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Cold Sleep
It’s the perfect score—stealing valuable data from a VIP in cryo-freeze midway through a decades-long interstellar crossing. If it works, Kara will have enough money to buy what she’s always wanted—a Captaincy.
But with the rest of the crew and the cargo of one hundred thousand colonists still frozen, Kara and her accomplice, Zed, realize they’re not the only ones awake. The murdered woman they find is only the first victim of whoever or whatever has woken from Cold Sleep...
But with the rest of the crew and the cargo of one hundred thousand colonists still frozen, Kara and her accomplice, Zed, realize they’re not the only ones awake. The murdered woman they find is only the first victim of whoever or whatever has woken from Cold Sleep...
317 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 24, 2023
Cold Sleep - Luke Hindmarsh
I received a free advance review copy of this book from BookSirens. This has not affected my review, and the opinions below are my own. Many thanks to BookSirens and the publisher for the copy.
Cold sleep is an interesting science-fiction/cyberpunk/horror/zombie story set aboard the Charon, a ship transporting colonists through the depths of space. The main character, Kara Rozanski, is an ambitious young navigator who desperately wishes to become captain of a ship of her own. As part of her plan to make her fortune, Kara and Zed, her sometime boyfriend/accomplice, awaken themselves from cryosleep during the journey, planning to steal a valuable item from another passenger while everyone else is still frozen.
The theft goes easily enough, but before the thieves can return to their sleeping tubes, they stumble across a smashed-open tube and the remains of its occupant. They quickly realise that someone or something is at large on the ship, and soon all hell breaks loose.
The good
Hindmarsh does a great job of building his universe throughout the book. There is a definite sense of a world beyond the novel, full of corporate interests that have scant regard for human life. In Hindmarsh's world, the technology that was supposed to serve humanity has, in many ways, supplanted it. Kara, for example, talks about how she was trained and genetically manipulated to be a navigator - capable of processing superhuman amounts of calculations - and how human navigators are sent on long voyages where it would be too risky and expensive to send an AI. The colonists that the Charon is transporting are never seen as anything more than cargo, with a certain amount of 'spoilage' to be expected. Hindmarsh's is a bleak universe, and this also comes across in the violence and gore of some of Kara's encounters, which pull few punches.
The sense of the endless universe outside the ship's walls lends an effective claustrophobia to the novel's actions, which never stray much beyond the ship. The reader feels locked in along with Kara and the things she has to face. This is particularly true of the suspenseful opening of the book, where Kara and Zed are alone with the killer somewhere in the ship - I wish this had been extended: after this, the book falls into a more standard action-horror pattern.
The bad
Ever since Blade Runner and Neuromancer the inclusion of foreign words, most notably Japanese and Chinese, seems to be almost compulsory in sci-fi/cyberpunk settings. Cold Sleep doesn't buck the trend: right from the outset, Kara and Zed drop Chinese words into their dialogue, and the rest of the crew follow suit, with a Japanese doctor and other crew members from different parts of the world. I understand that this is supposed to convey how the world has moved beyond nation states, but it comes across as a bit of an overused trope and borders on exoticism. The word choices are also strange - why does a Japanese doctor speak perfect English except when he says 'yes'?
My most pressing difficulty with Cold Sleep is that Kara, the main character, is hard to like. The ship's captain sums up Kara's character - 'you really would do anything to get ahead in this life, wouldn't you?' This isn't necessarily a bad character trait for a protagonist - there have been many 'loveable rogues' in fiction - but Kara has such a callous disregard for anyone but herself (and is happy to allow others to die to save her own skin) that it's very hard to warm to her. Although she arguably redeems herself by the end of the novel, I found it hard to sympathise with her. As the story is told in the first person from Kara's point of view, the reader is privy to everything that goes on in her head, and that's often not a nice place to be - I wonder if she may have worked better as a character in the third person.
