Book Review: Screams From The Void, by Anne Tibbets

For two years in deep space, the freighter Demeter and a small crew have
collected botanical life from other planets. It’s a lesson in patience and hell. Mechanics Ensign Reina is ready to jump ship, if only because her abusive ex is also aboard, as well as her overbearing boss. It’s only after a foreign
biological creature sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc on the ship and crew
that Reina must find her grit – and maybe create a gadget or two – to
survive…that is, if the crew members don’t lose their sanity and turn on each other in the process.

My Review

Thanks to Anne of Random Things Tours, the author and the publisher for this tour and my copy of this book.

The Rosie Synopsis

The Demeter has two weeks to go of a two year tour of planets identified as possibly habitable. They’ve collected thousands of samples, including two seed pods from a remarkable red tree on the planet Kepler-22b.

Ensign Raina, mechanic, has just about survived her first tour, despite a bullying superior officer, Senior Airman Osric Lawman, and an abusive ex-boyfriend, Ensign Morven Alpin, on board. She doesn’t expect to be an ensign much longer, since Osric keeps reporting her for not making regulation repairs – Raina has made improvements, or would have if Osric didn’t keep forcing her to make regulation only repairs. She joined the Corps to get away from a family who don’t think much of her, compared to her brother at least.

Technical Sergeant Pollux Tate, senior science officer with an excellent record and a mother in her background calling her a loser.

After a successful mission to their final planet, things are quiet, except the yellow warning light is flashing. Pollux sends the Ensigns and cook to the galley to wait while she takes the three other officers to the flight deck to find out why they can’t raise the captain, pilot or navigation Ensign. What they find is a slaughter.

There’s a ‘foreign biological’ on board. And it’s eviscerating people.

The story then follows the actions of the Ensigns and the officers separately, with an inverted timeline showing from the present to the beginning of the mission. In the process, we learn about Raina and Morven’s abusive relationship and the events that lead to the release of the creature. As the two groups are picked off and the creature tracked through the vents, Pollux and Raina individually develop plans to kill it. Unfortunately, they have another problem; one of the crew is a murderer.

The Good

This novel moves at a rollicking pace, even the sitting around arguing bits are full of action. It is filmic, and reminded me of many similar ‘horror in space’ stories, like Alien. The tension is held throughout and makes the finale a great release. The setting of a small, older, rackety exploration ship that has lots of small rooms and difficult passageways helps with the tension.

The characters are complex and interesting, they have been really well worked out, especially Morven who is more complex that just a stereotype of toxic masculinity. His background and psyche are elucidated in the flashbacks. The slow destruction of Raina’s confidence by Morven and Osric, rooted in misogyny, is told subtly. Her own internal misogyny is reinforced by the men around her, telling her that she can’t possibly be a mechanic or intelligent, when she is more capable, creative and intelligent than anyone around her. Pollux is another woman character who has abusers in her past, in her case her mother who stands on her shoulder even as she is at the height of her career, calling her a loser and weak. Her taunting voice pushes Pollux to survive even as it looks like they are going to die. I liked the characterisation, especially because it is complex. The interpersonal relationships are interesting and the way they have rubbed up against each other during the two years of confinement seems fairly realistic.

The story is fast paced and intense, with moments of terror and ingenuity. I couldn’t put it down and left off eating until I had finished the book. I really enjoyed it as my Sunday reading. I can definitely see it as a film. The reader can put their own images into the place where a fuller description would have constrained. For a story that can very easily be a film, a producer has more lassitude to make choices.

The Not-So-Good

Mostly great, minor thing: the description is of events, with the ship only sketched in and barely any description of the characters, beyond general shape and size. I can’t really see pictures in my minds so I could have done with a bit more description.

The Verdict

Another excellent offering from Flame Tree Press.

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