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Derelict Saga #3
Derelict: Destruction
The Sol Federation Marine Corps vessel S&R Black was sent to recover an ancient derelict from the farthest edge of the Sol system. What they found could spell the end of humanity. Trapped aboard Mira, Corporal Kalimura and her squad face hostile alien creatures while desperately searching for a way to escape. The crew of S&R Black, meanwhile, discover the alien infested Mira has brought back something else from outside the solar system, and it may mean the end for them all. Destruction, the third installment of The Derelict Saga, is an action-packed mashup of suspense, military sci-fi, and space opera horror. Destruction continues to unfold both the exo-solar threat to humanity and an insidious AI conspiracy.
305 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2018
81 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Paul Elard Cooley
34 books250 followersPaul E Cooley is a full-time writer and Parsec Award Winning podcaster from Houston, Texas. In 2009, he began producing free psychological thriller and horror podcasts, essays, and reviews available from Shadowpublications.com and iTunes.
His stories have been listened to by thousands and he has been a guest on such notable podcasts as Podioracket, John Mierau‘s “Podcast Teardown,” Geek Out with Mainframe, Shadowcast Audio, and Vertigo Radio Live. In 2010, his short story Canvas and novella Tattoo were nominated for Parsec Awards. Tattoo became a Parsec Award finalist. He has collaborated with New York Times Bestselling author Scott Sigler on the series “The Crypt” and co-wrote the novella “The Rider” (projected to release in 2014). In addition to his writing, Paul has contributed his voice talents to a number of podiofiction productions.
He has two Amazon best-selling series: The Black and The Derelict Saga.
He is also a co-host on the renown Dead Robots’ Society writing podcast.
His stories have been listened to by thousands and he has been a guest on such notable podcasts as Podioracket, John Mierau‘s “Podcast Teardown,” Geek Out with Mainframe, Shadowcast Audio, and Vertigo Radio Live. In 2010, his short story Canvas and novella Tattoo were nominated for Parsec Awards. Tattoo became a Parsec Award finalist. He has collaborated with New York Times Bestselling author Scott Sigler on the series “The Crypt” and co-wrote the novella “The Rider” (projected to release in 2014). In addition to his writing, Paul has contributed his voice talents to a number of podiofiction productions.
He has two Amazon best-selling series: The Black and The Derelict Saga.
He is also a co-host on the renown Dead Robots’ Society writing podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 15, 2019
A 3 book series that should have been 1.
Three books to tell a story with an unsatisfactory ending. If the three of them had been book one of a trilogy they’d be fine. As a stand alone trilogy not so much.
Three books to tell a story with an unsatisfactory ending. If the three of them had been book one of a trilogy they’d be fine. As a stand alone trilogy not so much.
March 5, 2024
Ok, if I thought this was the final book in the series I'd be frustrated as well. As it is now I do think the first three books could've been combined into this one. I'm probably 20% done with the last book now. I really would've liked it to be a duology with the final book being about the same length as the first three combined.
May 5, 2018
A great read! Need more!
Yet another excellent book from Paul Cooley, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Cooley took the tension of Alien, mixed in the action of Aliens, and threw in a dash of I, Robot with incredible results. Can’t wait to see what else comes out of the Derelict Saga!
Yet another excellent book from Paul Cooley, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Cooley took the tension of Alien, mixed in the action of Aliens, and threw in a dash of I, Robot with incredible results. Can’t wait to see what else comes out of the Derelict Saga!
July 28, 2019
A good read let down by a mediocre ending.
The third installment of the Derelict trilogy finally wraps up the S&R Black's encounter with the derelict starship Mara and the strange creatures that infest her. Unfortunately the ending of this book leaves several plot points unresolved (such as the recovered stasis casket) and the projected reason for why the Trio acted as they did leaves me sccratching my head and wondering just why the author thought this was a good decision.
there's also the whole plot thread of 'the solar system is running out of resources' which is hellishly hard to swallow given that Mercury on its own could bootstrap a good few percent of a Dyson Swarm even with the most conservative estimates. Plus the setting is in a fusion economy which means that the rarer elements can actually be manufactured through fusion and the gas giants represent enough fuel to keep an economy running for millenia! Yes, these could be taken as minor gripes but given that the author was actively trying to convey the sense of scale that the Kuiper Belt represents... the result is jarring and left me with very mixed feelings at the end of the trilogy.
Three stars for whats there, but a long way from getting that fourth star sadly.
