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Black Void: Nowhere to Run
A secret experiment. A weapon beyond imagination. A chase that could end the world.Black Void by Paul Yantus is a pulse-pounding scientific thriller that catapults readers from the halls of Stanford and the corridors of CERN to a deadly game of cat and mouse across Europe. When a desperate Ph.D. student and a brilliant physicist are drawn into a covert project to create a micro black hole, they unwittingly unlock a force that could erase cities in an instant. As shadowy organizations close in, alliances are tested and loyalties shattered, forcing unlikely heroes to risk everything to keep the ultimate weapon out of the wrong hands.
With breakneck pacing, razor-sharp twists, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Black Void explores the razor’s edge between scientific ambition and moral responsibility. Will humanity’s most significant discovery become its undoing? Or can courage and conscience prevail against the darkness?
Perfect for fans of Michael Crichton and Blake Crouch, Black Void is a high-stakes race against time that will leave you breathless—and questioning the true cost of genius.
With breakneck pacing, razor-sharp twists, and a cast of unforgettable characters, Black Void explores the razor’s edge between scientific ambition and moral responsibility. Will humanity’s most significant discovery become its undoing? Or can courage and conscience prevail against the darkness?
Perfect for fans of Michael Crichton and Blake Crouch, Black Void is a high-stakes race against time that will leave you breathless—and questioning the true cost of genius.
411 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 7, 2025
9 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 15, 2025
For my latest reading material, I decided to take a chance and branch out from my usual, like something sci-fi, or maybe a thriller. That's when I came across this book, where some scientists come up with the means to create a black hole and now must go on the run to prevent it from being used as a weapon. It sounded like a fun time, the sort of plot I'd expect from a movie in the 80's, 90's or early to mid 2000's, so I picked it right up.
But much to my dismay, this book failed to live up to its premise and then some. The early parts of the book show promise as we meet the team of scientists aiming to create this portable black hole. Almost everyone's personalities stand out in one way or another, which is fine, but the book takes a very long time to get to the actual success in the experiment. After we meet the main group of characters, a lot of time is spent meandering around and failed experiment after failed experiment, which gets boring rather fast. It doesn't help that the author decided to put pretty much all his character development focus on main characters Andrea and Jack and their budding romance, and left all other characters to the side to not develop any more. It especially didn't help matters that Andrea and Jack's relationship is incredibly boring. Honestly, Andrea and Jack are as dull and by-the-numbers as a female and male protagonists can get, nothing about them really stands out, nothing makes them memorable or interesting.
When the story finally gets to the team succeeding at their experiment, I was expecting a thrill ride of a varied group of geniuses on the run, having to use their smarts and wits to stay ahead and stay safe from those seeking to capture them and their experiment. Boy, was that wishful thinking. For starters, half the team gets killed by the experiment itself! Just like that, we're out a bunch of characters, and all that potential is wasted. It doesn't get any better afterwards, when one of the remaining team members decides she's better off on her own than with the group and ditches them almost immediately (and her decision turned out to be the correct one), and another one is killed by the villains not long afterwards (and then forgotten about and not even mourned), even when these guys were under direct orders to not use lethal force on the scientists, which is just one of the examples of the villains in this book being outright cartoonish in their motivations and how bad they are at doing their jobs right; though they're not the only ones, as Jack, who's meant to be the one keeping the very quickly dwindling team safe, is also really bad at his job. It's almost laughable how inept Jack is at keeping them safe.
The story then just drags along. No exciting pursuits or chase sequences, no thrilling escapes, no hard-hitting action scenes, nothing. Just going from point A to point B to point C while Andrea and Jack continue pining for each other like hormonal teenagers trying to reenact Romeo & Juliet, and it's duller than watching paint dry. By contrast, Petra is a much more engaging character, as she's actually good at what she does and actually gets results, but unfortunately, she and her team of hackers get very little time to shine by comparison, and it made me wish that the main focus had been on Petra and her team instead, they were so much more interesting. Plus Petra almost worshipping the ground Andrea walks on felt rather forced, considering they had like one, maybe two meaningful interactions that we saw. Show, author, don't tell. Honestly, Andrea herself as a character felt forced in so many ways. Most other characters get vague, stereotypical descriptions, like being "nerdy looking", "techy looking", "hacker looking", but not Andrea. No, Andrea is stunningly beautiful, an absolute genius, strong, desirable, admirable, almost everyone who gets to meet her loves her. I do love strong women characters, but good characters have flaws, and Andrea's shown to essentially have none. I'd appreciate my stories without Mary Sues.
The book had all those issues and others too. Some characters are never described in how they look, a pet peeve of mine in books. There are grammar mistakes, and odd narrative choices, like how Andrea prefers to be called Andie by those she's close to, but at some point even the villains, who've never met her, start calling her Andie too, rather than Andrea or Dr. Coster. The villains go out not with a bang, but with a whimper, and there is still a chunk of the book left to drag me further into boredom, all to end in a cheap sequel hook.
This book was a complete waste of time and money. The premise promised a thrill ride, but all it gave was one of the dullest reading experiences I've had in a long time. I've seen cheap movies by The Asylum that were more entertaining than this book! I couldn't even get angry at it, I was too bored with it to put in the effort for that emotion.
But much to my dismay, this book failed to live up to its premise and then some. The early parts of the book show promise as we meet the team of scientists aiming to create this portable black hole. Almost everyone's personalities stand out in one way or another, which is fine, but the book takes a very long time to get to the actual success in the experiment. After we meet the main group of characters, a lot of time is spent meandering around and failed experiment after failed experiment, which gets boring rather fast. It doesn't help that the author decided to put pretty much all his character development focus on main characters Andrea and Jack and their budding romance, and left all other characters to the side to not develop any more. It especially didn't help matters that Andrea and Jack's relationship is incredibly boring. Honestly, Andrea and Jack are as dull and by-the-numbers as a female and male protagonists can get, nothing about them really stands out, nothing makes them memorable or interesting.
When the story finally gets to the team succeeding at their experiment, I was expecting a thrill ride of a varied group of geniuses on the run, having to use their smarts and wits to stay ahead and stay safe from those seeking to capture them and their experiment. Boy, was that wishful thinking. For starters, half the team gets killed by the experiment itself! Just like that, we're out a bunch of characters, and all that potential is wasted. It doesn't get any better afterwards, when one of the remaining team members decides she's better off on her own than with the group and ditches them almost immediately (and her decision turned out to be the correct one), and another one is killed by the villains not long afterwards (and then forgotten about and not even mourned), even when these guys were under direct orders to not use lethal force on the scientists, which is just one of the examples of the villains in this book being outright cartoonish in their motivations and how bad they are at doing their jobs right; though they're not the only ones, as Jack, who's meant to be the one keeping the very quickly dwindling team safe, is also really bad at his job. It's almost laughable how inept Jack is at keeping them safe.
The story then just drags along. No exciting pursuits or chase sequences, no thrilling escapes, no hard-hitting action scenes, nothing. Just going from point A to point B to point C while Andrea and Jack continue pining for each other like hormonal teenagers trying to reenact Romeo & Juliet, and it's duller than watching paint dry. By contrast, Petra is a much more engaging character, as she's actually good at what she does and actually gets results, but unfortunately, she and her team of hackers get very little time to shine by comparison, and it made me wish that the main focus had been on Petra and her team instead, they were so much more interesting. Plus Petra almost worshipping the ground Andrea walks on felt rather forced, considering they had like one, maybe two meaningful interactions that we saw. Show, author, don't tell. Honestly, Andrea herself as a character felt forced in so many ways. Most other characters get vague, stereotypical descriptions, like being "nerdy looking", "techy looking", "hacker looking", but not Andrea. No, Andrea is stunningly beautiful, an absolute genius, strong, desirable, admirable, almost everyone who gets to meet her loves her. I do love strong women characters, but good characters have flaws, and Andrea's shown to essentially have none. I'd appreciate my stories without Mary Sues.
The book had all those issues and others too. Some characters are never described in how they look, a pet peeve of mine in books. There are grammar mistakes, and odd narrative choices, like how Andrea prefers to be called Andie by those she's close to, but at some point even the villains, who've never met her, start calling her Andie too, rather than Andrea or Dr. Coster. The villains go out not with a bang, but with a whimper, and there is still a chunk of the book left to drag me further into boredom, all to end in a cheap sequel hook.
This book was a complete waste of time and money. The premise promised a thrill ride, but all it gave was one of the dullest reading experiences I've had in a long time. I've seen cheap movies by The Asylum that were more entertaining than this book! I couldn't even get angry at it, I was too bored with it to put in the effort for that emotion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2025
It has been quite a few years since I've read a book like this one. Many years ago, I took a deep-dive into the stories of Dirk Pitt as written by author Clive Cussler. I read everything from Cussler I could get my hands on and loved every one of them. Black Void is a story in that tradition, with high adventure on a global scale in the modern era.
It is a fast-paced story with almost no downtime. The science occurs mostly at the beginning of the story, and the rest is characters doing their best to survive as they are chased all around Europe, and into the United States.
I was entertained while reading and didn't want to stop reading.
If you enjoy a tale of high adventure, readers should find this a thrill-ride that is satisfying. Black Void is part of a planned series of books, but this one will standalone, having a definite end point. But the ending blatantly hints at a sequel that I will watch for.
