Paradise-1 DEALS
In the vast emptiness between stars, terror finds its purest form. Paradise-1 by David Wellington masterfully weaponizes isolation against both its characters and readers, transforming the infinite vacuum of space into a crucible of psychological horror.
What begins as a familiar narrative of deep space exploration quickly descends into a claustrophobic nightmare, where the barriers between sanity and madness become as thin as the hull separating the crew from the void.
Let’s dive into this first installment of the Red Space series.
Paradise-1 Overview
As with most of David Wellington’s work, you jump straight into the story and action. Paradise-1 starts with the main character, Lt. Alexandra Petrova, in hot pursuit of a serial killer on Ganymede. She is part of Firewatch, an interplanetary justice system.
However, her mission fails and she is sent on a contact mission, but it’s really an exile, to the planet called Paradise-1. Paradise-1 is a colony planet which has lost communication with Firewatch a while back. Her mission is to reestablish communication with the colony, but as easy as it sounds, it is a mission that she is not ready for.
Every ship that has ever entered the space of Paradise-1, has never been heard from since…
Alexandra Petrova is traveling with a crew of a doctor, Zang, and Rapscallion, an artificial intelligence that lives in a 3D-printed body.
The moment they arrive in the space of Paradise-1, things take a turn for the worse. Their ship’s AI goes crazy and starts rebooting itself, nothing works and the plot begins to unravel.
We learn that every ship that has entered the Paradise-1 system, its AI and crew, becomes infected with a mental parasite called The Basilisk. The Balislisk contaminates people and AI with an infectious idea that changes over time. Some people cannot stop eating, some people forget how to breathe and die, some people are afraid of the light, and many other forms.
Their ship gets attacked by the hundreds of other ships that were sent on the same mission and our main heroes need to find a way to survive and fight The Basilisk.
A thrilling, fast-paced, and terrifying adventure awaits our heroes in this first installment of the sci-fi horror Paradise-1.
Characters & Dynamics
Paradise-1 has some of the better-written characters for a sci-fi horror novel that this reader has ever come across. They are not all heroic or complete superheroes. They are very relatable people with their own fears, failings, doubts, and deep backstories that are explored throughout the novel.
Despite the fact that AI systems are present to help them in various situations, David Wellington does not rely on them and still makes the characters the main focus and focus of the action itself. This is something that I particularly liked, even with super-intelligent AI systems, it’s not used to cheat or help the main characters in the book!
Lieutenant, calculating a safe course to the planet is quickly exceeding my abilities. There’s a reason that human pilots are assigned to ships like Alpheus.
RelatedTop 5 Sci-Fi Horror Books Recommended by David Wellington
Another amazing part of this book is the relationships and how the AI characters interact with others. One of these AI characters is Rapscallion, an AI that lives in a 3D-printed body. This little robot is absolutely hilarious and the way it was written showcases how an AI would act if it had free will and knew that it was, in fact, an AI.
Some of the best parts of the book are interactions of Rapscallion along with the main heroes and with other AI systems.
… you get inside Pasiphae you will still have to find her and… do what? Throw her over your hard light shoulder and carry her back here? Because thirdly, and I can’t stress this one enough, you’re a fucking ghost.
Atmosphere & Horror Elements
The horror elements in Paradise-1 were some of the more interesting ones that I’ve read in a long time. The horror elements do not come from gore and overly described violent scenes. The main horror and terrifying aspect of the book is the fact that The Basilisk is a mental enemy, infecting the characters with a parasitic idea that compels them to do violent or weird things!
That idea alone was one of the coolest and most interesting aspects of the book. How do you fight an enemy you cannot hurt physically, that you cannot see and that can infect you at any moment? A very interesting way to create horror and fear for the characters and even for the readers.
Enjoying this article?
Subscribe to our weekly newsletterI kept thinking about how are they going to be able to survive what was happening to them all the way until the end of the book.
[The Basilisk is] An invasive thought. It was like someone had asked one of those old hypothetical questions, [What if you forgot how to breathe?] as a joke, except everybody took it seriously.
Rating & Verdict
This is one of the better sci-fi horror books I’ve read in a while. It has very well-fleshed-out characters, a fast-paced story, an amazing setting, and is written with care that keeps you on the edge.
It also helps that there are another two books to come in the series! One of them, Revenant X, was just released on November 5th, 2024.
RelatedThe Last Astronaut Review: Nail-Biting Sci-Fi Horror Blend
If you love sci-fi and horror, this is definitely a book for you!
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The Review
Paradise-1
Paradise-1 is a fast-paced sci-fi horror novel that takes the psychological horror to the next level.
PROS
- Characters
- Pacing
- Horror and dread elements
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