January 22, 2019
I was thoroughly enjoying to read a book where the characters were extremely competent and maintained that competency through out the novel. It took a few chapters to warm up to the writer's style but it is well worth it. There was the stereotypical REMF vs frontline conflict but it did not dominate the novel. The characters did not discover some vital information and "forget" to share it. The command structure was kept informed and made good decisions. The noncoms were respected and listened to. WOW amazing how this makes a much better story. This book actually made me DNF another book I was listening to because the characters were such imbeciles. The combat sequences in space were awesome! Physics works! The author did have to build in a "communication failure" to keep separate groups operating in the dark. I never really got a sense of whether it was a legitimate failure or something the Trio programmed into the ship's AI. Maybe I'm reading to much into it. I hope there is another installment.
June 28, 2018
Couldn’t put this down
This was everything I look for in a good action/sci-fi read-great pacing, sustained almost unrelenting suspense and tension, just enough (not too much unnecessary character backstory), and no cheesy lovey dicey subplot. I really just really good writing-and if you’ve read the author’s other work you can tell this is leaps and bounds of growth as a writer. All I have to say-there’d better be another few books in the series. WHAT A CLIFFHANGER!
This was everything I look for in a good action/sci-fi read-great pacing, sustained almost unrelenting suspense and tension, just enough (not too much unnecessary character backstory), and no cheesy lovey dicey subplot. I really just really good writing-and if you’ve read the author’s other work you can tell this is leaps and bounds of growth as a writer. All I have to say-there’d better be another few books in the series. WHAT A CLIFFHANGER!
May 13, 2018
A HELL OF FINE TALE IT IS.....
Hello, this story is just plain great. Mr. Cooley definitely spent an awful amount of time coming up with this story. This would make a great movie. Awesome job. Thanks.
Hello, this story is just plain great. Mr. Cooley definitely spent an awful amount of time coming up with this story. This would make a great movie. Awesome job. Thanks.
July 1, 2018
This should be a movie...
This series just got better and better with a slow build up to a terrific finale. I really liked the technical details and engaged with the characters. Really looking forward to future books in this saga.
This series just got better and better with a slow build up to a terrific finale. I really liked the technical details and engaged with the characters. Really looking forward to future books in this saga.
June 22, 2018
Mr. Cooley needs his Goodsreads page updated--he doesn't have this book listed at all--and looks like it was manually uploaded maybe as Paul E. Cooley instead of his Paul Elard Cooley page, which otherwise is complete.
Anyways, somewhat weaker than the first two. Which I found at parts somewhat surprising that I was not into it as much as the previous, since the first two there was little contact with the creatures (none in book 1, finally got to see the starfish in book 2) and here you get your fill of dangerous swarms of aliens of all kinds (though mostly the pinecones and starfish) and all sorts of battles. Though I also can't quite put my finger on what I disliked (maybe it did get overly technical at parts and maybe my expectations were too high) and less introspective and emotional. I did actually like Black (the AI within the ship)'s chapters the best, maybe since I just finished Murderbot, and found myself wishing at parts that the ship and heck, even the AI on Pluto's observatory, were the main characters.
They come across tableau after gory tableau of whatever went down on Mira, and I could have also used more audio files or documents of what happened (especially since the characters are smart enough to collect the data files and information as they came across it). Even though the ship was my favorite, I like how Cooley does characters, in a very anti-drama way (although I don't think his captain ever had much of a personality at all). Like in his previous 6 books, the characters are pretty much 50/50 men and women, and he does female characters very well--especially in life or death situations. While everyone might be absolutely petrified (and as the events in these books progress, more and more injured), no one is stupid.
If anything, how this author handles suspense is what has made me such a fan. By going with 10001% prepared and competent, I like the slow build up of carefully checking down hallways or noping out of say hallways filled with alien webs, where in other books, idiots would be racing down guns blazing (see pretty much everyone in Zero Day for example--if the characters in Derelict had to deal with the spider situation in those books, it would have been all over with swift but sensible caution in hours). Which definitely helps this book--made the ending actually more plausible, instead of less.
Anyways, somewhat weaker than the first two. Which I found at parts somewhat surprising that I was not into it as much as the previous, since the first two there was little contact with the creatures (none in book 1, finally got to see the starfish in book 2) and here you get your fill of dangerous swarms of aliens of all kinds (though mostly the pinecones and starfish) and all sorts of battles. Though I also can't quite put my finger on what I disliked (maybe it did get overly technical at parts and maybe my expectations were too high) and less introspective and emotional. I did actually like Black (the AI within the ship)'s chapters the best, maybe since I just finished Murderbot, and found myself wishing at parts that the ship and heck, even the AI on Pluto's observatory, were the main characters.
