COLD ETERNITY follows Halley. Halley is on the run, trying to stay out of the limelight after a political scandal she didn't mean to get wrapped up in. She answers a job listing that seems perfect, working on a deserted ship in space where most of those on board are cryogenically bodies. With only one living person and an AI to interact with, it seems perfect. Very quickly, Halley realizes that the ship isn't exactly the ideal setting she expected. She begins to see and hear things she shouldn't and she soon realizes she may be in danger, though she isn't sure what from.

I really loved DEAD SILENCE by this author and this synopsis gave me a lot of hope for similar vibes and thankfully I really enjoyed this one too! Halley has been in the middle of a messy political scandal so her reasons for shipping off into what is essentially a graveyard in space are reasonable. The setting is perfect for creepy atmosphere as well, especially knowing in that others haven't lasted at this job for long.

This took me a bit to settle into and it is for sure a slow burn, but once the action picked up, I was very hooked. I think the author did well with drawing the pacing out to keep it slow burn, but also dole out information regularly to keep up the intrigue!

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received an eArc of this sci-fi novel through NetGalley in exchange for me honest musings . . .

Title: cold eternity
Author: S.A. Barnes
Publisher: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: TODAY!!! (hardcover / e-book)
ISBN: 978-1250884954
Source:  NetGalley

This was the best one yet!  For me, the highlight of the author's writing is her eerie atmospheres.  In this story, Halley is hiding from political disaster fallout.  She takes a low paying job as a security guard on an ancient spaceship.  The ship holds the cryogenically frozen bodies of a prophet, more than 100 years dead, and the wealthy people who chose to be frozen with him.  Halley visited the ship as a young child when it was a museum but in recent years it has been maintained by a trust.  She feels it is a great place to hide out while deciding what to do next.

At first it seems like an easy job where she does rounds and pushes a security button to show that all is well.  However, the timing of the rounds and her own stress begin to make her sleep deprivation all the worse.  Is her imagination playing tricks on her or is there something else going on?  The only company she really has on the huge ship is a sophisticated AI program in the museum auditorium which can sometimes answer questions in real time and the frozen folks.  I would not choose to talk to either but her loneliness begins to grate.  Lack of sleep doesn't help.  And the engineer somewhere else on the ship refuses to really talk to her.

There is a lot about Halley's circumstances on board the ship that I found to be unrealistic.  Halley is a character hard to feel sympathetic towards given her privileged background and very bad choices.  However, as the novel progressed, I found that I wanted her to succeed.  Halley just wants to have purpose and help people.  She may have went about it completely incorrectly but in the end, she makes up for it.  Plus the real circumstances and truth of the ship should happen to no one.  Ugh.  As a poor sleeper, I also began to think about how lack of sleep can cause cognitive dysfunction and how that could be contributing to Halley's predicament, her missing key facts, and her second guessing.

The ending was one of the aspects of the novel that felt most realistic.  Halley pays for her bad choices, not everyone survives, and what happens to the AI was refreshing in that "science magic" can't solve everything.  There is a small amount of hope but the ending felt right for the story.

I love the author's excellent space horrors and want more!  These standalones are excellent fun.  Arrr!

4.5 rounded up

4.75⭐️

A thrilling and horrifying sci-fi space epic that takes you to the brink of sanity, and makes it hard to hold down your lunch.

Disclaimer: I read this as a tandem read with the audiobook and ebook from NetGalley. I also received a physical copy from Tor. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Let's address the audiobook first. If you are a previous fan of SA Barnes and the audiobooks of ghost station and dead silence, then you know how cinematic and immersive they can be. I'm sad to report there was no sound effects, ship noises or dreadful music associated with this audiobook. Which is a detour from the previous audiobooks. I hope they bring back the cinematic experience because it was missed. But the narrator did an excellent job and overall I did enjoy the audiobook.

The premise of this story was really unique and interesting. I loved the setting and I really felt the story unfolded and flowed really well. Just when I thought we had reached some big reveal there was another even more surprising revelation right behind it. This big bang way of constantly revealing new information really kept me on my toes and at the edge of my seat.

This book was full of body gore!! The descriptors were done so well I felt like I could really see what was going on. The horror aspects blended so well with the sci-fi that I never felt like I was simply reading one genre or the other. The genre blend was effortlessly done.

