Paradise-1 by David Wellington

“The thing about you, Zhang, is you’re one of those people who just gets better in a crisis. You think you’re broken. You think you’re not strong enough. All I see is that when life throws shit at you, you keep getting stronger.”

-Paradise-1 by David Wellington

Paradise-1 by David Wellington is an epic science fiction horror novel that despite it’s length, is a super fast, riveting read! I haven’t actually read much in the way of scifi horror and after reading this novel, I realize I may need to correct that because I really loved this book. 

At the start of Paradise-1, Alexandra Petrova is tracking a suspected serial killer across the planet, Ganymede. She has circumstantial evidence at best, but she knows at least twenty people have disappeared and are all connected back to one man. But when the time to make the arrest comes, she is in contact with the Firewatch. When they don’t immediately approve her request to arrest this man, she acts on her own and starts the process. Petrova ends up ruining a year long investigation and is slightly undid by everything she sees in the process of trying to apprehend this suspect.

Director Lang doesn’t see eye to eye with Petrova as she believes Petrova is only in the Firewatch because of her mother (who was the head of Firewatch). She decides to send Petrova on a mission to get her out of her hair: check in on the colony on Paradise-1, the planet her mother has retired to. Petrova is irritated by this but accepts the mission anyway. 

When she arrives on the ship meant to take her to Paradise-1, she meets her two other crew members, Zhang- an unfriendly doctor, and Parker- a pilot who Petrova had a fling with years ago. The three enter cryosleep and make their way into the orbit of Paradise-1. On the way, they pick up a robot who maintains the ship, Rapscallion. But when their ship, the Artemis, arrives in Paradise-1, they’re immediately attacked and the truth of what’s out this far in space will ultimately change their lives as they try to unravel what is going on.

I loved, loved this book so much!! It was so intense and at times the horror elements really got to me. There are some disturbing scenes, but all in all, the plot was so fast paced and intriguing! I found myself with SO SO many questions by the end, and while the author clues you into a few answers, there’s a lot of mystery as to what will happen next. I’m really stoked to read book 2 when it comes out because I really need to know what happens next. This is definitely an exciting book. I really grew attached to all the characters, we get snippets of their backstories and get to watch them grow as the story unfolds. This book was really fantastic. Since this was my first book by David Wellington, I’m going to go back and read some of his already published novels while I wait for the sequel. If you’ve read him before and have any favorites, please let me know in the comments! I always love discovering new to me authors and diving deeper into their works!