SF/F Review – Dead Space
Synopsis: Survival-horror on an asteroid mining operation
Book Review: It’s interesting to see The Expanse universe become a standard setting. This book may well have started out as Expanse fanfic, which later had the serial numbers filed off for publication. Having a familiar setting like that feels comfortable, and saves both the author and the reader a lot of time with setting up the universe.
It’s a lot like how Middle-Earth analogs became the standard Fantasy setting in the 80s/90s. Sure, later critics would complain about how “Medieval Euro-centric” all fantasy of that time was. But it saved a ton of wordcount and let us get to the good stuff. Likewise, if you just want to have a SystemShock-style action book in which the broader world doesn’t particularly matter, using the Expanse standard template is a great idea!
The book itself is OK. The gravity present on the asteroid varies depending on whether or not the author remembered there’s no gravity. And the protagonist spends half the book being extremely aggrieved about everything. Like, she’s got real problems, she has a lot of be miserable about, and we can really feel for her. But she goes out of her way to find every little thing to harp on. It’s annoying, but it’s not terrible. Interesting stuff happens, and there’s explosions at the end.
Basically, if you’re into a low-effort space action with some horror elements, this is a light read that will work. But there’s nothing special to recommend it. Not Recommended.
Book Club Review: We realized while discussing this that the protagonist isn’t really needed. If one were to remove her from the story entirely, everything that happened would still happen, pretty much exactly as it did. She observes stuff, and maybe inspires some shame in a major character near the end? This used to happen a lot more in past fiction (think Watson, who mostly just observes and reports on what Sherlock is doing), but it’s out of favor nowadays.
Anyway, you can find things to talk about, and it’s a short read, but still nothing noteworthy. Not Recommended.