A group of scientists, mathematicians, and computer experts gather at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to test the theories of a Dr. Greene. The project is headed by a brilliant physicist, Dr. Andrea Coster, who believes what Greene has suggested can be done. The object is to prove that the team can create and control a micro black hole in the laboratory. The way it is first envisioned is not working for various reasons, but the team soon comes up with an alternative idea.
Success!
Well, sort of. The team comes up with a method that works, but it is a tad bit bigger than they had hoped it would be. Their discovery does exactly what a black hole is supposed to do, annihilates all the matter in a radius around it. That includes living matter too. Gone without a trace.
There are those who learn about this discovery and have nefarious reasons for wanting it. Andrea wants to make sure the knowledge never falls into the hands of those who want to use it as a weapon. With the help of an ex-soldier, she has to go on the run to protect the world from getting its hands on something very dangerous.
It isn't easy playing keep-away from a large, very wealthy and ambitious group of people who have eyes and ears everywhere. But for the sake of humankind, she and her companion must find a way.
Andrea Coster is a brilliant scientist who has both a professional and a personal stake in seeing the black hole project is a success. She is good at managing the project and is excellent at managing people, unlike her egotistical boss, Dr. Greene. She is relentless in her pursuit of achieving her goals and has skills beyond being a scientist.
Jack Agnew is an ex-soldier who has seen too much and suffers from PTSD. His skills are beyond those of a common grunt. He has had enough of his former life and just wants a job that doesn't require a lot of death and destruction. His story isn't revealed all immediately, but by bits and pieces through the story. He starts out as the team's liaison officer, but becomes a key character in evading his and Andrea's destruction.
Petra Neumann is a wiz with technology who becomes a guardian angel to Andrea and Jack. She starts as a reclusive person, but Andrea befriends her and she opens up. She is also my favorite character in this story.
Petra is not only my favorite character, but her storyline is my favorite plot point. She is so cool and competent, and she knows her stuff. I hope she is back for the sequel!
My takeaway from Black Void is always to be aware of those who bring you gifts, especially ones that are of great benefit. Usually, the things they are doing for you aren't actually for you; they are more to advance their own agendas, and will eventually come with a very high price tag.
This applies to an unfortunate character who appears in the story's opening. 'Nuff said on that.
As I moved through the story, I wondered how much of the science involved actual fact and what was made up. That is when I went to the author's webpage and started doing some exploring. I found that much of what Yantus writes about is based in fact and was impressed by the amount of research he must have done to bring this story to life. As a matter of fact, there is quite a bit of information on the author's page that one will find interesting and informative, but it also might be a little spoilery, so I might suggest one reads the book before exploring the web page.
While I enjoyed this book, I also found a few plot holes and some things that I wasn't clear about. I will not go into detail about my thoughts on this because I do not want to be misunderstood. As I said, I liked this story, and I think a wide range of sci-fi fans and those who like adventure stories will also enjoy it.
I thought the backdrops provided were described well, and I could picture what was going on in my mind as I read.
This is Paul Yantus's first novel, and it is a good one!
It is a fast-paced story with almost no downtime. The science occurs mostly at the beginning of the story, and the rest is characters doing their best to survive as they are chased all around Europe, and into the United States.
I was entertained while reading and didn't want to stop reading.
If you enjoy a tale of high adventure, readers should find this a thrill-ride that is satisfying. Black Void is part of a planned series of books, but this one will standalone, having a definite end point. But the ending blatantly hints at a sequel that I will watch for.
A group of scientists, mathematicians, and computer experts gather at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to test the theories of a Dr. Greene. The project is headed by a brilliant physicist, Dr. Andrea Coster, who believes what Greene has suggested can be done. The object is to prove that the team can create and control a micro black hole in the laboratory. The way it is first envisioned is not working for various reasons, but the team soon comes up with an alternative idea.
Success!
Well, sort of. The team comes up with a method that works, but it is a tad bit bigger than they had hoped it would be. Their discovery does exactly what a black hole is supposed to do, annihilates all the matter in a radius around it. That includes living matter too. Gone without a trace.
There are those who learn about this discovery and have nefarious reasons for wanting it. Andrea wants to make sure the knowledge never falls into the hands of those who want to use it as a weapon. With the help of an ex-soldier, she has to go on the run to protect the world from getting its hands on something very dangerous.
It isn't easy playing keep-away from a large, very wealthy and ambitious group of people who have eyes and ears everywhere. But for the sake of humankind, she and her companion must find a way.
