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vikingwolf's review against another edition
4.0
Outer Limits, run by Blake Garney, and a rival company Black Sky, run by Kennedy Haig, are in a race to start providing tourist trips to the moon and each has hired a safety consultant and various experts to take a test tour of the moon, hoping for good publicity to attract the public. Both operations are close to each other as the experts explore but things are already going wrong when one craft is damaged on the journey, sabotage by one team on another takes place on the surface, and a strange lifeform may be responsible for a missing tour member...
I first read Rick Chesler because I liked the sound of his dinosaur book Landing Party. As I have read more of his books, I feel that his writing is evolving in a good way. His early stories are fun creature features but I think his more recent books are showing more polish and an even better style of storytelling, which I'm really enjoying. This book may be a slow burner when it comes to action but it kept me reading with the gradual ramping up of the tension and wanting to know what was going to happen to the characters and whether anyone would escape from the doomed missions.
The characters are varied and interesting. Our hero is James Burton, FAA safety inspector who is regretting his decision to join the group before the craft even launches. Black Sky's rich owner is angry that his rival may get the jump on him and rushes to get there, willing to do whatever it takes to win the space race. He and Haig are similar in this sense but they do make interesting characters, if a little steriotyped as rich bad guys who only want to win. I actually enjoyed their rivalry as it added more to the story than just a tour. Asami and Suzette are at each other's throats from the minute they meet and it causes an accident during the flight that might leave them stranded on the moon, a mile from where they were meant to land. I liked Asami who was a smart and nice woman and I agreed with her assessment of Suzette as a bitch! I also particularly liked the pilot Caitlin. We also follow Mission Control back on Earth where Caitlin's boyfriend Ray works and he is about to discover something that makes him fear the crew is in danger, while dealing with a threatening sandstorm that is about to mess up communications.
The tour begins with a drive in a moon buggy, followed by a trip into some underground tunnels, a prospect that sets James teeth on edge from a safety point of view. Blake is already twitchy and distracted, but is insistant that he has to show them something important and they are quite shocked to see a small worm like lifeform. James is already on edge about this discovery and decides he just wants to leave. It is then that things start to take a sinister turn when one of the team go missing in the tunnels, and their buggy back to the craft is sabotaged. James is about to discover that safety violations on the tour are going to be the least of their problems.
The book is part creature feature, in the form of the dangerous worms which sort of remind me of graboids from the Tremors films, and part conspiracy adventure with the moon exploration and everything that was going wrong. I really enjoyed the different setting, the Aliens type 'oh no we're trapped here with monsters trying to get us' vibe, and planning how they are going to get back to Earth safely. I liked the rivalry between the two teams and the issues within the team that threatened their survival. I enjoyed the worms and how they became more of a threat as the book progressed. It was a good mixture of plot and character, with plenty tension and interest. It also reminded me why I plan to stay firmly on Earth, thank you very much!
I first read Rick Chesler because I liked the sound of his dinosaur book Landing Party. As I have read more of his books, I feel that his writing is evolving in a good way. His early stories are fun creature features but I think his more recent books are showing more polish and an even better style of storytelling, which I'm really enjoying. This book may be a slow burner when it comes to action but it kept me reading with the gradual ramping up of the tension and wanting to know what was going to happen to the characters and whether anyone would escape from the doomed missions.
The characters are varied and interesting. Our hero is James Burton, FAA safety inspector who is regretting his decision to join the group before the craft even launches. Black Sky's rich owner is angry that his rival may get the jump on him and rushes to get there, willing to do whatever it takes to win the space race. He and Haig are similar in this sense but they do make interesting characters, if a little steriotyped as rich bad guys who only want to win. I actually enjoyed their rivalry as it added more to the story than just a tour. Asami and Suzette are at each other's throats from the minute they meet and it causes an accident during the flight that might leave them stranded on the moon, a mile from where they were meant to land. I liked Asami who was a smart and nice woman and I agreed with her assessment of Suzette as a bitch! I also particularly liked the pilot Caitlin. We also follow Mission Control back on Earth where Caitlin's boyfriend Ray works and he is about to discover something that makes him fear the crew is in danger, while dealing with a threatening sandstorm that is about to mess up communications.
The tour begins with a drive in a moon buggy, followed by a trip into some underground tunnels, a prospect that sets James teeth on edge from a safety point of view. Blake is already twitchy and distracted, but is insistant that he has to show them something important and they are quite shocked to see a small worm like lifeform. James is already on edge about this discovery and decides he just wants to leave. It is then that things start to take a sinister turn when one of the team go missing in the tunnels, and their buggy back to the craft is sabotaged. James is about to discover that safety violations on the tour are going to be the least of their problems.
The book is part creature feature, in the form of the dangerous worms which sort of remind me of graboids from the Tremors films, and part conspiracy adventure with the moon exploration and everything that was going wrong. I really enjoyed the different setting, the Aliens type 'oh no we're trapped here with monsters trying to get us' vibe, and planning how they are going to get back to Earth safely. I liked the rivalry between the two teams and the issues within the team that threatened their survival. I enjoyed the worms and how they became more of a threat as the book progressed. It was a good mixture of plot and character, with plenty tension and interest. It also reminded me why I plan to stay firmly on Earth, thank you very much!
bookanonjeff's review
5.0
Great lunar adventure, with some interesting creature twists (abilities I've never seen before). sci-fi/ horror, with a minor twist on even that genre. very entertaining, fairly quick read.
lilyn_g's review
3.0
Review Excerpt:Overall, its an interesting premise and could easily be made into a Syfy awesomely horrible movie with some editing. The pacing was nice and quick and some of the scenes were nicely disgusting. but I can’t rate it very well because the amount I’m required to suspend disbelief far outweighs the entertainment value gathered by reading the book. Still, for what it was, it was mildly entertaining.
Interested in reading my full review? Click here.
Interested in reading my full review? Click here.
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