Send me to space with S.A. Barnes and I can promise you I will be excitedly terrified at what we'll encounter.

S.A. Barnes combined two of my biggest fears: space and the progression of AI. I've never thought about what you'd do with your dead if civilization was in space, and it was a fun premise to explore, especially when you mix in human greed and emotions. While we're trying to unravel two mysteries, I felt like neither of those plots got lost and were both wrapped up in a satisfying way.

The horror elements as she adventures further and further into the ship got me. Barnes does a phenomenal job at creeping you out. If this were made into a movie or TV show, I have a feeling not many people would be sleeping after watching it.

While it would've been easy to fall down an unreliable narrator path, I'm so happy that's not where we went. Yes, Halley is stressed. She's running from scandal and on a ship that is more than she bargained for, but it never felt like we leaned in too far to either aspect being the reasons for what she's seeing.

S.A. Barnes is an autobuy author for me and I cannot wait to see what she does next. I hope it's just as creepy and disturbing as Cold Eternity was.

Like her previous novel Ghost Station this is a space horror story, a genre well-known in the movies (think the Alien series), but less common in book form. Protagonist Halley is on the run from an interplanetary political scandal that has put a huge target on her back: this is an important background story that Barnes takes too long to reveal. She heads for what seems like the perfect place to lay low: a gigantic space barge named Elysian Fields storing the cryogenically frozen bodies of Earth’s most fortunate citizens from more than a century ago.

The cryo program, created by eccentric rich tech genius Zale Winfeld, is long defunct, and the AI hologram "hosts," ghoulishly created in the likeness of Winfeld’s three adult children, are glitchy. The ship feels like a crypt, and the isolation gets to Halley almost immediately. She starts to see figures crawling in the hallways, and there are constant low, menacing sounds echoing in the vents. At first she thinks it is all due to her imagination running away from her.

But the actual situation is far more dangerous, so much so that she has a hard time accepting it-until it is almost too late. Anyone would have trouble accepting the existence of an alien demon that grants eternal life to its human hosts. But that is what is happening, and it is up to Halley to figure out how to stop the alien from spreading out to the universe from the ship that has been its home for decades. As a reader, I had trouble buying into this myself. But it makes for a dramatic climax, and the final chapter is set two years later, showing Halley making the best of her situation.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's Copy.

Having read Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes, a little over a year ago and loving it, it was a no brainer to request Cold Eternity. I love a good Sci-fi/horror novel. but Cold Eternity didn't quite get there for this reader. The premise was fantastic and drew me in immediately. A remote and abandoned ship made for a great tight space to evoke the horror elements of this story. But, the protagonist, Halley left me wanting more. I had a hard time feeling for her and her current situation based on her string of decisions. There were several long sections of the story that made it drag for me. I will say once the climax was reached it was game on, and I loved every page. I really had no idea if our heroine would survive given the creature she was up against. If Cold Eternity had been able to have that level of thrill ride early on I would have loved this book.

S.A. Barnes is back with another creepy, science fiction horror. Like her previous books, Cold Eternity is set in the future— when humans live on spaceships. Halley is on the run from a political scandal and desperately needs a job somewhere quiet. She accepts a potentially shady job at a giant space barge that stores the cryogenically frozen bodies of rich Earth citizens from a hundred things before. And that’s when things get super weird! ⁣
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⁣On the pros side- this was a super atmospheric, chilling novel with lots of twists and turns. Can you imagine being stuck on a ship full of creepy frozen bodies?! Terrifying! ⁣
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⁣Unfortunately, the second half got super weird and the action felt very muddled. The dialogue was clunky and the main character said F—- so much that it just annoyed me. I don’t particularly mind cursing. It just felt super immature! ⁣
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⁣This one was just fine! Three stars! ⁣
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⁣Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of Cold Eternity. This one is out now!

S.A. Barnes writes it, I read it. Simple as that. She has proven herself to be the Queen of Space Horror and us lovers of the sub-genre appreciate her greatly. I've been chasing the high the movie Alien (1979) left me since I watched it, and Barnes truly is the first author to sate my spooky space-loving soul. I can only hope she keeps cranking them out so fast.

Let me preface this by saying I love all of Barne's books. Cold Eternity didn't top Dead Silence for me, but it was a close second. It was creepy, tense, atmospheric, mysterious, and wrapped up in a satisfying way. The way isolation played into this story was truly top tier. Absolutely recommend! I cannot wait for her next book.

What a creepy book! I liked the vibe of the place, that big ship with....no one on it. I think the turnover time for the button would drive me to literal insanity. I need sleep! That ending was certifiable.
I am excited for more from this author!

Barnes has become a fast favorite in my home, Her stories are not just horror, but leave me with deep thoughts and spurring conversations on in the household. I sometimes need some time to finish them because I get so tense and have to take breaks- but in a good way!

Book Summary:

Halley is on the run, and that means taking drastic measures to keep her name - and face - out of the media. It’s the only way she’ll survive the next few cycles, and doing it right might just get some semblance of her life back. Maybe.

So, yes, Halley did take a risk and agreed to work on a defunct cryo ship. She’ll be one of two living people on the ship, but she won’t legally be working there. It’s safe to say this plan has lots of risks, not to mention pathetic pay, but she’s pretty much out of options.

My Review:

I’ve really come to enjoy S.A. Barnes’ unique brand of space horror. It’s something I can always look forward to. Naturally, I was pretty excited to read Cold Eternity, which right off the bat had floating mausoleum vibes, thanks to the defunct cryogenic ship (which, can we all agree, sounds terrifying?).

In a way, there are two mysteries in one. There’s the mystery of what is actually happening on the ship because nothing is what it seems. This includes Halley, which brings us to the second mystery - who and what she’s running from.

Cold Eternity is a blend of tropes and familiar elements, but combined in unexpected ways. It makes for a tense read, and honestly, the atmospheric writing makes it feel all too real at times. There is one scene that kept popping up in my dreams for two whole nights, and I wish I were exaggerating. It burrowed into my brain and didn’t want to leave.

For those wondering, I’d say Cold Eternity is a solid read. Perhaps not as strong as Dead Silence, but I enjoyed it more than Ghost Station (not to say I disliked that one, just establishing a ranked system here).

Highlights:
Space Horror
Floating Masoleum Vibes
Horror Thriller

Trigger Warnings:
Cryogenics
Isolation
Abusive Parent

This is a story about the wrong place at the right time.
And once again this author absolutely knocked it out of the park. I loved this book so much! The insidious feeling of mounting dread propelled me along- if this was a movie I would've been watching it through my fingers.

Thank you so much @netgalley &@tornightfire for the eARC!

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.