Andrea Coster is a brilliant scientist who has both a professional and a personal stake in seeing the black hole project is a success. She is good at managing the project and is excellent at managing people, unlike her egotistical boss, Dr. Greene. She is relentless in her pursuit of achieving her goals and has skills beyond being a scientist.
Jack Agnew is an ex-soldier who has seen too much and suffers from PTSD. His skills are beyond those of a common grunt. He has had enough of his former life and just wants a job that doesn't require a lot of death and destruction. His story isn't revealed all immediately, but by bits and pieces through the story. He starts out as the team's liaison officer, but becomes a key character in evading his and Andrea's destruction.
Petra Neumann is a wiz with technology who becomes a guardian angel to Andrea and Jack. She starts as a reclusive person, but Andrea befriends her and she opens up. She is also my favorite character in this story.
Petra is not only my favorite character, but her storyline is my favorite plot point. She is so cool and competent, and she knows her stuff. I hope she is back for the sequel!
My takeaway from Black Void is always to be aware of those who bring you gifts, especially ones that are of great benefit. Usually, the things they are doing for you aren't actually for you; they are more to advance their own agendas, and will eventually come with a very high price tag.
This applies to an unfortunate character who appears in the story's opening. 'Nuff said on that.
As I moved through the story, I wondered how much of the science involved actual fact and what was made up. That is when I went to the author's webpage and started doing some exploring. I found that much of what Yantus writes about is based in fact and was impressed by the amount of research he must have done to bring this story to life. As a matter of fact, there is quite a bit of information on the author's page that one will find interesting and informative, but it also might be a little spoilery, so I might suggest one reads the book before exploring the web page.
While I enjoyed this book, I also found a few plot holes and some things that I wasn't clear about. I will not go into detail about my thoughts on this because I do not want to be misunderstood. As I said, I liked this story, and I think a wide range of sci-fi fans and those who like adventure stories will also enjoy it.
I thought the backdrops provided were described well, and I could picture what was going on in my mind as I read.
This is Paul Yantus's first novel, and it is a good one!
July 10, 2025
I really enjoyed this novel.
Hang onto your hats, as they used to say. This story has a slow start, but once it gets going, it doesn’t hang around.
The author claims a background in technology. I can certainly see this in the amount of technical detail in the build-up. Then there was the interaction between the various scientists, which felt pretty realistic.
The main character, Andi Coster, is a scientist, part of a research team at CERN. An ex-soldier, Jack Agnew, is her liaison and he’s initially working for a corporation called Fairmont. On the outside, they appear to be a philanthropic bunch. But all is not as it seems. Fairmont wants control of what she and her team hope to find.
And when the event they were trying to produce occurs, even though it’s what everyone wanted, the nature of it is still shocking.
That’s when the implications of what they’ve done sink in.
Determined to prevent their discovery from falling into the wrong hands, Andi and Jack realise that they have to keep themselves away from the clutches of Fairmont.
There follows a chase across Europe, leading up to a finale in New York. It’s fast-paced and edge-of-the-seat, with our surviving heroes being helped to evade the bad guys and do a little revenge-ing of their own.
There’s a satisfying ending and a hint of a sequel, which would be great.
Recommended.
Hang onto your hats, as they used to say. This story has a slow start, but once it gets going, it doesn’t hang around.
The author claims a background in technology. I can certainly see this in the amount of technical detail in the build-up. Then there was the interaction between the various scientists, which felt pretty realistic.
The main character, Andi Coster, is a scientist, part of a research team at CERN. An ex-soldier, Jack Agnew, is her liaison and he’s initially working for a corporation called Fairmont. On the outside, they appear to be a philanthropic bunch. But all is not as it seems. Fairmont wants control of what she and her team hope to find.
And when the event they were trying to produce occurs, even though it’s what everyone wanted, the nature of it is still shocking.
That’s when the implications of what they’ve done sink in.
Determined to prevent their discovery from falling into the wrong hands, Andi and Jack realise that they have to keep themselves away from the clutches of Fairmont.
There follows a chase across Europe, leading up to a finale in New York. It’s fast-paced and edge-of-the-seat, with our surviving heroes being helped to evade the bad guys and do a little revenge-ing of their own.
There’s a satisfying ending and a hint of a sequel, which would be great.
Recommended.
October 10, 2025
really good, fun read
A cross between Tom Clancy and Jack Reacher. I would recommend this. I found it hard to put down. Enjoy!
A cross between Tom Clancy and Jack Reacher. I would recommend this. I found it hard to put down. Enjoy!
December 21, 2025
interesting
This book was very intriguing. I have never read a plot like this. The characters were unique in the plot was very engaging. I really enjoyed this book.
This book was very intriguing. I have never read a plot like this. The characters were unique in the plot was very engaging. I really enjoyed this book.
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