Didn't realize this was a partial arc. With that said, the story felt pretty standard for a space opera/mystery plot. The setup was fascinating enough to consider continuing.

Unfortunately, after giving this audiobook an attempt, it was simply not the book I was hoping it would be. I don't feel it fair for me to provide a rating on Goodreads as I did not make it very far. Thank you for the opportunity to review this audio.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Paradise-1 by David Wellington
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 689 / Genre: Sci-Fi
Audiobook Narrator: Laurel Lefkow / Duration: 21 hours

Paradise-1, Earth’s first deep space colony, has suddenly gone dark. Home to thousands of people, yet no one has heard from the colony in months. So a small team is sent to investigate. What follows is an epic and horrific adventure.

This book started off really good but then just droned on and on. At 689 pages, I think the author could’ve tightened it up and shaved off a good 200 pages and made it much more enjoyable. I liked the big surprise cliffhanger at the end but I see that the sequel is 684 pages long and I just can’t do this again.

Thank you @NetGalley for the advanced copy of the audiobook. Too bad you only released 4 out of 21 hours of the audiobook back when I reviewed it last March and never responded to my pleas for the rest of it. It always bugged me that I didn’t leave a real review for this—I mean, there was no way I was going to let you hurt my Feedback Ratio because of your own stupid policy. So, I finished the audiobook with my trusty @Libby.app and here’s the full review. You’re welcome.

I truly wanted to love this book but unfortunately I just couldn’t. I was really hoping this was going to scratch my sci-fi, horror, itch, and while they were some interesting concept that we’re getting introduced, ultimately, there was just too many threads too much going on in a book that was too long.

I DNF, I just couldn't get into it. I tried and it didn't work out. Not a bad premise, just not my thing!!!

The premise of humanity's last-ditch effort to find a new home on a distant planet is both captivating and thought-provoking. The world-building is well-executed, and the novel effectively explores the challenges and perils of space travel and colonization.

The characters are relatable and well-developed, each with their own quirks and motivations. The protagonist's journey from a reluctant crew member to a pivotal figure in the mission adds depth to the story.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with both an eARC and an audio of this book. I ended up reading the entire thing via audio, so I am just submitting this review in regards to the book itself and nothing about the narration. This book started out so promising. Okay, wait, let me go back and say that this book wasn't bad by any means. It just started off for me a lot stronger than it ended, and I think that's just because it honestly all just felt super rushed. Had this book spent more time in the action scenes, and given me a chance to really sit with and absorb what was going on, I think that I would have rated this much higher. But instead I just felt constantly pushed from one scene to the next and never had a chance to really sit with what was going on. If this would have been shorter and maybe even spaced out between two books, I think that this would have felt less hectic and maybe been a high three star or four star book. As it stands, I did not connect to the characters and the ending? WHAT WAS THAT? That is NOT an ending. It just felt so rushed to get to this point and just stops. I wish I was kidding, but IT. JUST. STOPS. It's not a cliffhanger because there's no damn cliff. It really is a shame.

This was an exciting deep space sci-fi thriller. Other than getting a bit repetitive in the middle, it was fast paced! Looking forward to more in the series.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was quite the story, in a good way! So much action, and characters that draw you in. I didn't realize this would have more books until the cliffhanger at the end, but I'm not that mad. I would definitely be interesting in the next one. The narrator was perfect for this one!

I got about 10% in, and I have to give up. The writing isn't necessarily bad, but it moves at a glacial pace, without a clear direction. The narration is okay, maybe a little flat.

All right, this book is taking months for me to get through. It’s a sort of epic. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s just not something I currently have the time for.

Sadly, because essentially, this is very good. I bought a physical copy and didn’t realize I had already requested it. I heard from NetGalley. Haha 😂

So, ultimately, it is an excellent sci-fi experience. I can see myself coming back to this several times.
And for first-time reading, it’s a 3.75. It's not perfect by far; it's a slog to get there sometimes, but it's still good.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this audio copy for fro review. Of all opinion are my own, and considering I accidentally bought a copy of it, as well you can see, this is my kind of book.

A space travel to a conquered planet turned out to be dangeours to the characters. As well they advanced the difficulties they had to face.

Thank you NetGalley, Orbit, and Hachette Audio for a copy of the audiobook for Paradise-1. There are spoilers in this review.

Audio:
The narrator, Laurel Lefkow, for this book did a great job differentiating the voices of the various characters. I was particularly impressed with the way she was able to give each AI a different voice because it’d be far too easy to make them all sound similarly robotic.

My only critique, which isn’t necessarily negative depending on what you need out of an audiobook, is that the narrator does read really slow. I typically will put an audiobook at 1.25x if an author has a slow tempo. However, with this narrator, it was so slow that 1.5x sounded like a standard speaking tempo. I’d say at 2.0x is when the narrator begins to enter “chipmunk” speaking tempo where the voice is beginning to be distorted. However, overall the narration is still clear. So if you’re someone who’s default speed for audiobooks is 1.5+ then you may need to speed it up quite a bit.

Story:
Phew this was a long read. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to an audiobook longer than 13 hours so this one was a marathon. The description of Paradise-1 immediately drew me in because I’ve been wanting to dabble in space horror and Sci-Fi in general. With that said, I went into this book with zero expectations. Initially I really loved this book as there was so much potential for found family, romance, and a space odyssey filled with a twisted villain. At the start it gave the vibe “our heroes must save the galaxy,” but over time it felt like the characters existed in a vacuum and the world outside of them was non-existent so the urgency was more about their own survival vs. needing to save the galaxy or others.

As time went on I found myself getting exhausted from the constant action and lack of character development. When there’d be a moment of peace so the characters could process what just happened, a few seconds later the next action scene would commence. It made it really hard to feel connected to the characters. It also kept the characters shallow because there wasn’t time for clues about who they were to be dropped throughout the story. For instance, Petrova struggles with her relationship with her mother who clearly was emotionally neglectful. In addition, she faces claims of nepotism because her mother was the head of Firewatch when Petrova joined. There’s a lot to untangle with a character who finds themselves living in a parent’s shadow and can’t come to terms with the fact that their parent isn’t a good person. But throughout this 24 hour audiobook it takes until the 90% mark before we get more in depth details about how bad her mother was to her when she was younger. And it’s at the 90% mark when Petrova accepts how awful her mother really was.

{SPOILERS AHEAD}
Another issue with the lack of character development is the “romance” storyline between Parker and Petrova. It’s touched on at the beginning but fizzles out too early because Parker dies and is only but a hologram of himself. When it is revealed that he died in the initial attack, I found myself not really caring because we barely got to know him. Petrova’s moment of shock also falls flat because for all we knew he was an ex-flame she regretted breaking up with. Not the love of her life she just lost forever. Not to mention, when he does admit his love for her (to Petrova’s mom) it’s sort of “whatever” because at that point it’s 98% into the story and there's barely any buildup to this confession.

Ultimately this book could’ve been split up into two books. In fact, the first book could have focused on character development and the crew uncovering the clues that ultimately lead them to the Basilisk. Finally discovering the Basilisk and Petrova getting infected with the virus would have made for a perfect juicy cliff hanger. Then the second book could have focused on the effort needed to defeat the Basilisk. Maybe even bringing in rogue operations to assist Petrova and her crew. It could be in the second book where it’s revealed that Parker has been a hologram all along. It’d be far more heartbreaking because of the time that would've been spent being invested in that relationship.

Something that I feel is deeply missed with this book is the horror of space itself. While there are some gruesome scenes in this book, there’s a lack of tension or fear for how lonely and scary space can be when you’re abandoned in it. Which is the essence of this novel. Petrova and Zhang end up investigating a few of the space ships that are abandoned near Paradise-1 and find that almost everyone is dead except for maybe one person or an AI that has been infected by the Basilisk. The idea of floating about on a spaceship, surrounded by dead bodies, while the last remaining person loses their mind to the virus is absolutely horrifying. But all of the nuance of this horror gets lost in the action scenes that dominate this book. Space is the unknown and even with this book taking place during a time of easy space exploration, there would still be the fear of the unknown. Petrova and Zhang don’t know what they’ll find but they’ve also been abandoned by their planet/country/government. So as they uncover this great secret/conspiracy they also face the possibility of never being able to return home. They’re alone stuck in a cycle of chaos and death. Paradise-1 had all the elements to be a perfect space horror odyssey but instead it landed flat and left me confused and wanting something more coherent. The ending felt like an insult after listening to such a long story. It’s abrupt and is “to be continued.”

This book would be great for anyone that’s already a David Wellington fan.

This review is specifically for the audiobook sample posted to NetGalley, which means I've only been able to finish 19% of the book so far.

Note to publishers: if you're going to post an audiobook sample - especially when the book is over 20 hours long - please clearly post that it will only be a fraction of the story. If I would have known this was a sample I would have skipped it.

That said, the sample wasn't bad, though I definitely don't think I got a good feel for the story either. The narrator struggled with male characters and Rapscallion definitely didn't sound like a robot (it was very awkward). Nonetheless, Rapscallion was my favorite character and the story still has a lot going for it. But I also can't add too much more because four hours of a 21-hour audiobook doesn't tell you much about where the story is going.

