Cold Eternity by S A Barnes

Halley is on the run and finding a job on a ship with a cryo program seems like the ideal place to hide… Things aren’t what they seem. The hologram hosts are glitching… They don’t act like a computer program. Halley can feel something isn’t right here and what is slithering around the vents…

It started out slow… I was a tad bored at first… Once Halley is on that ship.. GAME ON! It felt like coming online and you could feel the tension.

I actually really enjoyed it. I am very specific about my sci-fi and this one was exceptional! The narration was excellent and I enjoyed the heck out of it.

The plot was insane! I was totally grossed out and engrossed in equal measures. It felt like a warning too… It was excellent.

4.5 stars

S.A. Barnes is an autobuy author for me. I love the creepy, atmospheric stories she builds and Cold Eternity is no exception. Halley is on the run from a political scandal and takes a shady job on a storage barge to lay low. Oh but the “storage barge” stores cryogenically frozen bodies, and she starts seeing things and hearing noises scratching in the vents almost immediately. Has Halley run from a scandal into something much worse?


An almost empty of the living space barge is the perfect setting for a horror story. The audiobook really ratchets up the tension, and you’ll feel like you’re creeping around the ship with Halley. Listening at night is not recommended.


Cold Eternity is the perfect book for people looking to break into the scifi world. There’s political intrigue (though this plot line does take a back seat to the things going bump in the night), a bit of space travel, and some interesting technology. However, it’s not over complicated in the way the genre can sometimes be.


If you’re a horror lover and a scifi fan, I highly recommend picking this one up. Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for my copy!

Solid sci-fi horror. The first half is reminiscence of "The Shinning" in space. Halley starts a new job as a care takers of an isolated spaceship, Elysian Fields, that holds those cryogenicly frozen about 200 years ago. With her only companion as the hologram narrator of the prior museum the ship once hosted. As strange thingbstart to happen is. She questions if it's her lack of sleep or of something more sinister is happening. The second half is like another popular sci-fi horror but will not say as it will give too much away.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

There is something so creepy about SciFi and Horror blended together! Especially when you’re on an abandoned ship with “passengers” long in crypto-sleep, but then you hear noises and the ship’s AI k owns your true name…..

This was a thrilling and creepy scifi horror story! I still love Dead Silence by SA Barnes the best, but Cold Eternity is still an excellent novel. The narration is excellent and very easy to follow. Highly recommend for all scifi and horror readers!

While I didn’t enjoy this as much as the author’s previous two books, it was still an entertaining locked-room space horror. The first half was quite slow, but fortunately, things picked up in the second half. The main character could be frustrating at times, though I understood her motivations. There was also a weird romance subplot I definitely wasn’t expecting, but I didn’t entirely hate it either. That said, some parts of the story were predictable and I didn’t always find the central plot compelling. Still, despite my issues, it was an engaging read overall.

I think this was a great addition after the sophomore slump of Ghost Station. This is a book that made major improvements from her second book. It had the same space elements that S. A. Barnes is quickly perfecting, and misses the pitfalls of potentially being repetitive. It is great and atmospheric, spooky, and continues to touch on social class in space horror. As with her previous books there is an element of an unreliable narrator, but I think that it was combined with the AI "character" that worked as a really good foil. This book has reignited my love for S. A. Barnes' work!

I liked the narrator of this one!

Halley is on the run and broke. Beaten and robbed, she needs off the space station she is currently on and a concerning job offer may be only choice. When she lands on the giant space barge, Elysian Fields, holding the cryogenically frozen bodies of those who could be brought back one day when technology allows, she is greeted by a cranky caretaker and a creepy old ship. Determined to make the best of it, she hunkers down and does her relentlessly boring, sleep depriving job until the little mysteries start spiraling into a mess she can't ignore.
I love S.A. Barnes creepy space thrillers- and this was another great one. Slowly building the tension, as Halley wanders through the ship, becoming familiar with her new home, ruminating on her past, Barnes layered Halley's past and present together wonderfully.
With some excellent twists and turns and a delightfully exciting climax, I can't recommend it enough!



Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Tor Nightfire for the audiobook arc.

Halley, a young woman on the run, takes a job off a sketchy forum. The offer is for far below the established minimum wage, which will force her to work for longer just to scrape up enough for passage somewhere, but at least it’s on a ship that’s so unlikely to be visited that it’s almost a home run. And where her boss is unlikely to come face to face with her, and the people that may or may not be after her are unlikely to find her, there’s no way she can refuse.

The job seems easy, patrol the corridors, keep things need, clean, functional, and press a single button every three hours—every three on the dot. If she doesn’t, a warning alarm will go off and her boss’s superiors may visit to see why HE wasn’t pressing the button. She’s to remain a complete secret. You can sleep for two hours and fifty minutes every three hours, but you’ll never sleep through the night. I guess I didn’t really think about it while reading, but could you imagine the pressure of that? It would start as an annoyance, maybe a small headache or pain behind the eyes, then over time it would change into irritability, outright anger, paranoia—perhaps hallucinations? That sort of aching, growing atmosphere in the background was almost like The Shining to me. Creeping-insanity-esque.

Outside of atmosphere, I really liked how quickly this one got off the ground. Halley’s past is left unresolved enough to be intriguing and her immediate scare on the new ship draws the reader right in. The AI projections are startlingly creepy at times, and although I wouldn’t liken them to M3gan (especially as they aren’t solid) it was a somewhat unique and futuristic addition to the book. I also enjoyed that they were not just thrown in, their inclusion is tied directly to the story.

As for the twist, which I will not ruin, it worked for me. It was eerie and unique and ultimately paid off in a way I found more enjoyable than Ghost Station. I did feel like it could have gone on for a tad longer, but that’s okay. In a story that felt like a creepy haunting or even creature story, the landing was a bit different.

Cold Eternity is my favorite S.A Barnes so far! I loved the desolate, run down, remote setting of Elysian Fields (a giant ship housing an old cryo program. AKA filled with “dead” bodies). I think this story worked so well for me because of our MC, Halley. She is on the run after a political scandal and for the most part ALL OF HER DECISIONS MAKE SENSE! Even if I didn’t agree with her, I understood why she was making these decisions. That goes a long way for me because one of my least favorite things is dumb characters making the worst decisions ever. This setting is isolated with Halley mostly only communicating with herself, so if she hadn’t worked for me this book wouldn’t have worked for me. This is a slow burn story for the most part, but I felt we had some seriously creepy things and bits of information that kept up the intrigue and made the action at the end even more worth it! Also, the audiobook narrator did a great job making everything sound even creepier as you could feel the emotions of our MC in her voice. I definitely recommend this one if you like space horror!

This was my first S.A. Barnes book—and it won’t be my last. If you like space horror that’s creepy, emotional, and a little bit brutal, this is one you shouldn’t miss. Halley is a runaway, hiding on a giant abandoned space barge full of frozen bodies and glitchy AI hosts. But this isn’t just a survival story; it’s about greed, loneliness, and what happens when rich people’s bad choices haunt everyone else.

I don’t usually love space horror, but Halley completely hooked me. She’s tough, resourceful, and broken in all the ways that make you root for her even harder. I’m a total sucker for a female underdog, and Halley made me want to stand up and cheer. And the *"we can never be together"* romance thread? Gut-wrenching in the best way.

The audiobook made the whole experience even better. The narration was searingly immersive—the narrator pulled me right into Halley’s mind with raw emotion. I could almost feel the background noises—the scraping, rattling, and slithering in the vents—so eerie. A few moments even made me jump, which doesn’t happen often. It wasn’t just atmospheric horror—it had real scares, vivid imagery, and a steady undercurrent of dread that stayed with me.

There’s blood, gore, abandonment themes, and heartbreak. The horror is quiet. But there’s also fierce survival, hope, and a badass woman refusing to give up even when the world (or the galaxy) is stacked against her. The ending worked really well too. It didn't feel rushed, and I could totally picture this on the silver screen. If you want a book that feels like an icy injection straight into your veins—with action, horror, heart, and unforgettable characters—Cold Eternity will serve it up.

Hey, let's go to outer space! That'd be fun, right?!
No, you lunatic. Space is the setting for horror in space. Such as here.

Your main character is trying to hide out from authorities due to her activism so she takes a cush if boring job hauling cryogenic bodies.

How scary could that be? They're dead, right?

RIGHT?! 😰

Sci-fi horror with AI and body snatching. I liked the gruesome monster and the AI mystery here as well as the sterile atmosphere. The backstory was intriguing and the narrative came together well. One of the better from Barnes in my opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

We follow our protagonist as she tries to disappear from a political scandal, taking a job as a caretaker aboard the ship Elysian Fields. The ship houses cryogenically frozen bodies back from when people thought they could be unfrozen and cured later, but the program shut down once it became clear that nobody could figure out the science. Aboard the ship, she encounters holograms that seem to be more sentient than they first appear, mysterious noises, and a boss that seems to be hiding something.

I have to admit, I'm becoming more of a sci-fi fan every day. This is a very solid space horror. The imagery is creepy, the build up was tense, and I actually cared about the protagonist. The one let down was that the ending didn't tie everything up in the way I wanted and felt a little rushed, but the novel up until that point was great. I also generally enjoyed the narration. I liked her voice a lot, but I did feel that it became a little flat during some of the tense scenes. Overall, a very good book!

2 out of 5 stars — Disappointing and Disjointed

I went into Cold Eternity with high hopes, having really enjoyed S.A. Barnes’ previous space horror novels, Dead Silence and Ghost Station. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me on multiple fronts.

The political commentary was jarring and felt shoehorned in rather than organic to the story. There’s also a political subplot that fizzles out without resolution or purpose—it’s introduced with weight but ultimately goes nowhere, which was frustrating.

The protagonist constantly tells us how strong and level-headed she is, but her actions repeatedly contradict that. She spirals at the drop of a hat and often reacts without thinking, which made it hard to take her seriously or connect with her journey.

Worst of all, there’s a massive exposition dump about 60% through that completely pulled me out of the narrative. It was the kind of information that, had the character been paying attention (or written more consistently), she could have figured out much earlier—and so could we. Instead, we get a clunky info-dump that felt like a shortcut rather than storytelling.

There are flashes of Barnes’ talent here, but Cold Eternity lacks the tension, pacing, and character depth of his previous work. I really wanted to like it, but it just didn’t deliver.

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan for sending me an advanced copy of this book

Narrator: 4/5
Plot: 1/5

I'm really disappointed in this one after loving Dead Silence. There was a lot that just didn't work even though the framework was there for this to be great.

Things I liked:
1. The actual physical writing was good as always. She has such an amazing way of describing atmosphere that I was immediately sucked in.
2. Isolated setting/Atmosphere
3. The early horror aspects. I was absolutely terrified when she was just seeing things down hallways. I wish SA Barnes had stuck with the idea of subtle/can't see the horror. It's so much scarier that way.

Things I didn't like:
1. The very political atmosphere. I wasn't expecting this book to be so confusing and filled with so much politics regarding rigged elections. It was a super strange direction to take the book and didn't work. I had a really hard time following the plot line. The combination of her political drama and the drama of the ship was just too much all together.
2. Alex to (kind of) pedophile? She literally talks about how Alex talked to her as a kid and tried to get her to help then and then seems like he's about to kiss her now? That struck me as majorly icky and I was super surprised that was included. It should have been more of a fatherly relationship of him trying to help her off the ship instead.
3. Parasite monsters. No. That was such a goofy explanation for what is happening on the ship. I absolutely loathed it and how ridiculous that went.

“𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸… 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴.”

Thank you Tor Nightfire and Macmillan Audio for the advanced readers copies via NetGalley. This one is out now! I listened to S. A. Barnes previous novel, Ghost Station, last spring and while I avoid the horror genre it is understandable to a degree that her books are given that label; there are moments of intense creepiness, sci-fi gore, and psychological suspense.

Like the former I opted for the audio copy and flew through it rather quickly. Once again we find a strong-willed woman trying to hide from one scandal only to find herself wrapped in another messy situation. It never comes across as trite, rather I found myself intrigued to know more about our main character and see how things would unfold. There are questions of reality, sanity, identity, technology, morality, and mortality.

Despite its label it isn’t horror like you would assume when you hear that term as much as it is suspenseful, intense, with some wicked eerie and disturbing moments, though I felt some of the “horror” descriptions at times were a bit excessive and it came across as trying a bit too hard. Overall I liked it fine but I enjoyed Ghost Station a lot more. I was kept engaged and interested throughout and enjoyed the narrator (different than the one for Ghost Station but both are really good). It did take a turn I wasn’t expecting and gets a bit gruesome but other than that it was okay. Content includes some profanity, sci-fi violence, and a few grotesque descriptions of bodies. I have yet to read her first, Dead Silence, so I might give that one a go at some point. For any sci-fi loving fans out there I’d suggest picking this author up if you haven’t yet.

Isolationist settings again proving they are superior. Add in it being a ship full of basically dead people in cryo tanks and you have me seated.

This is my third space horror from SA Barnes and I think it ranks second for me. It'll be hard to beat Dead Silence but this was very entertaining. It has an excellent mystery at its core that is equal parts fk'd up and sad. I particularly enjoyed the role of the AI host on the ship. I also liked the undercurrent of political drama that ran through the main character's motivations as well. She's basically alone on a massive ship and yet what happened in her past drives everything she does now in an almost panicked way.

I think my only true critique of this is that I wanted more of the horror aspect throughout. It read more like a mystery thriller until the last fifteen percent or so and it felt like a little bit of a wasted opportunity.

Fun little space horror. I am definitely happy that it was a tad better than her last book! So many details done well

Unfortunately this just wasn’t for me. I’ve tried a few times now to get into it and didn’t get further than 20%. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I feel it was taking a long time to getting anywhere.
I appreciate the opportunity to read this and am so thankful to netgalley.

S.A. Barnes has squarely locked in on niche. That niche being sci-fi horror, which I sadly consider to be an under-appreciated genre. In her latest novel, Cold Eternity, she once again delivers. Nailing a sense of desolation/isolation. Halley needs to get away, needs a place to lay low and ends up taking a sketchy job on the Elysian Fields. A death ship…or rather a cold storage ship, a ship filled with wealthy citizens cryogenically frozen ages ago with hopes of being revived in the future. Her duty is to make rounds on the ‘passengers’ looking for anything problems and log in by hitting a button every three hours, while the only other living person on the ship spends his time maintaining the engines. Should be and easy job, right? Well Halley isn’t even been onboard an hour when she first notices things aren’t quite right. She swears she sees someone crawling through the halls on a monitor. But that’s not possible, right? And that’s just the start of things. Amara Jasper’s narration is excellent and does a great job pulling you into the story which is incredibly atmospheric and seriously creepy at times. My question is how is Barnes going to top this one? I’d like to thank Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review an advanced copy of the audio version of Cold Eternity.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RAQK0F80GSNC0/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv