Enter an edge-of-your-seat nightmare to the darkest frontiers in Crawlspace, a sci-fi horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Adam Christopher, perfect for fans of S.A. Barnes and Event Horizon.
Mission Lead Olivia O’Connor and her team from the Artemis Corporation, along with their military liaison, are in the final preparations for an undertaking that will alter the course of human a test flight that promises to open up new frontiers in the expanse of the universe.
But their journey between dimensions is one they never trained for. Strange voices in the corridors. Long lost faces not forgotten. Strange symbols carved into the hull. And gathering outside the ship, ancient forces beyond reckoning.
The crew will need all their skills to survive and uncover the twisted truth behind their mission.
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At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Adam Christopher is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith and Master of Evil, Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town. He has also written official tie-in novels for the hit CBS television show Elementary and the award-winning Dishonored video game franchise.
Co-creator of the twenty-first-century incarnation of Archie Comics superhero The Shield, Adam has also written for the universes of Doctor Who and World of Warcraft, and is a contributor to the internationally bestselling Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View anniversary anthology series and the all-ages Star Wars Adventures comic.
Adam’s original novels include Made to Kill and The Burning Dark, among many others, and his debut novel Empire State was both a SciFi Now and Financial Times book of the year.
I got this ARC at New York Comic Con a few weeks ago and I’m so glad that I did. I couldn’t put it down, the end of each chapter made me want to continue on to the next. A+ Space horror!
My only criticism is that the chapter titles were completely unnecessary and cheesy, it almost ruined the suspenseful vibe the book was trying to covey. The titles were all quotes from within the chapter and it did nothing but make me cringe, once when seeing the title and then again when I came across it in the chapter. It was a constant “oh look they said the thing” moment in my head, taking me out of the story for a bit. Remove the chapter titles entirely before release and I’d say this is a 5 star!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I genuinely had a fantastic time reading Crawlspace; a lot of creepy, thrilling, eerie scenes that had a cinematic quality. Like...I was fully absorbed and read it in 2 sittings.
While it was the book that got me out of my slump, the storyline had a few moments where I thought, "I've read this before". As with any book set in a spaceship(Is that the proper terminology? lol), at least for me, there are some space-y terms that I had to remind myself what they meant.
Those that enjoyed S.A. Barnes or The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown (totally underrated Nightfire release). Also kind of reminded me of Sarah Gailey's Spread Me a bit.
Crawlspace. An interesting name for a cosmic horror novel… set in outer space… on a spaceship. And yet, it kinda works, because the ship’s crawlspace is exactly where all the real trouble starts.
I didn’t fall head over heels for this one, but Adam Christopher absolutely knows how to let the tension simmer and marinate his readers in atmospheric dread.
The story takes its sweet time getting going. We meet the crew of the XK72 (truly one of the least inspiring spacecraft names imaginable) as they prepare for a test flight of a hyperspace prototype called the SLIP drive — a machine meant to break the laws of physics and fling them across two light‑seconds in two microseconds. It’s a lot of setup... but hang in there.
While the descriptions of the different parts of spacecraft and the mechanical techy terms were a bit snoozey and hard to follow, the characters were pretty fun and easy to latch on to. You can tell something's going to go down pretty early on and when the weird and sabatogy stuff does start, everyone does that classic horror‑story thing where they shrug it off, rationalize it, or pretend it’s fine until it very much isn’t. And by the time they finally stop making excuses, well… it’s already too late.
The knocking that sounds like it's overhead, and then underfoot, and then in the walls. The shadowy movements in the corner of their eyes, catching the reflection of someone in the mirror or the window when you are alone in the room ... and now the missing crew members...
Crawlspace doesn’t reinvent cosmic horror, but it knows exactly how to make you sneak a peek over your shoulder before you turn out the lights and brings the darkness of the void uncomfortably close.
**My thanks to Tor Nightfire for providing me with an advanced review copy via NetGalley**
2 stars
I love me some space horror, but Crawlspace by Adam Christopher didn’t scratch that itch.
The story follows the crew of a small spaceship outfitted with revolutionary new fast-travel technology (basically a warp drive) on their first test flight. But something goes wrong, and the ship slips into another dimension, the ‘crawlspace’ of the universe, where the crew might be utterly alone—or horrifyingly not alone.
I really wanted to love this one, but at no point was I actually scared by anything that was happening. None of the characters are particularly compelling, and some of them get pulled thin by the plot desperately trying to maintain a sense of mystery that didn’t ultimately feel earned. The twists were meant to be shocking but frankly didn’t make much of an impression, and the antagonistic forces didn’t fill me with the dread I was hoping for. More than anything, I felt bored.
Unless you’re a die-hard space and/or extra-dimensional horror fan who will read anything in the genre, I’d skip this one.
As a big fan of sci-fi horror, I jumped at the chance to read this book. The cover is super creepy and the synopsis made it sound like I was in for something like Event Horizon or Alien.
Unfortunately the book let me down on a few counts. From a pure reading standpoint, the actual formatting of the book is not good - the margins are so wide that it makes reading the ebook nearly impossible and there are goofy, fruitless chapter titles that are highly unnecessary.
The actual plot of the book is... Fine... I guess. There is really no fear or horror elements until perhaps the last 25 pages. Most of the book is made up of techno jargon that goes on for pages interspersed with quirky characters. If you like techno jargon scifi with characters stuck in weird situations, you might like this. However, marketing it as a horror book I feel is very deceiving and instead I found my eyes glazing over the mumbo jumbo of characters trying to fix a spaceship for 200 pages.
Thank you to NetGalley for lending me a copy for review purposes.
Crawlspace follows Olivia and her team along with a military liaison as they journey between dimensions. But nothing goes as they plan. There are strange voices in the corridors and symbols carved into the hull. With time not on their side, the crew must work harder than ever to survive the mission.
I love a sci-fi horror. It’s one of my favourite genres and this one was a lot of fun. While not a new favourite, I still enjoyed it. It was quite well paced although I did find parts a little slow. I was really intrigued how the author would twist things and I thought it was well done. I enjoyed the ending and horror elements but I do wish there were more. The characters were interesting and I liked that there was a decently sized crew.
Overall, if you love sci-fi horror, I recommend checking this out!
Crawlspace follows Liv and her team on a mission between dimensions using new technology. Things are not as they should be. Crew members are disappearing, strange sounds are being heard over the comms, someone’s knocking in the ship’s crawlspace, and symbols and gems have been carved into the ship’s hull.
This was an enjoyable book. Overall, the pacing was fine, and the plot was interesting enough! I enjoyed the spooky tension throughout the book, but I was hoping for more.
Sci-fi horror is my favorite blend of genres, and while this wasn’t a chart-topper for me, I did enjoy it a lot and would definitely recommend it, especially if you like a little more sci-fi than horror!
Thank you to Tor, Adam Christopher, and NetGalley for the eARC! I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I don’t think I’m the right audience for this book. I kind of expected an Alien or Event Horizon type novel, but it’s more of an “if RL Stine wrote a sci fi novel.” The characters are lifeless, many indistinguishable from each other outside of their names. Description of the action is bland. Needs some kind of stinger to open the novel. Unfortunately, it’s what I’ve come to expect from modern writers. Kind of feels like a friend at a sleepover in middle school telling me a story.
Ok, so positives...it was entertaining enough to break a 4 book run of DNFs. While the plot itself was not stunningly original, it was well done and thought out.
Negatives? It had a cosmic horror-lite, YA kinda vibe to it, where there was tension that never really tipped over into menace, or real threat.
It was by no means a bad book, and I would certainly try other books by this author, but I was hoping for something with a darker edge given the plots nature.
Great for fans of space horror. The chapter titles were a bit distracting and I didn’t find them necessary. Otherwise well written. It wasn’t my favorite but I definitely think it has its audience.