Genre: Sci-fi, Horror, