Tuesday, October 13, 2020

30%


 

That was one of their jobs on Station 331: keep the moon clean of hostile beings that came off comets or space debris 

This starts off with the action right away and while it works to pull me in and the sense of forbiding is super high, I miss some worldbuilding. I don't know if that is being purposely left out to give the reader even more of a stark lost feeling to match the mood of these three people alone on a station on some planets moon. 

 Jen couldn’t take her eyes off Carly as the woman leaned against one of the walls, panting and shivering. It seemed incredible that she could have made it back. More than incredible, actually. Impossible. 

DO NOT LET HER IN! 

Ok, so this book looks to be comprised of three short stories followed by two novellas. Each story focuses on a different Station and it's occupants. The first station, 331, was a quick intro to the Parasite first attacking. 

On the wall, written crudely in dark-brown blood, was the phrase, “They take our skin.” 

We're now at Station 332 and holy crap was this line creepy. This station is reading like a great Scifi movie scene, with darkness, bodies, and that on edge feeling as this crew is answering a distress call and searching a station. 

Charles stared at Robin, her mouth open but incapable of making a noise. Robin’s face was splitting in half. A crack had started over her nose and spread up to her hairline and down to her neck. The crazed smile slid farther and farther around her cheeks as the centre of her face opened like a book.

So what a great eek way to give the reader more info on how the Parasite is taking over humans. 

You shot my sisters,” Ellan hissed. Charles felt her breath freeze in her chest as she watched the bullet holes in the other woman knit together. Skin fused to skin, leaving Ellan’s face smooth and blemish-free. 

Clearly bullets don't work on these things but also, guns with bullets is the technology??? I feel like in scifi, especially this one where wormholes are used and seems incredibly far in the future, the technology would be better? 

"Want to know what its biggest flaw is?” Stanos asked. He had his arms folded over his chest, and a spark of something fierce and exultant shone in his eyes. Kala nodded. “It can’t learn on its own. It can absorb knowledge and memories perfectly and replicate its host, as you said, but it has no way of using that knowledge to increase its own intelligence. It can’t learn; it can only assimilate.” 

Now onto Station 333 and while the first station was about introducing, the second station was about showing how the Parasites are attacking and spreading. Station 333 slows for a moment to show a bit of how the Parasite thinks and has in interacting with a human. The danger starts up again but this short story ends a bit differently with, what I think, are two survivors. Maybe setting up humans fighting back? 

So far this has been a fun creepy story, worldbuilding has been discarded in favor of danger and scary thrills but I'm wondering if the next station up, with it being a novella, will color in some details.

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