Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was tricky, it had a lot going for it, but WAY too many concepts shoved into a shorter story. I wish the background of the main character was trimmed, it left me confused and pulled out of the tension every time it was mentioned, as well as the AI angle. The fact that it was advertised as an AI horror story doesn't really hold true either. Not sure.

By now I have read all of Barnes’s books, and out of the three of them, this is the best by far.

The pacing is much better in this book than it was in [book:Ghost Station|127280445] or [book:Dead Silence|57693184] - both of which I found a bit tedious and hard to get all the way through. From the get go, I noticed an immediate difference in <i>Cold Eternity</i>.

I will say that the backstory of the FMC was a little hard to follow at first and was a bit boring (while not necessarily run of the mill, it was mundane, if that makes sense), but the actual action itself made up for that.

To go back to the pacing, <i>Cold Eternity</i> managed to snag and then keep my interest throughout. There was a good build up of the horror once we got to our main location (a spaceship filled with mostly dead, which is still a little alive people - spooky!). I really appreciated how in this book, there was a steady build of the dread and what was going on, so it really did leave me wondering what the hell was going to happen next.

Now the actual reveal itself was a little silly, in my opinion, BUT I can’t be too much of a hater because one of my favorite franchises is <spoiler>the Alien franchise, and that has some silly shit going on if you don’t fully buy-in.</spoiler>.

There is one scene in particular that really got me, and re-affirmed my belief that there is no reason your footsies or toesies should ever be outside of your blanket at night.

Overall, a huge step up in Barnes’s writing chops; and while it didn’t quite reach that level of stupid, non-stop and trashy horror/thriller fun of some other reads, I still enjoyed it and will read Barnes’s next book (if there ever is one!).

Cold Eternity follows Halley, a young woman on the run from an interplanetary planetary scandal. She has a huge target on her back and is desperate to avoid two groups gunning for her location. After an attack in the middle of the night, she finds the perfect job opportunity on an old spaceship built for cryogenically frozen humans with only one other person on the staff. The program is defunct and is used as storage for all the frozen bodies of wealthy humans. Completely isolated and far from reach, Halley soon realizes the job is not perfect. With long hours of little sleep, she starts seeing things crawling in the hallways and creeping, slithering sounds in the vents that keep getting closer to her room …

S.A. Barnes has done it again! She is the queen of sci-fi horror, and I will always devour her books. They’re truly incredible and amazing, incredible additions to this niche, fabulous genre. Cold Eternity was immaculate. I LOVED the twist—I screamed it was so great—and this one was particularly my brand of super scary and horrifying. It was so interesting to see if Halley was losing it or if there was truly something more going on. The bodies were just so creepy and haunting. The fact that it was only two people on the very isolated ship—the vastness of space is so terrifying to me—with weird stuff going made it sooooo creepy! The book kept me on the edge of my seat, and I loved every minute. There was such an interesting take on AI, and I loved how everything ended.

Halley is a great main character. She’s got a lot going on and it was so nice to see her growth throughout the novel. She’s so caring and wants the world to be better and it was so admirable that she truly cared for the cryogenically frozen people and Aleyck. I loved their relationship and was so glad that they each got a happy ending in a way.

This book was just perfect for sci-fi horror fans and S.A. Barnes knocked it out of the park like usual. I am desperate to read everything single thing she writes—she's one of my favourite authors and this just made her even more so.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a phenomenally scary sci-fi with a great take on humanity, greed, AI/technology, and the terrifying possibilities with the vastness of space and being super isolated.

A huge thank you to Tor and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love this author's brand of scifi/horror. Very entertaining and very good at creeping you out. The pacing is good and I liked the slow reveal on why the main character found herself in such an unfortunate situation. I'm definitely keeping an eye out for future books from this author.

I really want to love S.A. Barnes' books, but each time they let me down more than the last. Like the others, the concept for this book was strong, but I found myself skimming early on and could not bring myself to care about the main character's back story. I'll probably give her next book another chance, but in the meantime I will have to find other space horror authors whose books keep me invested.

S.A. Barnes has quickly become one of my favorite voices in horror. This is one to read with the lights on! Terrifying and lonely with an all-too-human center, you'll be rooting for the heroine from page one!