The only small downside for me was the FMC tended to ramble a little too long with the internal monologue at times. Which slowed the pace for me. It was minimal, but it did happen and therefore affected my read.

A solid solid read that I honestly would read again. I loved it!!!

Creepy. Strange. Captivating.

There is just something so great about a creepy setting on a nearly abandoned space ship that had me so focused on this book! I enjoy Barnes’ writing a lot and loved the elements she brought together for this story!

The MC was captivating and the other characters were intriguing - especially Aleyk (or however you spell it). I really wanted to see more between them but realize why there couldn’t have been anything.

All in all, very creepy and very much a horror novel but nuanced in a good way.

My rating: 4.6*

—-
Thanks to NetGalley & the publisher for this gifted advanced copy.

Dead Silence is an all-time favorite of mine, and while Ghost Station had its flaws, it still managed to be an enjoyable read. This had me going into Cold Eternity with high hopes, but it ended up missing the mark.

The story leaned heavily into the elements I didn’t enjoy in Ghost Station—namely, the slower pacing and a main character with a backstory that didn’t feel all that compelling. The political aspects felt tacked on and tended to interrupt the narrative right as it was starting to build momentum.

What disappointed me most was the shift away from the psychological tension that Barnes executes so well. The AI component was one of the more intriguing parts of the story, and I wish it had been explored more deeply. Instead, the plot veered into creature-feature territory, which is a very hit-or-miss horror subgenre for me.

There were several points where I seriously considered DNF-ing, but I pushed through, hoping for a payoff that never quite landed. That said, I’m still rooting for Barnes and will keep an eye out for whatever she does next. But this one was very mid.

THIS. This is what I've been waiting for from Barnes. I loved Dead Silence when it came out because it absolutely terrified me, but I struggled with Barnes' second novel Ghost Station, which was more introspective and a sort of low, simmering horror and didn't really hit the way I wanted to. So when I found out Barnes' next novel was taking us back to the void of space I was instantly on board to see if she could rekindle that spark of terror that made me love Dead Silence so much. And she KILLED IT. Cold Eternity was horrifying! It left me with a chill in my bones. I had to close the door to whatever room I was reading in, or leave a light on in the next room, because the void beyond every dark door was too deep and full of the unknown. Perfection. I was thoroughly creeped out.

This is by no means my favorite S.A. Barnes book. It's still an interesting scifi story even if I found it extremely light on the horror.

S.A. Barnes—real name Stacey, but let’s not ruin the mystique—has carved out a bloody niche in the sci-fi horror game like a badass with a plasma cutter. She’s not some overnight sensation who stumbled into writing after a bender; she’s a seasoned scribbler with a day job as an educator, which makes her ability to churn out nightmare fuel all the more impressive. Her debut, Dead Silence (2022), was a goddamn revelation—a claustrophobic, ghost-ship horror that dragged readers kicking and screaming into her orbit. Ghost Station (2024) followed, proving she wasn’t a one-hit wonder, even if it didn’t quite hit the same fever pitch. Now, with Cold Eternity, Barnes is swinging for the fences again, cementing her rep as the go-to gal for space horror that makes you want to sleep with a shotgun under your pillow.

Halley Zwick, a whistleblower with a political scandal up her ass, is on the run from some seriously pissed-off power brokers. She’s not your typical badass heroine—she’s flawed, a bit naive, and just trying to survive the shitstorm she’s unleashed. Desperate, she takes a shady gig on the Elysian Fields, a derelict space barge that’s basically a floating mausoleum for rich assholes who thought cryogenic freezing was their ticket to cheating death. Her job? Push a button every three hours to prove the ship’s still kicking and make rounds among the frosty stiffs. Sounds boring as hell, right? Wrong. Shit gets weird fast. Strange noises echo through the corridors, shadows slink around like they’ve got a mind of their own, and Halley starts seeing things that make her question whether she’s losing her marbles or if something truly fucked-up is lurking on board. Throw in a secretive mechanic named Karl, a glitchy AI hologram with a creepy streak, and a backstory that ties Halley to this cosmic crypt, and you’ve got a recipe for a horror stew.

Barnes doesn’t just toss jump scares at you like a cheap haunted house; she’s got some brains behind the blood. Cold Eternity digs into heavy shit like greed and the human obsession with immortality. The Elysian Fields is a monument to hubris—built by a tech mogul named Zale Winfield who thought he could buy eternity for himself and his elite buddies. The cryogenically frozen “residents” are a grotesque symbol of wealth’s futility, their bodies preserved in a decaying tin can while the universe moves on without them. It’s a middle finger to capitalism’s promise that enough money can solve anything, even death. Isolation is another biggie—Halley’s stuck in the ass-end of space with no one to trust, and that loneliness amps up the dread like a motherfucker. The button-pushing gig, with its sleep-depriving rhythm, mirrors the relentless grind of survival, turning her into a paranoid wreck. And then there’s the AI hologram—let’s call it Aleyck for kicks—which blurs the line between tech and humanity, hinting at questions about what makes us alive. Is it consciousness? A body? Or just the will to keep going when everything’s gone to shit? Barnes doesn’t spoon-feed answers, but she sure as hell makes you think while you’re shitting your pants.


If there’s a sermon in Cold Eternity, it’s this: humans are their own worst fucking enemies. The political scandal chasing Halley reeks of corruption—dystopian backroom deals and power plays that’d make today’s headlines blush. Her idealism gets her burned, and the ship’s a literal graveyard of greed gone wrong. Barnes isn’t subtle about it—capitalism’s a monster, and we’re all complicit, whether we’re freezing our asses off for a second chance or screwing over the little guy to get ahead. There’s a life lesson tucked in the gore: you can’t cheat death, and trying just makes the inevitable messier. It’s bleak, sure, but it’s got a raw honesty that hits like a sledgehammer.

Barnes writes like she’s painting a nightmare with a rusty nail—vivid, gritty, and unapologetic. Her prose is lean but loaded, piling on sensory details that make the Elysian Fields feel like a character itself. The ship’s creaks, the oppressive stink of decay, the flicker of a malfunctioning hologram—it’s all so real you’ll want to shower after reading. She’s a master of slow-burn tension, letting the dread simmer until it boils over into full-on holy-shit moments. Halley’s first-person narration is a rollercoaster—snarky, vulnerable, and just unhinged enough to keep you guessing whether she’s cracking up or onto something. The pacing is intentional, but once the horror kicks in, it’s a sprint to the finish line. Barnes isn’t afraid to get gory but she leans harder on psychological fuckery, which is where she shines brightest.

Let’s get real: Cold Eternity is creepy as fuck. The atmosphere’s a knockout—imagine being trapped in a morgue that’s floating through space, and something’s tapping on the walls. Barnes nails the isolation vibe, making every shadow a threat and every sound a potential death sentence. Halley’s a solid protagonist—flawed, relatable, and scrappy in a way that doesn’t feel forced. The twists are a goddamn delight; just when you think you’ve got it figured out, Barnes yanks the rug out and leaves you gasping. The cryogenic concept’s a fresh spin on space horror—no xenomorphs here, just the unsettling idea of the not-quite-dead watching you sleep. And that AI hologram? It’s a stroke of genius, adding a layer of existential dread that lingers like a bad dream.

Alright, time to bitch a little. The political backstory is a slog—too convoluted and in-your-face with its parallels to today’s clusterfuck of a world. It’s like Barnes wanted to say something profound but got lost in the weeds, and it drags the momentum down. Halley’s secrecy about her past feels contrived—like, why build it up so much if the reveal’s just gonna be a shrug? The ending’s another sore spot; after all that buildup, it wraps up too neat and quick, like a sitcom finale. And the romantic subplot with the hologram? What the fuck was that? It’s half-baked and awkward, like a drunk flirt at a funeral. Could’ve ditched it entirely and no one would’ve missed it. The middle sags a bit too—less action, more moping—which might make you wanna skim until the good shit hits.

So, where does Cold Eternity land on the horror scale? It’s not perfect—those pacing hiccups and backstory bloat keep it from greatness—but it’s a damn fine ride. Compared to the vast swamp of horror lit, it’s above the curve. Barnes delivers chills and thrills with a brain, and that’s rare as hell. It’s not Dead Silence’s raw terror or Alien’s iconic perfection (what is?), but it’s a quality space horror that’ll make you double-check your closet for cryogenic corpses. For fans of the genre, it’s definitely recommendedd—just don’t expect it to reinvent the wheel. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go hug my blanket and pray nothing’s skittering in my vents.

Space horror, say less! This one was so atmospheric, chilling and kept me up long into the night! I loved it!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this gifted copy both as an E-ARC and ALC. it was such a great immersive reading experience in exchange for my honest review. The narration was so good, I felt like I was in space watching this unfold first hand! SA Barnes writes space horror/fantasy the absolute best!! If she’s writing it, I’m reading it! 4 cosmic stars!

Barnes once again delivers a masterclass in space horror with her signature blend of chilling atmosphere and gore-filled, cinematic scenes. The tension is palpable, and the vivid, detailed writing makes every unsettling moment come alive. The sci-fi elements are wonderfully creepy, and the characters are compelling, drawing me deeper into the story.

That said, the political angle didn’t quite land for me—it felt a bit confusing and got lost in the otherwise gripping plot. Still, Barnes’ talent for creating eerie, suspenseful settings and her knack for gut-punch horror makes this a must-read. She’s an auto-buy author for me—I don’t even need to read the summary. While this one wasn’t my favorite of hers, it’s still an intense, atmospheric ride that fans of space horror won’t want to miss.

A claustrophobic, sci-fi horror that will have you rethinking your need to leave this planet.

If you loved SA's previous sci-fi horror, Ghost Station (2024), you are going to LOVE this too. Ghost Station was one of my top 10 favourite reads last year, and Cold Eternity did not disappoint.

It's like SA knows exactly what I want from a claustrophobic, sci-fi horror and then gives it to me. This book reads like a film in my head. I could clearly see and feel exactly what our main character was going through and I finished this book in three days (which is fast for me!)

There's this really clever story plot about our main character needing to press a button every three hours without fail. It starts messing with her ability to sleep, to explore the ship, and to trust herself. Genius! Loved that.

Read this book if you want
🚀 Claustrophobic, sci-fi horror
🚀 Unreliable secondary character
🚀 Cryo-tanks on a ship called, Elysian Fields (IYKYK)
🚀 Is she crazy or is it sleep deprivation?
🚀 Unreliable technology

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this amazing ARC! I can't wait to see what's next from SA Barnes.

This book is best read while walking through a spaceship of nightmares while whispering, "I'm fine. Everything is fine."

Despite an incredibly and chilling setting and a heroine impossible not to root for its the ending that spoils an otherwise truly grand sci-fi horror story. Sticking a woman on the run on an ancient spaceship where the only occupants are the cryogenically frozen big wigs taking one last shot at immortality is a truly brilliant set up and for awhile "Cold Eternity" truly delivers fabulous chills and mysteries the reader longs to solve. Why do the AI's who once offered tours of the ship seem to have minds of their own? What are the mysterious noises caretaker Halley keeps hearing? What is the ships mechanic Karl really doing on the lower levels where Halley isn't permitted to go?

Honestly the first 3/4's of this book are fantastic as Halley's back story is slowly revealed and we learn why she's on the run and she edges ever closer to finding out what is really going on and then...everything just kind of explodes into ridiculousness. The big reveal is so out of left field and it just isn't in keeping with the wonderful, creepy vibe that I settled so comfortably into. I absolutely get what Barnes was going for and it may genuinely work for some readers but I ended this read deeply unsatisfied both with the resolution of everything happening on the ship and with Halley's story.

I typically love the space horror novels by S.A. Barnes, but this one felt like it was trying to do too much while also attempting to keep the creepy space stuff. I didn't love all the political work background of Katerina, and the stuff with the holograms was super strange to me. I think if I'd had more of the ship full of the cryogenic dead and the something lurking without all the family business news drama, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

New space horror from S.A. Barnes? I’m so here for it! Her previous works have brought us to lost luxury spaceliners and isolated scientific outposts, and the atmosphere and creepy vibes are always on point. I love the concepts this author comes up with and this was no exception. We follow Halley, on the run from interplanetary political scandal, who needs to go into hiding until the worst of it blows over. So when a somewhat shady, but super isolated, job opening for a massive ship carrying the cryogenically frozen bodies of the once ultra wealthy and famous pops up, she jumps on it. The ship was once a popular tourist attraction complete with an EPCOT-esque welcoming presentation and displays for the more prominent “residents”. But now the halls are empty and the decaying ship is closed to the public with flickering, barely functioning systems, and strange noises in the walls. Was that something crawling in hallway on the video feed? Probably just an overactive imagination. This is fine…

I really loved how isolated our protagonist was, in the author’s previous novels our protagonist has been a part of a team, but her being on her own (for the most part..) really upped the creepiness factor. As she does her rounds and notices small details that seem off, unexplainable strange occurrences start to unfold, creating such an eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere. The escalation of what Halley is experiencing and the unraveling of the ship’s secrets make this book utterly unputdownable. I can’t wait to see what S.A. Barnes comes up with next!

