Paradise-1: A terrifying survival horror set in deep space

by David Wellington

ENDLESS DARK.
ENDLESS TERROR.

Paradise-1. Earth's first deep space colony. For thousands of colonists, it was an opportunity for a new life.

Until it went dark. No communication has been received from the colony for months.

It falls to Firewatch Agent Alexandra Petrova and the crew of the Artemis to investigate.

What they find is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

Paradise-1 begins a terrifying new trilogy of survival and exploration in deep space, from Clarke Award-nominated author David Wellington.

'A captivating, eerie story with such engaging characters you won't want to say goodbye at the end' S. A. Barnes, author of Dead Silence

'Wellington skillfully combines hard sci-fi worldbuilding with tense mystery . . . Readers will be on the edges of their seats' Publishers Weekly (starred review)

'Intensely creepy worldbuilding' Library Journal

• ISBN10: 0356518221
• ISBN13: 9780356518220
• Publish Date: 6 April 2023 (first published 4 April 2023)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 704
• Language: English

Reviews

[ayla_abbott]

Good weird baddy and characters I enjoyed. I'll keep reading the series.

[Jeff Sexton]

LONG - And Still Only Tells One Part Of The Story. The biggest thing I was left with at the end of this book was whether I was satisfied with the tale here - and thus the book should get the full 5* rating- or whether I thought it was a cash-grab that only told one part of the story and demands money to get the rest of the story (which I've seen in other books and written about in other reviews, though I note here that neither of these refer to books from this author) and thus should get a star deduction. Obviously, I ultimately sided with it being a complete tale *so far as it goes*, and I personally would love a sequel that picks up moments after this book leaves off.

As to the tale itself, think "Dead Space" or maybe a touch of the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2 or any number of other movies / tv shows / games / book / etc where our main characters wake up already in a survival situation... and things only get more horrific from there. Here though, we also get almost disaster movie type setup with a bit of the "normal life" of each of our crew members before they are sent on this particular mission, and this both helps ground the characters and serves as a touch of foreshadowing of how the tale plays out. The horror is real and visceral, but of a type that if you have your internal "blood filters" set, you may envision at least somewhat less carnage than others who envision the more complete "Mortal Kombat experience". And as horrific as the physical horror is, the psychological horror here could be said to be even worse - yes, this book goes *that* deep. Ultimately, if you like any of the franchises I've named here - and I'll even drop in the original, space based, Aliens movies here - you're likely going to enjoy this book. If you like visceral survival / horror type space tales, you're going to like this book. Again, I truly do want a sequel here, so I'm hoping either Wellington is already planning that or sales/ outcry is enough that we get one. Very much recommended.