The narrative point of view brings me to my second major issue. The novel is written in the first person and in the present tense. Instead of saying, for example, 'I walked down the corridor and opened the door', the novel would say something like 'walking down the corridor, I open the door'. This isn't a stylistic choice I particularly enjoy, but I can live with it. My main issue comes with the amount of times that Kara slips into what I came to think of as 'expository daydreaming'. For example, Kara will see something that reminds her of the time when she and Zed were together in their apartment and etc., etc. As the story is told in the present tense, this slams the breaks on the narrative and reads as though Kara is standing there staring into space for ten minutes. As these flashbacks often happened in the middle of action scenes, it gave the impression that Kara had zoned out in the middle of it all while a pitched battle was raging around her. This happened often enough to become quite distracting and ruin the immersion and pacing.
The ugly
There were a number of typos and grammatical errors in the copy I received. Although none of them were impossible to decipher, they were numerous and obvious enough that they really shouldn't have slipped through proofreading.
Conclusion
Overall, I would recommend Cold Sleep to anyone wanting a fix of violent sci-if horror with a twist of cleverness. I enjoyed the world that Hindmarsh has created, and it would be interesting to see him set other projects there in the future.
I received a free advance review copy of this book from BookSirens. This has not affected my review, and the opinions below are my own. Many thanks to BookSirens and the publisher for the copy.
Cold sleep is an interesting science-fiction/cyberpunk/horror/zombie story set aboard the Charon, a ship transporting colonists through the depths of space. The main character, Kara Rozanski, is an ambitious young navigator who desperately wishes to become captain of a ship of her own. As part of her plan to make her fortune, Kara and Zed, her sometime boyfriend/accomplice, awaken themselves from cryosleep during the journey, planning to steal a valuable item from another passenger while everyone else is still frozen.
The theft goes easily enough, but before the thieves can return to their sleeping tubes, they stumble across a smashed-open tube and the remains of its occupant. They quickly realise that someone or something is at large on the ship, and soon all hell breaks loose.
The good
Hindmarsh does a great job of building his universe throughout the book. There is a definite sense of a world beyond the novel, full of corporate interests that have scant regard for human life. In Hindmarsh's world, the technology that was supposed to serve humanity has, in many ways, supplanted it. Kara, for example, talks about how she was trained and genetically manipulated to be a navigator - capable of processing superhuman amounts of calculations - and how human navigators are sent on long voyages where it would be too risky and expensive to send an AI. The colonists that the Charon is transporting are never seen as anything more than cargo, with a certain amount of 'spoilage' to be expected. Hindmarsh's is a bleak universe, and this also comes across in the violence and gore of some of Kara's encounters, which pull few punches.
The sense of the endless universe outside the ship's walls lends an effective claustrophobia to the novel's actions, which never stray much beyond the ship. The reader feels locked in along with Kara and the things she has to face. This is particularly true of the suspenseful opening of the book, where Kara and Zed are alone with the killer somewhere in the ship - I wish this had been extended: after this, the book falls into a more standard action-horror pattern.
The bad
Ever since Blade Runner and Neuromancer the inclusion of foreign words, most notably Japanese and Chinese, seems to be almost compulsory in sci-fi/cyberpunk settings. Cold Sleep doesn't buck the trend: right from the outset, Kara and Zed drop Chinese words into their dialogue, and the rest of the crew follow suit, with a Japanese doctor and other crew members from different parts of the world. I understand that this is supposed to convey how the world has moved beyond nation states, but it comes across as a bit of an overused trope and borders on exoticism. The word choices are also strange - why does a Japanese doctor speak perfect English except when he says 'yes'?
My most pressing difficulty with Cold Sleep is that Kara, the main character, is hard to like. The ship's captain sums up Kara's character - 'you really would do anything to get ahead in this life, wouldn't you?' This isn't necessarily a bad character trait for a protagonist - there have been many 'loveable rogues' in fiction - but Kara has such a callous disregard for anyone but herself (and is happy to allow others to die to save her own skin) that it's very hard to warm to her. Although she arguably redeems herself by the end of the novel, I found it hard to sympathise with her. As the story is told in the first person from Kara's point of view, the reader is privy to everything that goes on in her head, and that's often not a nice place to be - I wonder if she may have worked better as a character in the third person.
