As always with S.A. Barnes the premise of the Cold Eternity sounded promising but the result was underwhelming. The main character POV was flat and uninteresting. The plot was boring and I kept losing interest. It felt like there was no climax, no real interesting plot points. Ultimately, this book was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I will read whatever space horror S.A. Barnes chooses to write! She does such a great job at building suspense and setting a tone for isolated, creepy atmospheres.

This claustrophobic sci-fi horror had an intriguing premise that didn't quite resonate with me. Barnes shines in expressing tension and internal struggles. While this build-up of atmospheric tension was initially wonderful, it became redundant, which is unfortunately a risk with a character with limited interactions and a stagnant location. So when the climax of the story came along, it fell flat, even if it was out of left field.
I would have loved more lore or information surrounding the 'reveal'. I did love the idea of the hologram and it's 'evolution' and how that played a part in the story. There were a lot of great ideas, but the execution just didn't capture my attention in the end.

✨Thank you to Tor Books for the gifted digital copy of this book ✨

2.5⭐️ rounded up.

SA Barnes wrote one of my absolute favorite books of all time and so far her other work has not impressed me and this is no different.

Overall, the plot was pretty intriguing. I liked the sci fi and horror elements of this book but I really could have done without all of the political/government backstory that felt completely convoluted and irrelevant to the plot.

I REALLY enjoyed about 20% of this book and the other 80% just felt like it stretched and had no purpose. I thought it was a good idea with less than great execution.

I listened to this book on audio and the narrator was great overall with the exception of a few grating idiosyncrasies.

Overall, I won’t be recommending this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!!

Halley is just trying to survive. After a political scandal that she was wrapped up in, Halley has gone into hiding. But where can someone go when it’s so easy to find you? Halley finds a job manning a floating graveyard in space. The failed experiment of cryogenics, the space barge holds some of the most notable people from the century prior. Something is odd about this ship though. Halley keeps feeling like she isn’t the only one on board.

I’ve decided that Barnes’ work is really just not for me. Although this is the better novel of the two I’ve read by her, I really cannot stand the FMC. The women Barnes describe in her books and the actions these women take are not one and the same. Not to mention the most awkward romance subplot ever. The one redeeming quality of this book was the plot. I was tremendously interested in how the story ended. For that, I did give this 3/5 stars.

I got an ARC of this book.

I am all about Barnes. I loved their last book. I was ready for this. This one was just lacking something for me.

I think the biggest issue was it felt like a Five Nights at Freddy’s, but make it on a space station. The idea of the holograms and the sneaking around, it just didn’t ever feel quite scary. There was some cool aspects and the atmosphere was so close to being creepy. It just kept making me wait for the jump scares. There weren’t enough jump scares to fit what this felt like it should be.

The MC was interesting. The connection to the holograms and the background of the statis was interesting. The plot around the horror was fun. The big bad and the scary monster vibes never got me though. It felt too mundane and just eh. I don’t want to spoil it, though it just didn’t feel fitting and I want to complain about it so bad.

Despite liking so much of how it all functioned and worked, it just felt off. The way that it wasn’t an alien or a person, just drove it away from being sci-fi into something else. I wan’t sci-fi horror, which Barnes is amazing at. Blah. I will stop whining.

Overall, I liked the writing, I liked the idea behind the book. The horror just didn’t reach the full potential for me.

Thank you S.A. Barnes, Tor Nightfire, and Netgalley for the ARC!

"Dead Silence" by S.A. Barnes was my first ARC I ever got so this is very full circle. I know I rated "Dead Silence" 4 stars, but after reading "Cold Eternity", I would bump it down to 3 in comparison to this one.

I compared the horror/sci-fi elements of "Dead Silence" to a creepy Doctor Who episode, and I've come to find that that's kinda just her style. Those spooky episodes like "Silence in the Library" and "Don't Blink" are memorable for a reason. If sci-fi is always about ideas and innovation and horror is about fear, there's no wonder the two go together so well. Stories like "Cold Eternity" present us with a fear of the unknown yes, but the conflict usually revolves around whether or not science can make the unknown known. Spoiler alert- most of the time, it can't.

"Cold Eternity" really gets into the fear of death in particular and the length people go to worm their way out of it. It shows the dark side of grief and how that can spur a perhaps well-intentioned yet misguided pursuit of defying the natural world.

In this way, what worked well for this book was the big bad guy! Sci-fi horror has to have a monster that seems BEYOND alien. Something grotesque, impossible, and above all wrong. It's a very tough balancing act to pull off-- but I really do think S.A. Barnes manages to do this expertly. It's actually pretty decently creepy and scary!

There's a moral quandary at the heart of our FMC's story too that aligns really well with some of the themes of the book and the horrors she experiences later. The stakes are high and they make sense without having to overexplain anything. It ends up adding a lot of emotional elements to the story that I was very invested in.

