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laurenlaufman's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
amanda_g_s's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
the_dubious_muse's review against another edition
1.0
About 2/3 of the way in, there was a huge plot hole. When the "traitor" (Jack) in the party insisted on boarding the derelict ship, in the next scene, the boarding party were all given firearms. Everyone in the boarding party should have raised their weapon against Jack and Rebecca. Boom. Book over. Jack forces everyone over to the derelict ship against their will and then gives them weapons. Really? Aiden would have been the first one when given a weapon to turn it on the mutineers. Come on, man.
tyto_alba's review
2.0
2.5 Stars, rounded down.
This book did not work for me on almost any level, which is a shame because so many other reviewers seem to absolutely love this book. So I don't seem like I am trying to be overly negative, I will start with the bad and end with the good (but heads up, this is not a positive review). Also, I'm not going to compare it to Event Horizon, since everyone else has already. However, I will say that the possibility that the book could be anything like that movie was what finally motivated me to read this to begin with. I mean, saying a book is "like Event Horizon" is a really good way of getting me to immediately search the book out to read.*
The Bad:
-The characters, though not entirely one dimensional, were not developed enough for me to care about them at all.
-The head-hopping, particularly in the first fourth of the book, was almost enough for me to DNF the book. It got so egregious, there was a single paragraph that leapt through three different characters' perspectives at once, and I had NO IDEA what was even going on or when or where things were taking place. These characters were not even in the same location! I kept having to re-read pages to figure out what was happening. However, about halfway through the book, the author decided to use little asterisks between MOST point-of-view switches, so it wasn't nearly as bad. What initially made this worse, I think, was that the first several chapters would only switch between characters at the start of a new chapter, so I was expecting 3rd person limited until BAM head-hopping. It kept me on pins and needles for the rest of the book and NOT in a good way.
-This "science fiction horror" had no science in it. At all. And the little bit it pretends to have is so hand-wavy that it might as well just be magic. It was incredibly difficult for me to maintain a suspension of disbelief whenever the characters would attempt to "explain" how things work.
-Despite being set in the 2100's, it spends so much time in the 1970's (or thereabouts), that it should have simply been an alternate history story instead of being set in the future. Seriously, I cringed so hard when a character actually says they still listen to the Beatles because "humanity hadn't come up with anything better." It's so lazy and embarrassing, and literally every single reference to the "modern" (aka, the modern of the book) culture is just a reference to something that is old by today's standards. Even the characters' dreams - which should have been an opportunity to do some world building - takes place in even OLDER TIMES, like the 1800's or 1920's. Why?? It's extremely annoying, and it makes me feel like it should not have been set in the future because the author could not be bothered to actually imagine what might be different about the future.
-The "villians"/monsters were so painfully trite. I will leave this at that to avoid spoilers, but man. For as Lovecraftian as this wants to be, it falls very short of capturing that same otherworldly dread.
The Good:
-The Anubis colony had some gorgeous and terrifying imagery. I wish the entire book had been set there. Seriously, the short time we get to spend delving into this terrifying planet is stunning and absolutely worthy of being the setting of its own story.
-The initial set-up of the dreams had me so anxious to finally see the characters experience them when they entered warp for the first time. The pay-off was pretty great, too (although I feel like the characters' dreams should have been spaced out more, and not given to us back to back to back to back…).
-The premise is really good: these nightmares that people experience during warp that may or may not drive them mad. Getting to the bottom of it was very intriguing, even if the pay-off felt disappointing. It reminded me of The Jaunt, which is one of my favorite short stories by Stephen King.
-The setting is one of the best for horror, in my opinion.*
Overall, I did not like this book. The good I listed, for me, makes the bad that much worse by lifting my expectations only to drop them from a higher distance. However, given how many people have this book rave reviews, I am an outlier. If the book is interesting to you, you will probably enjoy it.
*Both asterisks are just me trying to say I am basically desperate to fill the Outer Darkness shaped hole in my heart, DESPERATE. No movie, comic, or novel has come close, and Outer Darkness was what I was using to fill the More Than Meets The Eye shaped hole in my heart. :(
This book did not work for me on almost any level, which is a shame because so many other reviewers seem to absolutely love this book. So I don't seem like I am trying to be overly negative, I will start with the bad and end with the good (but heads up, this is not a positive review). Also, I'm not going to compare it to Event Horizon, since everyone else has already. However, I will say that the possibility that the book could be anything like that movie was what finally motivated me to read this to begin with. I mean, saying a book is "like Event Horizon" is a really good way of getting me to immediately search the book out to read.*
The Bad:
-The characters, though not entirely one dimensional, were not developed enough for me to care about them at all.
-The head-hopping, particularly in the first fourth of the book, was almost enough for me to DNF the book. It got so egregious, there was a single paragraph that leapt through three different characters' perspectives at once, and I had NO IDEA what was even going on or when or where things were taking place. These characters were not even in the same location! I kept having to re-read pages to figure out what was happening. However, about halfway through the book, the author decided to use little asterisks between MOST point-of-view switches, so it wasn't nearly as bad. What initially made this worse, I think, was that the first several chapters would only switch between characters at the start of a new chapter, so I was expecting 3rd person limited until BAM head-hopping. It kept me on pins and needles for the rest of the book and NOT in a good way.
