Ghost Station
By S.A. Barnes
ISBN 9781250884923
Author’s website: staceykade.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
A crew must try to survive on an ancient, abandoned planet in the latest space horror novel from S.A. Barnes, acclaimed author of Dead Silence.
Space exploration can be lonely and isolating.
Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she’s assigned to a small exploration crew, she’s eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something.
While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer’s hasty departure than opening up to her.
That is, until their pilot is discovered gruesomely murdered. Is this Ophelia’s worst nightmare starting—a wave of violence and mental deterioration from ERS? Or is it something more sinister?
Terrified that history will repeat itself, Ophelia and the crew must work together to figure out what’s happening. But trust is hard to come by… and the crew isn’t the only one keeping secrets.
Review
Ghost Station starts with Dr. Ophelia Bray getting ready for the sleep cycle of a three-month travel in the Resilience ship making their way to Lyria 3936-C, the planet that her new team is going to reclaim for their company Montrose. After the death of one of her patients, Montrose and she decide that she should be out of the spotlight for a while, suggesting she accompany the reclaiming team. The problem is that one of the crew members of the Resilience died in the last job, now the Resilience crew is wary of Ophelia and her new ideas to prevent ERS as it shows up.
The crew of the Resilience consists of Ethan Severin the mission commander, Birch Osgoode the pilot, Kate Wakefield the engineer, Suresh Patel the inventory Specialist, and Liana Chong the scientific coordinator. Ava Olberman used to be the system manager, but she died in the last expedition by exploring the planet without telling anyone else.
The awakening of Ophelia’s sleep cycle is not the best, she is alone and is pranked by Suresh and Liana. While she is there to help them deal with their recent loss and potential mental health issues, Ophelia immediately understands that the crew doesn’t want her there and feels that she is just on this mission to report back to Montrose and all of them will lose their job.
Lyria 393-C is a planet that is currently going through an ice age and the weather is constant storms and blizzards. While the current cold temperatures of the planet prevent any life to exist, the planet used to have humanoids, but they all died a long time ago. The only thing they left was black material pillars that had survived the past of time.
Now as the crew of the Resilience starts their mission in Lyria-393 a strange phenomenon starts to occur on the ice planet, and not all of them might end up surviving this mission.
Ghost Station was a wild ride of a reading, given the premise of the book and its name your mind goes straight to ghosts, but then you wonder, are there ghosts in space? Do aliens leave ghosts behind? Those were questions that I had as I read this book. But this story is much more, is a blend of mystery, murder, and psychological thriller. As you continue to read you wonder who the bad guy is and what is truly going on.
The story follows Ophelia’s POV, she tries to help prevent future mental issues, but she has other reasons. Ophelia’s past is full of secrets, and even though she is the black sheep of the family she is still a Bray, which is one of the richest families in the world and the main competitor of Montrose. She was born in a mining station, when she was a young child she and her mother had to be rescued after an outbreak of ERS caused a man to murder thirty people and kill himself. The Bray family used their money and influence to hide the evidence of their time in that station, many other colonists of that mining station suffered, but the Bray’s name was never reported.
Straight away the reader starts to notice that something is not right with the station that the crew is using in Lyria – 393, it seems that the previous team that was there left in a hurry and many of their personal belonging were left behind, Ophelia even finds a prosthetic tooth that somebody left.
Like Ghost Station, it was a good blend of different genres that keeps the reader hooked to find out how all is going to end. As you read, you start to believe Ophelia when she herself starts to think she is going crazy and becoming a potential danger to the rest of the crew. But something is playing games with their minds and wants them to stay forever.
The reader will start getting an idea of what’s happening and who is behind it, but even at the end, there are a lot of twists and turns.
I do hope that the author writes a sequel to this book. I do want to know what happened to the remaining crew members who got back to Earth and more about the history of Lyria-393.
If you are a fan of ghost stories and space, then I recommend Ghost Station. Here in the cold of space, your past can still haunt you and greater forces are at play.