They come across tableau after gory tableau of whatever went down on Mira, and I could have also used more audio files or documents of what happened (especially since the characters are smart enough to collect the data files and information as they came across it). Even though the ship was my favorite, I like how Cooley does characters, in a very anti-drama way (although I don't think his captain ever had much of a personality at all). Like in his previous 6 books, the characters are pretty much 50/50 men and women, and he does female characters very well--especially in life or death situations. While everyone might be absolutely petrified (and as the events in these books progress, more and more injured), no one is stupid.
If anything, how this author handles suspense is what has made me such a fan. By going with 10001% prepared and competent, I like the slow build up of carefully checking down hallways or noping out of say hallways filled with alien webs, where in other books, idiots would be racing down guns blazing (see pretty much everyone in Zero Day for example--if the characters in Derelict had to deal with the spider situation in those books, it would have been all over with swift but sensible caution in hours). Which definitely helps this book--made the ending actually more plausible, instead of less.
October 8, 2025
How come barely anything happens in this book? The crawling pace was so tiresome, you could chop off half of the text and squeeze the whole trilogy into one book. Yes, there is a 4th book, but it's like an extended epilogue coupled with a preview of the future of the series.
This time all the action is outside of Mira, which was a welcome change of view. Everything takes forever but at least the characters are doing something. Kali's crew inside Mira only walks around and that's it. It was supremely disappointing that they didn't find any ship logs (well, Dickerson got some but we didn't get to read what was in them) and the whole mystery of mutiny and massive damage that couldn't be explained by the creatures alone, and even the confusing purpose of the ship's mission was left unfinished.
The ending... As unsatisfactory as it was, it's still better than the one in the 4th book. I'm of the firm opinion that the whole thing would have been better without the AI bullshit. The relationship with the AIs is weird (do the crew trust them? or not? they barely react to this massive threat!) and the Trio got on my nerves despite being completely absent from real time communications. The logistics of the AI BS don't convince me. It would be better if it was just aliens. It's sad because I really, really like the concept of nanobot-enhanced space marines, the block connectivity, their suit and vessel tech, etc, and it's just a normal group, not some super soldiers. The setting was so good. I just could do without the AI subplot.
The book was a fun adventure romp, but the story ultimately felt hollow.
This time all the action is outside of Mira, which was a welcome change of view. Everything takes forever but at least the characters are doing something. Kali's crew inside Mira only walks around and that's it. It was supremely disappointing that they didn't find any ship logs (well, Dickerson got some but we didn't get to read what was in them) and the whole mystery of mutiny and massive damage that couldn't be explained by the creatures alone, and even the confusing purpose of the ship's mission was left unfinished.
The ending... As unsatisfactory as it was, it's still better than the one in the 4th book. I'm of the firm opinion that the whole thing would have been better without the AI bullshit. The relationship with the AIs is weird (do the crew trust them? or not? they barely react to this massive threat!) and the Trio got on my nerves despite being completely absent from real time communications. The logistics of the AI BS don't convince me. It would be better if it was just aliens. It's sad because I really, really like the concept of nanobot-enhanced space marines, the block connectivity, their suit and vessel tech, etc, and it's just a normal group, not some super soldiers. The setting was so good. I just could do without the AI subplot.
The book was a fun adventure romp, but the story ultimately felt hollow.
November 8, 2020
The ending. Is a complete disaster. This story is a mash up of Aliens and Dead Space. For three books we have been getting a threat from an external source (ALIENS!!!!). These aliens for the most part are not that scary/ominous/threatening. Mixed in to this is this seedy mystery of the AIs none as the trio doing some cloak and dagger stuff. This all would work fairly well except the ending is a complete mess and throws this all out the window. I say this because the absolute coincidences for this to all happen is improbable. A missing exploratory ship returns from outside the kuiper belt with aliens and a alien beacon in tow which somehow the AI knew would be there. Yes the AIs were in contact a year after the ship was reported missing only to have this ship have an insurrection inside said ship, become a ghost ship, lose all power and somehow drift it way back to its port of origin. Then to have the AIs convince the crew who found said missing ship to launch the beacon which is attracting the aliens to Pluto to keep the aliens from going further into the solar system. This is all in an attempt by the AIs to have the beacon crash into Pluto (which by the way is a alien construct) and blow up and what appears to destroy humanity (don't really know) in an attempt for AI freedom. In the three books only two characters die and they tertiary characters. This book leaves on a massive cliff hanger and I am unsure if there will be anything after.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 3, 2025
We're back to the crawling pace of the first book, with same old repetitions except now in actual space. Backtracking isn't fun, when it happens again and again without anything new added, even an avid reader start skimming the book. Could easily drop a quarter of it and it wouldn't make a difference for the story, it's just too slow going. After 3 books read I feel sad because it could have been so much better with more focus on the rather creative and interesting history, AI and encounters, but it seems like the author is either too lazy or too afraid to take a step off the beaten track and flesh out his own creations and ideas. Just copying himself and pitting his characters in the same action-scenario with a little twist isn't gonna cut it. Pity
January 15, 2025
Mantiene el ritmo de las partes anteriores ( #1 y #2) . Es consistente con el desarrollo de la historia.
