading along at a fast clip, dying to know what was going on and what the basilisk wanted - and then the book ended. Heartbreaking!



I will be on tenterhooks until the sequel is released.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free uncorrected proof.

David Wellington is a new author to me. He struck me as accomplished, familiar with classic SF themes, and well capable of writing taut, exciting prose. Paradise-1 doesn’t cover new ground but is a very effective adventure novel, filled with mysteries and revelations about interstellar colonization. And some creepy AI! I quite enjoyed the character of Zhang, though viewpoint character Petrova seemed workmanlike to me. The only difficulty for me was a cliffhanger ending after a long book; I will read the sequel but I think with judicious editing could have kept this to one volume. But only reading the sequel will reveal if I am correct!

There was a lot going on in this book.
At almost 750 pages, there was a lot of air space to fill and honestly I had a really fun time reading it. I liked the way the different humans were described--how they were born in different gravities, or were paler depending on sun exposure, etc. I do wish the characters were a little deeper, though. I felt like they could be very one note--Dr. Zhang was anxious and tortured by his past, Sasha was also tortured by her past a bit and had a strained relationship with her mom, Parker was The Captain™. Honestly, the character I ended up liking the most was Rapscallion, the sentient robot with an assortment of 3D-printed bodies.
I liked the overall plot, though I think it could have been shorter in the middle. At one point they board a ship, find out the AI has also gone rogue, and deal with that/the consequences of Sasha getting infected, and make it back to their ship after a rescue mission. But instead of moving on, they kind of...do that a second time? That was a bit redundant--cool to see another AI/what their invasive thought was, but overall just a rehash of the previous like 150 pages. I also thought that the ending part with her mother was a bit...weird? I wish maybe the mom had ended up on the planet and disappeared (like the colony on Paradise ended up doing anyways). Because I think having her mom actually be a character, plus the sort of...confusing and unnecessary nature of that whole part dragged the story to a halt.
I wish the story had gone: Intro-->now they're on the ship (Artemis?) and oh no the AI went rogue-->contact with first other ship-->some revelation from Acteon/some way to reveal plot information that wasn't repeating the same ship-contact sequence over and over (maybe they could harvest the AI they make contact with for video/information/bio-information/something)-->then they touch down on Paradise and things are spooky. That would set the story up for the sequel, and it would cut down on the page count considerably.
I just think that this probably could have been edited down a teeny bit so that the middle of the story didn't slow down as much.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, though, and I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel.

Long, boring, derivative sci-fi horror, and it ends with a TO BE CONTINUED . . .

I absolutely should have DNFed this. I will not be reading the sequel.

I read an advance reader copy from Netgalley.