Halley is desperately in need of a place to hide from an interplanetary political scandal, and finds the perfect place to do so; a space barge known as Elysian Fields which is home to the cryogenically frozen bodies of some of Earth’s most wealthy citizens. Zale Winfeld, the founder of the cryo program, was a tech genius with trillions to spare, but his dreams have taken a bit of a turn, and now the ship is more like a defunct crypt floating through space when compared to its former glory. Now the halls of the ship are roamed by AI holograms of Winfeld’s children, which are glitchy at best, but soon Halley begins to fear that the holograms are not the only things traveling within the ship, and she may be in more danger now than ever before.

-Space horror is not a genre I tend to gravitate towards, but I really enjoyed Cold Eternity. To me it is Alien meets the Overlook Hotel with a twist of Total Recall.
-While the novel is full of actual scientific theories and facts, Barnes does not overload the reader with terms and facts; she gives just enough information to make the novel realistic in terms of its scientific aspects.
-I did not see the ending coming at all! Everything I thought about Karl (the only other “living” person on the ship) was wrong.
-While the beginning is a bit of a slow burn, once things got going they did slow down and I could not put Cold Eternity down; it is full of twisted action and suspense.

"𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪."

"𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙥 𝙢𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪. 𝙄'𝙢 𝙝𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙖𝙨 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡."

If you enjoyed any of S.A. Barnes other work, especially 𝙳𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 this one is for you.

Halley Zwick takes a job aboard 𝑬𝒍𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑭𝒊𝒆𝒍𝒅𝒔, a once sought after space barge that holds cryogenically frozen bodies of famous and high elite members of society. With the long ago failed experiments of Zale Winifield, the project and museum was abandoned and now is where Halley seeks refuge from a interplanetary political scandal.

While aboard with the only other living person, Karl, her job is to push a button in the control room, every few hours and survey the halls. She is only allowed to explore certain areas deemed by Karl as the rest are under construction.

Halley starts to see and hear things in the walls and hallways but assumes it is the isolation. That is until a warning from one of the museums welcome AI, Aleyk alerts Halley that there may be more here than expected.

All in all this was another great sci-fi novel from Barnes.

𝙸 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗 𝙰𝚁𝙲 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙽𝚎𝚝𝙶𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚢 𝚒𝚗 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠.

S.A. Barnes is an automatic read and purchase for me, and I was not disappointed in this latest title. I read this in just two sittings, and was fully invested the entire time. Cold Eternity was suspenseful and eerie. I do think Barnes' previous two titles (Dead Silence and Ghost Station) were a bit scarier than this one, and some of the twists were not as surprising. However, I still think this is a 5-star book, and definitely recommend to anyone who enjoyed Barnes' previous titles, and space horror in general.

Dreary and atmospheric, which makes this a really fun and really creepy read. I somehow feel as if it was rushed and not long enough while also being unaware of how to ensure the pacing is right if it were longer. There was so much build up to creepiness, but then everything after was quick without allowing time to sit with what we had. Our MC was annoying and kind of dumb. But the overall plot and story had me hooked and intrigued. I did read it entirely in one sitting.

I have been waiting for S.A. Barnes' Cold Eternity for what feels like an eternity, and it did not disappoint.

Barnes has created an atmosphere that is both intriguing and creepy. The story follows Halley as she tries to run away from her past, but ends up living on a barge in space that hosts the frozen bodies of ancient elite society members. This ends up being part ghost story and existential introspection.

Cold Eternity is the perfect spooky read for anyone who likes horror or science fiction!

*Thank you Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I know this author gets a lot of mixed reviews for her sci-fi horror, but I LOVE S. A. Barnes’ work! 😀 I was so happy when I found out about her newest book, Cold Eternity. I couldn’t wait to read it! ❤

WOOOOOO BABY!! Cold Eternity did not disappoint me at all. 😀 I enjoyed this story just as much as the authors other scifi horror. She is so consistent with her work. I know I will always have a good reading experience with one of her books.

Once of my favorite parts about this story is the ultra creepy setting. Yes, it’s true, the empty and abandoned space ships in previous (S. A. Barnes’ ) books were also creepy… But in Cold Eternity, this space ship isn’t fully abandoned. D:

The ship is filled with people placed in cryogenics, an old tech that has no way of reviving the people. They are basically dead… but not exactly. It is very creepy thinking about being the only caretaker on this massive ship of almost dead bodies. Very isolating. Chilling. I would be jumping out of my skin at ever creak and groan the ship made. 😮 The author does a phenomenal job at making the setting crawl under your skin.

At first, I wasn’t wild about the political backstory / plot point. Not that it was a bad part of the story! I’m just not a huge politics sort of person, so it just didn’t appeal to me at first. The more I read, though, the more the politics grew on me.

There area few really nice twists and turns. Some of them were a real nice surprise! Just when you thought you had the main twist figured out, BAM! A twist to the twist! One I definately did not see coming at all.

I don’t want to say too much about the bad guy because I don’t want to spoil anything…. but dude was pretty ICK. D: The descriptions are grossly creative. Definitely a fresh take.

Cold Eternity is a creepy space horror story that makes you want to turn on every light in the house. The atmosphere and setting is one of my fave parts of the story. The politics were a little slow moving at first but quickly grew on me. The plot has some crazy twists! Just when you think you know what will happen, surprise! A twist from out of nowhere! I have enjoyed everything I’ve read from S. A. Barnes so far. Cold Eternity is another solid space horror story from her. Entertaining and creepy down to the last page. 🙂

SHE SHOULD HAVE SAVED ALEYK AAAAH !

The pacing was really good, I saw a real improvement since dead silence !
I feel like it was more SCI-fi than horror tho, I feel like in the future, the author could go darker and more horrory.
With how dead silence ended I had real hope that she’d save Aleyk and the fact that she couldn’t broke me

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read this title early!

I've really liked this author's work in the past, and I liked this one fine as well, but I definitely think it was missing some of the things that made me enjoy previous works. Specifically what I found myself missing was the cast of characters that had been present in the last two titles I've read; I think Barnes is very good at writing a balanced cast of characters and that has made books like Dead Silence really enjoyable to read! The premise for this one didn't allow for that sort of cast of characters and I understand that, but I did still miss it.

The claustrophobia in this was very well done and I found the isolation of it all very creepy. I also was so unsettled by the AI aspect and what was done to some of these characters was so chilling to me! It ramped up a lot at the end in a way that worked very well for me and I found it to ultimately be another really solid work from this author.

The plot and the mystery of this story and backstory had me more intrigued than any horror aspect within it. The creepy atmosphere, however, was excellent. Just imagining being on a ship essentially alone with a bunch of bodies that are cryogenically preserved is creepy enough. The eventual monster of the space horror would likely be more terrifying in a movie than on the pages of a book, but the psychological suspense aspect is definitely done well.

Barnes is able to build up an interesting political history to the world that I really enjoyed and think would be great if this was developed and explored in a sci-fi space opera with horror elements.

Halley is in hiding, with bruised ribs and a black eye and barely enough credits for a shuttle trip off planet, when she answers a shady ad for an even shadier job: all she has to do is check on the cryogenic tanks on the defunct museum ship, Elysian Fields, and push a mysterious but very important button every three hours. After a few months she'll have enough saved up for a fresh start.

Spending her days performing this routine in a sleep-deprived haze, she begins seeing things that can't possibly be true, prompting her to take a closer look at the station and its silent inhabitants.

I love a horror thriller set in space. The frozen isolation and unnatural physics of a space station, combined with the knowledge that a single wrong step could mean being sucked out into the void, gets right under my skin. Add an unreliable narrator on the lam and a malfunctioning station, complete with flickering lights and scraping that sounds a lot like dragging footsteps? Count me in.

The writing is great and Halley's motivations are believable. The middle loses momentum just a touch, but it gains it back in the final third. This was creepy and action-packed and gory, full of tension from the beginning, and I can totally picture it as a movie with a pounding soundtrack and some gnarly practical effects.

I love the way S.A. Barnes writes sci-fi horror! They are creepy and atmospheric. Full of suspenseful moments and tension that continually ramps up until we get to this epic ending, I COULD NOT put this down and read it in one sitting.

On a ship full of the bodies of those cryogenically frozen, all Halley needs to do is make some rounds to ensure nothing is wrong and press a button every three hours. Doesn't sound too hard. Right?
Well, as soon as she arrives, Halley has a weird feeling about the ship. Little things start to seem strange, and with the constant sleep interruptions, her mind starts playing tricks. Halley isn't sure what's real and what's not. And when a strange voice starts calling her name, what else can she do but investigate?

I love how the horrors slowly revealed themselves, and how the story unfolded. I can't wait to see what S.A. Barnes is going to come out with next!!

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>𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐘 is a sci-fi/space horror about a girl seeking refuge on a rundown ship housing cryogenically frozen bodies. Glitchy holograms, haunting isolation & a dark take on self-preservation. I really enjoyed the isolative, leering horror, the antagonist was creative and terrifying to conceptualize, and I even enjoyed the little hint of romance! The AI-horror component was current with the times, even the ship and idea of frozen bodies was horrific to imagine in the future with technology and financial privilege. It dragged a tiny bit in the beginning, but otherwise was very creepy and captivating! (3.75★)
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A sci-fi horror written by a librarian? LET"s GOOO. After finishing this one I bought the author's haunted house (space book) I really like their prose and the whole thing felt weirdly intimate. I don't typically go in for Sci-Fi horror because I feel a little intimidated by how "smart" it can expect the reader to be. But this prose was so approachable and the science was never too hard to follow. Really great. Can't wait to explore more from the author.