The narrative point of view brings me to my second major issue. The novel is written in the first person and in the present tense. Instead of saying, for example, 'I walked down the corridor and opened the door', the novel would say something like 'walking down the corridor, I open the door'. This isn't a stylistic choice I particularly enjoy, but I can live with it. My main issue comes with the amount of times that Kara slips into what I came to think of as 'expository daydreaming'. For example, Kara will see something that reminds her of the time when she and Zed were together in their apartment and etc., etc. As the story is told in the present tense, this slams the breaks on the narrative and reads as though Kara is standing there staring into space for ten minutes. As these flashbacks often happened in the middle of action scenes, it gave the impression that Kara had zoned out in the middle of it all while a pitched battle was raging around her. This happened often enough to become quite distracting and ruin the immersion and pacing.
The ugly
There were a number of typos and grammatical errors in the copy I received. Although none of them were impossible to decipher, they were numerous and obvious enough that they really shouldn't have slipped through proofreading.
Conclusion
Overall, I would recommend Cold Sleep to anyone wanting a fix of violent sci-if horror with a twist of cleverness. I enjoyed the world that Hindmarsh has created, and it would be interesting to see him set other projects there in the future.
April 4, 2023
I’ve been looking forward to this one dropping for a couple of years. Even more so, with a binging Mass Effect playthroughs.
There is little not to like, a fusion of Alien, Event Horizon, The Terminator and a heist thrown in for good measure. The heist doesn’t last long before the situation descends from alarming to desperate. The story is well considered and doesn’t hang around. There is no 40 minute nerd-w***fest over Enterprise externals. Act, or die.
The over imagined terrors of empty space come back to haunt the crew as crime, betrayal and the squabble of avaricious ambition hurls Kara and Zed apart. Disparate characters, with a complementary skillset appeal to the yarn, with a solid tech backstory that becomes more eerie as the tale unfolds. Throw a curve ball into Pandorum (very underrated film) and flip gender and the novel is a plausible, understated sci-fi thriller, that twists and turns. Kara is no Ripley. She got herself into her concocted mess and gives less sh**s than the vacuum of space contains for the napping crew and passengers. Those who are left viable, anyway. I did like the touch of cryosleep being risky. Risky enough for 'wastage' being a voyage norm. Little details like that hark back to the working environment of Alien and Star Wars without the clinical sterility of 2001 and make it real and claustrophobic.
It is easy to throw comparisons at entertainment, and while the above give the vibe, there is enough uniqueness to the story arcs to make it stand out. I get the same vibe as I did with Michael Marshall Smith’s books. I wanted more after I read the original short story, and that has been answered in then latest versions and final release. Effortless prose and punchy characters that if anything, are even leaner than in the earlier Mercury’s Son. I quite enjoy keeping things barebones, and the sole (negligible) criticism I have is it being a little too lean, to keep pacing tight and fluid. Kara has little respite, and despite her training could easily be swamped by events, and her predicament, and that’s before the search to discover what the hell is actually going on.
Dealing with the situation and their general helplessness, is skilfully weaved into survival and escape. The added greater threat later on, elevates the tension even higher. The plot doesn’t hang on throwing nifty one liners, as nuking from orbit isn’t an option when creeping compartment to compartment.
It is great throwing Kara into the situation and deal with her diminishing odds of surviving each encounter and twist. You just wouldn’t want to be near her. Who doesn’t like a anti-hero. Unlike Aliens Prometheus, this is how to do it.
As for the pre-order, take my money!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Sleep-L...
There is little not to like, a fusion of Alien, Event Horizon, The Terminator and a heist thrown in for good measure. The heist doesn’t last long before the situation descends from alarming to desperate. The story is well considered and doesn’t hang around. There is no 40 minute nerd-w***fest over Enterprise externals. Act, or die.
The over imagined terrors of empty space come back to haunt the crew as crime, betrayal and the squabble of avaricious ambition hurls Kara and Zed apart. Disparate characters, with a complementary skillset appeal to the yarn, with a solid tech backstory that becomes more eerie as the tale unfolds. Throw a curve ball into Pandorum (very underrated film) and flip gender and the novel is a plausible, understated sci-fi thriller, that twists and turns. Kara is no Ripley. She got herself into her concocted mess and gives less sh**s than the vacuum of space contains for the napping crew and passengers. Those who are left viable, anyway. I did like the touch of cryosleep being risky. Risky enough for 'wastage' being a voyage norm. Little details like that hark back to the working environment of Alien and Star Wars without the clinical sterility of 2001 and make it real and claustrophobic.
It is easy to throw comparisons at entertainment, and while the above give the vibe, there is enough uniqueness to the story arcs to make it stand out. I get the same vibe as I did with Michael Marshall Smith’s books. I wanted more after I read the original short story, and that has been answered in then latest versions and final release. Effortless prose and punchy characters that if anything, are even leaner than in the earlier Mercury’s Son. I quite enjoy keeping things barebones, and the sole (negligible) criticism I have is it being a little too lean, to keep pacing tight and fluid. Kara has little respite, and despite her training could easily be swamped by events, and her predicament, and that’s before the search to discover what the hell is actually going on.
Dealing with the situation and their general helplessness, is skilfully weaved into survival and escape. The added greater threat later on, elevates the tension even higher. The plot doesn’t hang on throwing nifty one liners, as nuking from orbit isn’t an option when creeping compartment to compartment.
It is great throwing Kara into the situation and deal with her diminishing odds of surviving each encounter and twist. You just wouldn’t want to be near her. Who doesn’t like a anti-hero. Unlike Aliens Prometheus, this is how to do it.
As for the pre-order, take my money!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cold-Sleep-L...
March 19, 2023
Thanks to BookSirens and Luke Hindmarsh for a copy of this book to review for free.
3/5
"Cold Sleep" by Luke Hindmarsh is a sci-fi-survival horror-cyberthriller that takes place on a space ship transporting colonists from Earth to a distant planet.
I really enjoyed the setting and survival horror elements and the sense of impending doom around every corner. The story is also setup in a way that each character, including Kara - the main character, is setup to be unreliable which keeps you guessing where the plot is leading and what each characters motivations really are, or whether or not they are being puppeted by warring mind-controlling AI factions.
There were a few elements that kept "Cold Sleep" from being a 4 or 5-star book. First, while the author did a good job of building the sense of a vast universe without getting too bogged down, I do wish the details of geo-political, intergalactic, and technological this-and-that's could have been done a bit more concisely. The second is the ramblings of Kara's inner monologue. The story is told in first person and there are a number of times that Kara goes into flashback or explanation mode in the middle of a conversation, or what would have otherwise been an intense scene. This took me out of the live action enough times that I was noticeably turning the pages a bit slower than I would have otherwise.
Overall, "Cold Sleep" was a fun and unique read that I would recommend to anyone in the mood for a solid space-survival horror-cyberthriller.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
3/5
"Cold Sleep" by Luke Hindmarsh is a sci-fi-survival horror-cyberthriller that takes place on a space ship transporting colonists from Earth to a distant planet.
I really enjoyed the setting and survival horror elements and the sense of impending doom around every corner. The story is also setup in a way that each character, including Kara - the main character, is setup to be unreliable which keeps you guessing where the plot is leading and what each characters motivations really are, or whether or not they are being puppeted by warring mind-controlling AI factions.
There were a few elements that kept "Cold Sleep" from being a 4 or 5-star book. First, while the author did a good job of building the sense of a vast universe without getting too bogged down, I do wish the details of geo-political, intergalactic, and technological this-and-that's could have been done a bit more concisely. The second is the ramblings of Kara's inner monologue. The story is told in first person and there are a number of times that Kara goes into flashback or explanation mode in the middle of a conversation, or what would have otherwise been an intense scene. This took me out of the live action enough times that I was noticeably turning the pages a bit slower than I would have otherwise.
Overall, "Cold Sleep" was a fun and unique read that I would recommend to anyone in the mood for a solid space-survival horror-cyberthriller.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
February 14, 2023
Review of eBook
Lieutenant-Commander Kara Rozanski and Warrant Officer Zed Hong are part of the crew aboard the Charon, a ship on an interstellar crossing, taking passengers to colonize a new world. This interstellar crossing will take decades; both the crew and the passengers will remain in cryo-freeze for most of the journey.
Kara, whose goal is to achieve a Captaincy, has awakened just short of the midpoint in Charon’s voyage. With the assistance of her partner in crime, she plans to steal a valuable data chip from VIP passenger Dmitrios Yang-Sung while he remains in cold sleep.
It doesn’t take long for Kara and Zed to discover that they are not the only ones aboard Charon who are awake early. And, although she manages to get the chip, Kara and Zed are in danger . . . whoever else is awake is murdering the other passengers.
=========
With strong world-building and believable characters, this science fiction tale [with a touch of horror] takes readers on an interstellar flight. From the outset, there is an undercurrent of suspense, continually heightened as the victim count rises.
The plot is intriguing; the story moves forward at a brisk pace as it keeps readers guessing right up to the bittersweet denouement.
Recommended for those who enjoy exciting science fiction, but readers should be aware that the rating for this book has been lowered due to the unnecessary use of invectives and the overuse of a particularly offensive expletive.
I received a free advance review copy of this book through BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Lieutenant-Commander Kara Rozanski and Warrant Officer Zed Hong are part of the crew aboard the Charon, a ship on an interstellar crossing, taking passengers to colonize a new world. This interstellar crossing will take decades; both the crew and the passengers will remain in cryo-freeze for most of the journey.
Kara, whose goal is to achieve a Captaincy, has awakened just short of the midpoint in Charon’s voyage. With the assistance of her partner in crime, she plans to steal a valuable data chip from VIP passenger Dmitrios Yang-Sung while he remains in cold sleep.
It doesn’t take long for Kara and Zed to discover that they are not the only ones aboard Charon who are awake early. And, although she manages to get the chip, Kara and Zed are in danger . . . whoever else is awake is murdering the other passengers.
=========
With strong world-building and believable characters, this science fiction tale [with a touch of horror] takes readers on an interstellar flight. From the outset, there is an undercurrent of suspense, continually heightened as the victim count rises.
The plot is intriguing; the story moves forward at a brisk pace as it keeps readers guessing right up to the bittersweet denouement.
Recommended for those who enjoy exciting science fiction, but readers should be aware that the rating for this book has been lowered due to the unnecessary use of invectives and the overuse of a particularly offensive expletive.
I received a free advance review copy of this book through BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
March 10, 2024
I’d been wanting to read COLD SLEEP for a while based on what I understood of its concept and can safely say that it does not disappoint. SF horror is a rather neglected sub-genre, and Hindmarsh does a great job of exploring it, his self-contained zombie space shocker quickly moving beyond its simple premise to examine the impacts of runaway time dilation and themes of transhumanism that take the novel in a satisfyingly hard SF direction. Though for all its rigour, COLD SLEEP never gets bogged down in details, managing to maintain its breakneck pace all the way to the end. A clever use of present tense helps with this, as do the big action set pieces and regular reveals, especially the mid-point twist which completely flips the script. And the novel’s narrative is only enhanced by the MC, a deliciously self-serving anti-hero whose callousness makes for some shocking dramatic moments. Add conniving sentient nanites, face-shifting special ops, and psychotic juggernauts into the mix and you get a sci-fi thriller that truly captivates. Indeed, there’s enough of a world here to warrant further novels should the author choose to delve deeper. I certainly hope he does so.
April 21, 2023
Lt Commander Kara Rozanski is one smart woman; a deep space navigator, she has a gift for the abstruse mathematics required to guide the vast colony ship Charon to its destination. Not as smart as she thinks she is as she believes it is a good idea for her and her partner Zed to wake from cryogenic suspension (the “cold sleep” of the title) to commit a robbery and introduce a virus into the ship's central computer system to cover their tracks. Hint – this is a terrible idea.
Kara, the single POV character, is a hard person to like. She is ambitious, desiring command of her own ship. The cold sleep voyages she has undertaken, and the associated time dilation effects, have removed her from her family and left her isolated. As the horrific consequences of their act unfold and the bodycount climbs she is trapped in a claustophobic paranoid nightmare, under siege within the ship. Relentlessly paced, this is high grade grimdark SF.
Kara, the single POV character, is a hard person to like. She is ambitious, desiring command of her own ship. The cold sleep voyages she has undertaken, and the associated time dilation effects, have removed her from her family and left her isolated. As the horrific consequences of their act unfold and the bodycount climbs she is trapped in a claustophobic paranoid nightmare, under siege within the ship. Relentlessly paced, this is high grade grimdark SF.
April 10, 2023
https://beforewegoblog.com/review-col...
I'm a huge fan of Luke Hindmarsh's MERCURY'S SON and 3:33. He's an underrated science fiction and horror writer which get combined here for an especially good story. He's so far only done standalones and I don't think that's going to change with this series but I'd like to see him take a crack at a series. Either way, I'm glad he sent me a copy of an ARC because I really enjoyed reading this from cover to cover in two days.
The premise is that Kara is a somewhat sociopathic navigator onboard a sleeper ship that is heading to a colony in order to spread humanity out among the stars. Kara and her boyfriend, Zed, are professional criminals that are planning on robbing a corporate bigwig while he's asleep. Kara thinks this will get her promoted to captain or owner of her own ship while Zed rather stupidly thinks she's planning on settling down with him.
What follows will be familiar to anyone who is fan of the classic video game SYSTEM SHOCK or SYSTEM SHOCK 2 as their decision to upload a virus they were assured would be harmless proves to be the apparent stupid decision it was. Horrific changes are reported in the nanotechnology upgrades of their highest level passengers and things just get continuously worse. I'd also say it reminded me of DEAD SPACE but since that game was inspired by System Shock, it feels a bit redundant.
At its simplest, Cold Sleep is a sci-fi zombie book. That doesn't mean it's not incredibly entertaining for what it is, though. The heart of every horror movie is whether you care for the characters involved and Luke Hindmarsh is extremely good at developing his doomed characters. Kara, the star, is ironically the most unlikable as she's the kind of person who would be a villain in your typical cyberpunk story. However, that makes her a refreshing change as one of her earliest actions shows that she's willing to do just about anything to survive. It makes her unpredictable and helps elevate the story's content beyond the cliche.
Luke Hindmarsh also makes some interesting sci-fi exploration of concepts like AI, hive minds, transhumanism, and other issues you wouldn't think would get touched on. At the end of the day, it's still about making cybernetic monsters out to kill or assimilate the passengers like the Borg but it's a far smarter book than it had to be. This intelligent thinking through of the implications makes it function as both a science fiction as well as a horror novel, helping the book be more than the sum of its parts.
If I had one issue with the book, it's the fact that the author chose to write Cold Sleep in the present tense. Given Charles Dickens wrote in the present tense and the Hunger Games, this isn't a bad thing but initially threw me. I can understand why the author did so, though, because that provides a sense of unpredictability to the events going on as they happen. It also influences the end that I feel was very strong and I won't spoil in the slightest.
In conclusion, Cold Sleep is another great addition to Luke Hindmarsh's library and an excellent horror lit story from Crossroad Press. If you like survival horror, this is an "adult read" for things like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. IN SPACE. The characters are likable, the worldbuilding consistent, and the concepts are interesting. If it's not a 5/5 and classic of literature, it's certainly a 4.5/5 with no complaints.