-This "science fiction horror" had no science in it. At all. And the little bit it pretends to have is so hand-wavy that it might as well just be magic. It was incredibly difficult for me to maintain a suspension of disbelief whenever the characters would attempt to "explain" how things work.
-Despite being set in the 2100's, it spends so much time in the 1970's (or thereabouts), that it should have simply been an alternate history story instead of being set in the future. Seriously, I cringed so hard when a character actually says they still listen to the Beatles because "humanity hadn't come up with anything better." It's so lazy and embarrassing, and literally every single reference to the "modern" (aka, the modern of the book) culture is just a reference to something that is old by today's standards. Even the characters' dreams - which should have been an opportunity to do some world building - takes place in even OLDER TIMES, like the 1800's or 1920's. Why?? It's extremely annoying, and it makes me feel like it should not have been set in the future because the author could not be bothered to actually imagine what might be different about the future.
-The "villians"/monsters were so painfully trite. I will leave this at that to avoid spoilers, but man. For as Lovecraftian as this wants to be, it falls very short of capturing that same otherworldly dread.
The Good:
-The Anubis colony had some gorgeous and terrifying imagery. I wish the entire book had been set there. Seriously, the short time we get to spend delving into this terrifying planet is stunning and absolutely worthy of being the setting of its own story.
-The initial set-up of the dreams had me so anxious to finally see the characters experience them when they entered warp for the first time. The pay-off was pretty great, too (although I feel like the characters' dreams should have been spaced out more, and not given to us back to back to back to back…).
-The premise is really good: these nightmares that people experience during warp that may or may not drive them mad. Getting to the bottom of it was very intriguing, even if the pay-off felt disappointing. It reminded me of The Jaunt, which is one of my favorite short stories by Stephen King.
-The setting is one of the best for horror, in my opinion.*
Overall, I did not like this book. The good I listed, for me, makes the bad that much worse by lifting my expectations only to drop them from a higher distance. However, given how many people have this book rave reviews, I am an outlier. If the book is interesting to you, you will probably enjoy it.
*Both asterisks are just me trying to say I am basically desperate to fill the Outer Darkness shaped hole in my heart, DESPERATE. No movie, comic, or novel has come close, and Outer Darkness was what I was using to fill the More Than Meets The Eye shaped hole in my heart. :(
electrosailor's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jadedmirror's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
The beginning of the book started off with macabre star trek TNG vibes. But the more I read the less I was engaged. The dreams concept was a little boring to me. I still enjoyed the book but I was hoping it would have been a little more enthralling.
krusen's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
jgolomb's review against another edition
4.0
Brett Talley's follow up to his magnificent Lovecraftian novel, "That Which Should Not Be", proves that he will carve out a place for himself among modern horror authors. This is a thoroughly enjoyable sci-fi/horror/thriller.
While there are a handful of creepy-crawlies that jump from the darkness, Talley's true mastery is his development of horror through narrative, tone and mood. He builds his story upon a backbone of well-known fictional elements - "The Matrix", "The Odyssey", the film "Event Horizon". And while a bit derivative, it works extremely well and I found myself aching to finish the story.
"Void" is quite short and doubling the size, Talley would've had the opportunity delve deeper into the characterizations and further flesh out the backstory. That aside, I heartily recommend this book.
While there are a handful of creepy-crawlies that jump from the darkness, Talley's true mastery is his development of horror through narrative, tone and mood. He builds his story upon a backbone of well-known fictional elements - "The Matrix", "The Odyssey", the film "Event Horizon". And while a bit derivative, it works extremely well and I found myself aching to finish the story.
"Void" is quite short and doubling the size, Talley would've had the opportunity delve deeper into the characterizations and further flesh out the backstory. That aside, I heartily recommend this book.
chigangrel's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book during a desperate search for any kind of "space horror" story, in the vein of Event Horizon or Dead Space. Based on the quality of the writing alone I'd have given this book three stars-- another reviewer mentions the problems The Void has, such as grammar and spelling and shifts in writing style and random time jumps... all of which I really didn't find all that troublesome. To each their own of course, but a lot of it was easily passed and forgotten or entirely unnoticeable. I've read other books where the errors and tonal shifts were much more jarring, and I think I was more forgiving of The Void because the atmosphere and idea of the story gripped me from the beginning.
Then again I am feeling biased towards the story because it does fill a seemingly empty niche genre which I absolutely love (horror! on a spaceship!). Because of this I would recommend this book for those who have a love of stories like the ones from Dead Space and Event Horizon because those are the people least likely to be disappointed. The reveal of the mystery is slow but not too slow, the horror grows, and the ending leaves you wanting more.
Then again I am feeling biased towards the story because it does fill a seemingly empty niche genre which I absolutely love (horror! on a spaceship!). Because of this I would recommend this book for those who have a love of stories like the ones from Dead Space and Event Horizon because those are the people least likely to be disappointed. The reveal of the mystery is slow but not too slow, the horror grows, and the ending leaves you wanting more.