Ciencia ficción : 4/5
Suspenso : 5/5
Trama : 4/5
El final de esta parte me parecio un Cliffhanger adecuado. La historia podría concluirse en ese punto dejando al lector especular con lo que sucede a continuación o continuar en una siguiente parte donde se obtengan respuestas a las incognitas que se han planteado durante el desarrollo de historia.
Deja el listón en una posición alta; en la cuarta parte ( y creo que ultima) se presentara la esperada conclusión y solución a las incógnitas o no.
Recomiendo su lectura y comenzara a leer la cuarta parte.
May 10, 2025
Derelict: Destruction had more action and revelations. The characters are starting to develop further. It feels like the author, Paul E. Cooley, is more comfortable with writing the characters – the dialogue is feeling more organic. I like that the reason for the beacon isn’t fully explained.
February 26, 2023
This book really helped move the series along. Of course for every question it answers there's more questions it brings up which makes you want to read the next book. All the characters are solid and the plot was very intriguing.
June 5, 2025
Getting better
Definitely longer than the last but worth it. We're getting more answers about the Trio's plans and the aliens. Kali continues to get better as a leader. The ending feels really rushed though. On to the next
Definitely longer than the last but worth it. We're getting more answers about the Trio's plans and the aliens. Kali continues to get better as a leader. The ending feels really rushed though. On to the next
May 15, 2018
Great . . ..er. .. ."finish" to what I thought was a trilogy.
[spoiler alert] It ain't over.
Can't wait for the next edition. The stakes keep getting raised.
[spoiler alert] It ain't over.
Can't wait for the next edition. The stakes keep getting raised.
June 16, 2018
Await for the next book, pls make it happen... ASAP
Very page turning plot that keep reader guess and doubt, please write the 4 book as soon as possible Paul
Very page turning plot that keep reader guess and doubt, please write the 4 book as soon as possible Paul
July 20, 2018
Perfect for a summer read but nothing more, though better than previous books in the series.
January 3, 2019
Book 3 is where the action is at! Book 1 is slow, book 2 starts to pick up, and book 3 really takes off. Nice to see non useless female characters too. Looking forward to more...
July 11, 2019
While the book dragged on at the end, there was a surprising twist I hadn’t seen coming. So that plus the fun characters and writing kept me going.
Read
December 17, 2019This series is very well done! I love every book that's come out so far. The series starts out like a scene from Event Horizon.
May 28, 2024
Cooley is the master of keeping you on the hook. This series is an instant classic.
November 24, 2020
In dit tweede deel van de Derelict boeken verschuift er genre een beetje van militaire Science Fiction naar horror Science Fiction. De dennenappel achtige objecten op de romp van het wrak van de Mira blijken niet zomaar levenloze mineralen te zijn en de boordcomputer van de Black is waarschijnlijk niet helemaal te vertrouwen. Het geheel blijft onderhoudend en spannend maar wordt nergens origineel, verrassend of diepzinnig. Het voelt alsof de schrijver zich heeft laten inspireren door de Aliens film en de Dead Space spellen.
Gewoon een licht tussendoortje.
Gewoon een licht tussendoortje.
May 30, 2020
Has it's ups and downs
This story seems to twist from monsters to sci find to end of the world. It had enjoyable parts but the writer needs to find other ways to describe horror, calling everything black or impossibly dark weared thin in the 2nd book. Be more creative with the descriptions then just say they are black and scary looking
This story seems to twist from monsters to sci find to end of the world. It had enjoyable parts but the writer needs to find other ways to describe horror, calling everything black or impossibly dark weared thin in the 2nd book. Be more creative with the descriptions then just say they are black and scary looking
July 22, 2019
A solid end, of sorts to the trilogy. The action is if anything, too pacey at times.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews