“A level tone lost in the dark.”
There’s no telling what we’ll find out in the darkest corners of the universe when (or if) humanity ever gets there. Tom Lloyd, however, has an idea, and it’s not necessarily as comforting as others might like.
In a distance future where humanity is a multi-planetary species, Captain Song leads her crew on a mission which becomes interrupted by a find unlike any other. Hanging just above the atmosphere of a distant planet is an enormous spaceship, inert and unlike anything humans have ever built. This could be the find of a lifetime – a guarantee of financial security for the rest of her life, if only Song can get on-board and find something unique.
But the ship is ancient and battle-scarred, and nothing about it matches anything in their database. It could be dangerous, and it could change everything, or it could just be filled with remnants of a long-dead civilisation. And then it flashes a signal.
Lloyd gives us a universe where the Fermi paradox is solved by having the place crawling with aliens, but they’d all finished with space and died out long before humans ever showed up to join in. Despite the claustrophobic closeness of the plot, there’s simultaneously a weird agoraphobic sense of how big and empty everything is. The balance of size is a closely observed thing, with the abandoned ship being enormous, but also somehow cramped. You can’t help but share in Song’s panic as she explores something entirely new, where anything and everything could be ready to kill her and she wouldn’t even know.
A chilling, quick read, but worth a look if you like your horror set in places where no one can hear you scream.
Looking for something else? Try my novels, The Atomic Blood-Stained Bus (the story of a cannibal and an ex-god) and The Third Wheel (a comedic alien invasion tale), test yourself with a quiz from my book Questioning Your Sanity, or visit my website and I’ll cultivate you a whole quiz on whatever subjects you like. If you just want more reviews, guide yourself around my blog with the navigation bar and find hundreds of reviews at your fingertips.