I'm a huge fan of Luke Hindmarsh's MERCURY'S SON and 3:33. He's an underrated science fiction and horror writer which get combined here for an especially good story. He's so far only done standalones and I don't think that's going to change with this series but I'd like to see him take a crack at a series. Either way, I'm glad he sent me a copy of an ARC because I really enjoyed reading this from cover to cover in two days.
The premise is that Kara is a somewhat sociopathic navigator onboard a sleeper ship that is heading to a colony in order to spread humanity out among the stars. Kara and her boyfriend, Zed, are professional criminals that are planning on robbing a corporate bigwig while he's asleep. Kara thinks this will get her promoted to captain or owner of her own ship while Zed rather stupidly thinks she's planning on settling down with him.
What follows will be familiar to anyone who is fan of the classic video game SYSTEM SHOCK or SYSTEM SHOCK 2 as their decision to upload a virus they were assured would be harmless proves to be the apparent stupid decision it was. Horrific changes are reported in the nanotechnology upgrades of their highest level passengers and things just get continuously worse. I'd also say it reminded me of DEAD SPACE but since that game was inspired by System Shock, it feels a bit redundant.
At its simplest, Cold Sleep is a sci-fi zombie book. That doesn't mean it's not incredibly entertaining for what it is, though. The heart of every horror movie is whether you care for the characters involved and Luke Hindmarsh is extremely good at developing his doomed characters. Kara, the star, is ironically the most unlikable as she's the kind of person who would be a villain in your typical cyberpunk story. However, that makes her a refreshing change as one of her earliest actions shows that she's willing to do just about anything to survive. It makes her unpredictable and helps elevate the story's content beyond the cliche.
Luke Hindmarsh also makes some interesting sci-fi exploration of concepts like AI, hive minds, transhumanism, and other issues you wouldn't think would get touched on. At the end of the day, it's still about making cybernetic monsters out to kill or assimilate the passengers like the Borg but it's a far smarter book than it had to be. This intelligent thinking through of the implications makes it function as both a science fiction as well as a horror novel, helping the book be more than the sum of its parts.
If I had one issue with the book, it's the fact that the author chose to write Cold Sleep in the present tense. Given Charles Dickens wrote in the present tense and the Hunger Games, this isn't a bad thing but initially threw me. I can understand why the author did so, though, because that provides a sense of unpredictability to the events going on as they happen. It also influences the end that I feel was very strong and I won't spoil in the slightest.
In conclusion, Cold Sleep is another great addition to Luke Hindmarsh's library and an excellent horror lit story from Crossroad Press. If you like survival horror, this is an "adult read" for things like Resident Evil or Silent Hill. IN SPACE. The characters are likable, the worldbuilding consistent, and the concepts are interesting. If it's not a 5/5 and classic of literature, it's certainly a 4.5/5 with no complaints.
February 20, 2023
Cold Sleep is an intriguing, mind bending and fast paced science fiction/horror novel focusing on space travel, friendships and survival between humanity and aliens. It centers around two main characters of Kara and Zed along with some of their crew members aboard the vessel Charon and their interactions with a species of revenants aboard the ship and the overall battle between humanity and an alien species with a penchant for mal intent and disharmony as a whole. This was in general a well executed, interesting read providing new meaning to the term "hostile takeover" and had me guessing until the very end- perfect for all adult science fiction and horror fans.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 14, 2023
This was horror in space and kind of reminded me of Alien. The only problem is that there was no one for me to like. Nobody that I cared enough to wonder if they lived or died. It was a definite page-turner and kept me wondering how the whole thing would be resolved. Some of the language was unnecessary. The descriptions were very vivid and might not be for everyone. It was a fascinating read.
I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
April 10, 2023
I loved this novel -- a brilliant blend of sci-fi and horror. I'll try and avoid spoilers, and just say that the execution more than lived up to a brilliant premise. The plotting is perfect and the characters are well-rounded and well-executed. Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews