Book Review – ‘Dead Space’ by Kali Wallace

TITLE: Dead Space
AUTHOR: Kali Wallace
GENRE: Sci-fi/Horror
WORD/PAGE COUNT: 336 pages (paperback)
PUBLICATION DETAILS: by Berkley on March 2nd, 2021

Blurb from Goodreads:

An investigator must solve a brutal murder on a claustrophobic asteroid mine in this tense science fiction thriller from the author of Salvation Day.

Hester Marley used to have a plan for her life. But when a catastrophic attack left her injured, indebted, and stranded far from home, she was forced to take a dead-end security job with a powerful mining company in the asteroid belt. Now she spends her days investigating petty crimes to help her employer maximize its profits. She’s surprised to hear from an old friend and fellow victim of the terrorist attack that ruined her life–and that surprise quickly turns to suspicion when he claims to have discovered something shocking about their shared history and the tragedy that neither of them can leave behind.

Before Hester can learn more, her friend is violently murdered at a remote asteroid mine. Hester joins the investigation to find the truth, both about her friend’s death and the information he believed he had uncovered. But catching a killer is only the beginning of Hester’s worries, and she soon realizes that everything she learns about her friend, his fellow miners, and the outpost they call home brings her closer to revealing secrets that very powerful and very dangerous people would rather keep hidden in the depths of space.

Kali Wallace is an author who refuses to be pigeon-holed and jumps at whim from one genre to another, writing for various age groups from dark YA fantasy novels to whimsical middle grade fantasy to adult sci-fi horror. Her first offering in the latter category was the phenomenal Salvation Day in 2019 and she has returned to that well in the upcoming Dead Space.

Set in the distant future where humanity has established colonies beyond Earth, our protagonist Hester Marley is a jaded, worn-down shell of the person she used to be. As an AI expert, she was part of a science expedition heading to form a research colony on Titan before being targeted by a disastrous terrorist attack that killed most of those on board. You might think that surviving such a disaster would make Hester one of the lucky ones, but she suffered such extensive injuries that doctors from the Parthenope Enterprises ship who treated survivors ended up replacing half her body with metal prosthetics, thereby racking up an enormous debt that effectively placed her into indentured servitude.

We meet Hester working as a security officer in a thankless role that squanders her brilliance when an unexpected message from one of her former colleagues jars Hester out of her dreary routine. His shocking murder soon after drives her to join the investigation on a remote asteroid, and what should have been an open-and-shut case becomes anything but standard as she discovers impossible system failures, baffling inconsistencies and the threads of a convoluted conspiracy that will force her to face the demons of her past as she uncovers a devastating threat in the present that people will kill to keep secret.

Dead Space is first and foremost a riveting sci-fi thriller that starts off with a slow-burn mystery that develops into an increasingly exciting and frantic race against time. I came into this expecting the entertainment of a locked room mystery in space with all the scope for horror that remote claustrophobic setting entails and the author provided that in spades! There are a number of genuinely chilling, spooky moments that will unnerve readers and leave their hearts pounding frantically while turning the pages.

But the story also offers a nuanced, thought-provoking contemplation of timely issues we face in today’s society with racism and intolerance, with exploitation of workers lacking in sufficient rights and with governments that fail to properly regulate corporations but are instead swayed into protecting business interests rather than human interests. The measured, methodical pace of the opening chapters serves to acquaint readers with the bleak reality of this future where megacorporations rule the stars and ruthlessly churn up the downtrodden, underprivileged members of society in their hunger for profit, free from the oversight of government bodies. Even as the body count rises and danger skyrockets, the political intrigue continues to play a vital role in shaping the plot and with Hester’s personal experience as a victim of the heartless corporation grinding mill, it furthers her character development and heightens the personal stakes.

The reader’s enjoyment factor will have a lot to do with how you feel about Hester. While there are important secondary characters such as a past fling, a by-the-book inspector and snooty lawyer, Dead Space is largely a one-woman show and succeeds based on the strength of Hester’s characterisation. She may be cynical and morose, but she doesn’t wallow in self-pity, merely focuses on her end goal and gets on with the job. Her predicament is monstrously unfair so it’s easy to sympathise with her right from the start, and her acerbic manner and snarky inner monologue is entertaining to read. The author has a physics background and applies this to provide convincing world-building without overdoing the technobabble, and Hester reliably breaks down any complicated concepts in a droll, matter-of-fact way to help us keep up.

A casually diverse read that centers on LGBT+ characters without making queerness the source of drama, Dead Space offers a suspenseful, tightly plotted sci-fi horror experience sure to please fans of the genre and ensure that new readers will be left wanting more.

Disclaimer: digital copy provided free from publisher via The Nerd Daily for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.