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher. I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

SA Barnes does space horror so well. I have read and loved every one. Autoread author for me. I will enthusiastically recommend this title and look forward to what comes next.

This is my first book by S.A. Barnes but it will not be my last. It’s a bit of a slow burn but Barnes does an absolutely incredible job of building this spooky and tense atmosphere. You’ve got all the makings of an incredible sci-fi horror and when things start to go really, really bad, the tension reaches a fever pitch. If you like your space horror visceral and terrifying, this is the book for you. Thanks to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I've been a fan of the author since I read her first title-Dead Silence- when it first came out. That being the case I was very excited to hear about her latest title Cold Eternity. However, I think I have to list this title as my least favorite of the three. It had some really memorable and unsettling moments but the plot shifts between aliens, political commentary, and a romantic subplot with a hologram I never really understood broke the hold the narrative had on me at unexpected moments.

Halley is on the run due to a political scandal that has put a target on her back. She gets a job on a defunct space barge that houses wealthy “ residents” who have had their bodies cryogenically frozen. There is only one other caretaker on the barge with her, Carl, who is extremely secretive. What could go wrong? Well, Halley starts to see scary things and it goes down hill for her from that point on. Barnes excels at creating a creepy and downright horrifying atmosphere, but Halley was a little too slow on the uptake, if you ask me and plausibility was difficult.

Recommended for die-hard fans of science fiction/ horror.

Just keep on reading...because you will not be disappointed. That is what I would tell prospective readers of this novel. The novel starts off slow, but it is slow for a reason with the world building, the main character, her background/ backstory, why she is running away, etc. Then why she accepts this job and is this job what she thinks it is. The author makes this whole descriptive world with this character and even Karl, then her parents, and people she even talks about...or to. Just so much thought, as if she had gotten into some of their heads (more of the main characters) and lived a bit in their shoes.

It is just so much detail and yes, things did drag on a bit. Like it starts off very interesting, then it slows down for a while about 30-40 percent through, but towards that 70 percent mark, dang...did things really pick up. Nothing like I would had expected at all. The ending will surely not disappoint. It also serves as a life lesson, without spoiling the book...there is just no cheating death.

Hats off to Barnes for doing it once again, she's written a wonderfully spooky space horror novel, and this time I was honestly kept in suspense for basically the entirety of the book. I can legitimately say that I didn't really see where this book was going, and for someone who reads as much as I do that was really refreshing. I think the best thing here is to go into this book blind, although with the semi-generic space horror synopsis you do get there's enough vagueness that I would honestly be surprised if anyone manages to guess all of the twists here. Barnes does an excellent job writing the eeriness that comes with an isolated job, as well as the general creepiness of space. Without giving too much away I also think her main character was a refreshing choice, because at her core she's not an overly heroic Ellen Ripley or the like, she's just a regular woman trying to survive a crappy turn of events in her life and a potentially deadly job posting (and aren't we all, at some point). The only thing that didn't make this a complete 5+ star read was the odd secrecy our main character has about keeping the circumstances of her self-imposed exile from the reader. It doesn't seem overly necessary and almost becomes somewhat built up, so that when everything is finally revealed it feels almost like a let down. But that's really just a small nit-pick. Barnes kills it with the atmosphere and creepy elements of this story, and I can't wait for it to come out so I can push it on anyone who even remotely seems interested in the space horror subgenre. I'll be happily penning a shelf talker in the next few weeks, and will eagerly be hand selling this to anyone who will listen (and probably even some people who won't). I certainly will be eagerly awaiting whatever Barnes comes up with for her next read, and will be happily adding this to my collection in an effort to do my part so that she can continue writing more novels like this one.