Paradise-1

Starred review from February 6, 2023
Wellington (The Last Astronaut) skillfully combines hard sci-fi worldbuilding with tense mystery for a superior space thriller that never flags despite its length. United Earth Government Lt. Alexandra Petrova is introduced in the human colony of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede as she closes in on Jason Schmidt, the worst serial killer in Ganymede’s 100 year history. Her efforts are unexpectedly stymied by her superiors, and in the wake of her investigation’s untimely end, she’s exiled to Paradise-1, a fledgling human outpost 100 light years away, ostensibly to conduct a security analysis, and ensure that it’s “happy and productive.” En route, she and her two companions—Sam Parker, the commander of their transport, and doctor Zhang Lei—come under attack by an empty ship from the mysteriously abandoned Paradise-1, leading to a frantic struggle both to survive the assault and to understand what’s happened to the colony. Wellington excels at vivid descriptions (“The only light came from what reflected off the crescent of Jupiter, a thin arc of brown and orange that hung forever motionless in the night sky”), which further enhance the clever plot. Readers will be on the edges of their seats. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary.

April 1, 2023

Special Agent Petrov and Dr. Lei Zhang have served their interstellar government with the best of intentions but not always with the best results. Both are being given another chance by being sent to Earth's first deep-space colony, Paradise-1, to provide a security overview. The second they are woken from their cryogenic travel sleep, their ship is under attack by frozen yams. Quickly orienting themselves and working with the ship's captain and its inventive and scene-stealing robot Rapscallion, the crew realizes that they are surrounded by dozens of ships that appear to be inexplicably devoid of life. As Wellington expertly balances a steady stream of increasingly dire action sequences, intensely creepy worldbuilding, satisfying character development, and an original monster stalking the protagonists, readers will be invested in the plot while coming to truly care about the characters along the way. VERDICT Wellington (The Last Astronaut), one of the innovators of novel serializations, retains that spirit in this open-ended series starter. A solid entry in the popular space-horror subgenre, which will appeal to fans of S.A. Barnes and John Scalzi.

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