Salvaged

by Madeleine Roux

A WOMAN ON THE RUN. A CAPTAIN ADRIFT IN SPACE. ONE OF THEM IS INFECTED WITH AN ALIEN PARASITE. 

In this dark science fiction thriller, a young woman must confront her past so the human race will have a future.

Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she's come to hate, and her messed-up life. She's run all the way to outer space, where she's taken a position as a "space janitor," cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions. But no matter how far she goes, Rosalyn can't escape herself. After too many mistakes on the job, she's given one last chance: take care of salvaging the Brigantine, a research vessel that has gone dark, with all crew aboard thought dead.

But the Brigantine's crew are very much alive--if not entirely human. Now Rosalyn is trapped on board, alone with a crew infected by a mysterious parasitic alien. The captain, Edison Aries, seems to still maintain some control over himself and the crew, but he won't be able to keep fighting much longer. Rosalyn and Edison must find a way to stop the parasite's onslaught...or it may take over the entire human race.

• ISBN10: 0451491831
• ISBN13: 9780451491831
• Publish Date: 15 October 2019
• Publish Status: Inactive
• Out of Print: 22 January 2025
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Ace Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451491831

Reviews

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Rosalyn Devar has sunk pretty low - low enough that her job is cleaning up decomposing bodies on failed spaceships. When she's drunk on duty again, the company gives her one last chance, and she's determined to straighten up and get her act together. Only, a parasitic, mind-controlling fungus can ruin your day...

Review
The story starts well, if not particularly innovatively – down on her luck protagonist with dark secrets, having a hard time. And the characterization is mostly strong throughout the book. Unfortunately, the structure and pacing doesn’t hold up as well.

The perspective shifts frequently among several characters, and that largely works. However, the piece also frequently slips into flashbacks and memories, and they are, by and large, poorly signaled and demarcated. The net result was that I found it hard to be sure whose perspective we were seeing, and when. There were also significant plot points that simply didn’t make sense to me. While some details seemed perfectly reasonable, the larger actions (a mind-influencing parasite respecting the bodily autonomy of a person it desperately wants to recruit) often weren’t logical. The characters rush back and forth through spaces that seem awfully convenient to their needs. While much of the revealed backstory was entirely predictable, I didn’t find the end credible at all.

All the right elements were in place for a good, if familiar, story, but I didn’t feel Roux did a good job of placing and using them. Much of my appreciation was not so much for the story that’s here as for the story that I assume she intended. A good effort, but in need of substantial editing and polish.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

[Quirky Cat]

I received a copy of Salvaged through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Madeleine Roux’s Salvaged is the ideal example of a dark science fiction novel. It hits all the right tones, while being disturbing and graphic and oh so enthralling.
Rosalyn Devar is a woman with a big secret – namely her family’s history. In an attempt to run from all of that, she’s found herself in deep space doing the most inglorious of all jobs – she’s a glorified waste disposal janitor. And more often than not that means she’s the one cleaning up the bodies on wrecked spaceships.
But all of that is about to change, with the latest mission she’s been assigned to. The ship has been dark for months – but what she ends up finding is nothing like what she expected. And so the fight for her life begins.

“Rosalyn had endured disappointing birthdays before, but never one in ankle-deep corpse sludge.”

Warnings: Madeline Roux is not afraid to touch on some seriously heavy tones in Salvaged. Inside this book, you’re going to find lots of graphic descriptions involving human bodies (in various states of decay), as well as an animal death or two (again as part of her cleanup job). There’s also some sexual assault moments that occur – but they’re all set in the past.

Salvaged was perhaps one of the darkest science fiction novels I’ve read this year. It was gory and intense, and yet at the same time, it was brilliant. I was captivated by Rosalyn’s tale, the depth, and tragedy of it all.
There was a lot to enjoy about this novel. For one thing, the writing style and tones alone are simply divine. I loved the way Roux established her story and her main character. Her writing is beautiful and yet unavoidably tragic.
Then there’s the plot, which does not shy away from the graphic nature. It was a fascinating story, and not at all what I expected. It’s also not like anything I’ve ever seen before, despite some of the familiar threads Roux clearly picked up.
And lastly, there are the characters. Salvaged may be focused mainly on Rosalyn, but there’s actually a variety of other characters to be found within these pages. Roux’s study on human nature is a poignant one, heartwarming at times, and chilling at others. It was the icing on the cake in this novel. I honestly don’t think it would have had nearly the same impact without such powerful characters to follow.
Salvaged is the first novel I’ve ever read written by Madeline Roux, and I’m kind of regretting that now. As I made clear above, I really enjoyed a lot about Salvaged. And thus I’m going to have to keep an eye out for Roux’s next book, while also adding all of her backlog to my ever growing TBR list (worth it).

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

4.5*

Okay I have no idea how to review this book appropriately, because it's super entertaining but also full of action and I want to spoil absolutely nothing. So I'll do my best, yeah? Great.

Rosalyn, when we meet her, is kind of a mess. She's got an alcohol addiction, nearly getting herself fired from her job as a space janitor, cleaning up actual corpses from missions gone wrong. She likes the job because she was able to basically run away from her problems, so she's not keen on losing it. She agrees to take on a job on the Brigantine, which ends up being far less janitorial in nature than she expected.

Because the Brigantine crew happens to be alive. Well, mostly, anyway. They seem to be infected by some mysterious cause, and now Rosalyn is trapped with them, no way of communicating her need to escape without infecting the whole universe. The stakes, quite literally, couldn't be higher.

It reminds me a little of The Expanse at times, which is a very good thing indeed. Rosalyn is smart, funny, and struggling to remain alcohol-free even in this direst of situations. While I would have liked for the book to have addressed it a bit more, I did like that the author didn't just abandon this addiction the second the shit hit the fan.

The characters were all really well developed, even as this parasite attempts to take over. I was quite impressed at how the author managed to make me care so deeply for characters who weren't even themselves half the time, but she did! I think that was the key, too. As dark and exciting as the story is, it goes from good to great because of how invested I was in its outcome.

Bottom Line: Exciting, thrilling, and full of characters whose fates impacted me greatly, Salvaged was unputdownable.