I have picked up a physical copy from my library to continue the story, so we'll see how this ends up. As of now, it's a 3-star book.

This is a good sci fi horror book. It is action packed and the story moves quickly, keeping me fully engaged. I enjoyed the story, the atmosphere, the pacing, and the characters - there's a little bit of everything in this story. The narrator did a great job and made the listen experience better.

This was an attention-keeping title. The narrator was enjoyable to listen too. The plot was interesting and kept me wanting to listen until the end. At times I did find myself wondering what exactly was going on, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Overall a good book, that I enjoyed.

What an amazing and intriguing story! I really enjoy reading sci-fi so I’m quite biased actually, but this story has every thing, love, hate, plot twists, comedy, mystery, and something else that can’t be named to avoid spoilers! I listen to the audiobook version and it. Was. Gold! I totally recommend it!

I've been searching for good sci-fi horror for a while now and BOY this delivered! Every character was so unique and complex.

A cinematic, action-packed, deep-space horror that explores familiar sci-fi and AI tropes in a unique way, and with striking imagery.

The scene was set here quickly and intriguingly. While a little slow at the start, it picks up a little more than halfway through. The slow build of the psych horror elements balanced by the light-hearted camaraderie between crew-members, of both organic and artificial intelligence, gives off a Wolf-359 feel. There's some things going wrong, but it's manageable and things don't seem too hopeless... yet.

Then it picks up and it's suddenly giving Dead Space, only with hard-light holograms, AI avatars, and robots instead of your usual fleshy mutations. (There were also a few instances that made me think of StarCraft, like when it was described how construction vehicles could be 3D-printed in 15 minutes to help get a colony going. Ummmm, we require additional pylons!)

The writing style here was excessively detailed in its description, but that's not to say the descriptive elements weren't beautiful. It's what made this thing so cinematic and easy to visualize in the first place. There are many memorable images throughout, like early on when we get the first hint that there's something up with the AIs and we see the spooky blue light of an avatar as it walks through an otherwise dark and deserted spaceship.

Actually, there was a pretty good range representing the ways artificial intelligence might manifest: holograms, 3D printed robots, voices or text just part of a machine. There's even little devices that fit around the wrist like inconspicuous accessories. Add to these your usual existential/philosophical considerations of what it is to be human and feel emotions. How might an AI develop emotions or experience sensations like hunger? How might it deal with those feelings? (And it was this part that reminded me of The Orphans podcast.)

Finally, the memetic virus the characters are up against, spreading through consciousness, AI or not, reminds me of The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall. Though not quite as meta, the plot has some heavy existentialism that gets close.

When Special Agent Petrova defies orders, the Firewatch military force punishes her by putting her on a ship for about three months and she is put into cryogenic sleep to monitor Earth's first deep space colony called Paradise-1. Petrova, the pilot Sam Parker, Dr. Zhang Lei, and a robot named Rapscallion inhabit the ship Artemis and as they are on it, they are woken up and to their horror they learn of their ship being attacked and that the vessel that is coming from Paradise-One is actually empty as well as no communication has been received from the colony for months. Petrova and Zhang end up investigating what, how, and why the colony just randomly disappeared. They will discover some truths they were not ready to face due to how horrifying it all is.


I typically do not read much science fiction even though when you think about the fantasy genre, you think of science fiction since these two genres are grouped together. One thing I want to do this year is to actually read more science fiction.

First, I want to thank NetGalley and Hachette Audio for the audiobook arc (ALC).

As I started the audiobook, I was instantly engrossed into the story. David Wellington does a great job setting the scene and making you immersed to where you feel like you are in space with Petrov and Zhang. On top of that, Wellington does a great job at making you constantly guess and wonder at what is happening and what is behind everything.

Paradise-One is marketed as a sci-fi, thriller, and horror novel and the first in a series (which I did not know when I was reading this book) and it definitely lives up to its advertised genres. In Paradise-One you will be greeted with good and bad AI robots. space zombies, space crime that has galaxy military forces, and of course some cool space travel. Basically, you have all these cool things to make the elements of sci fi and horror put together, which makes a fun time.

I do need to preference that this book is a door stopper of about 700 pages. Does it actually feel like it is about a 700-page read? No, not really. The plot moves quick and practically does not let you go. With the reference to the practically, I mean that there is a time where the plot loses you for a bit because I feel like the story moves so fast that it can make you not really know what exactly is happening, which in the end creates a lull in the story. But, once that hurtle is crossed, then the story hooks you again.

All in all, I really enjoyed Paradise-One and cannot wait to read the sequel, which I believe will be fast, fun, and action packed just like this one.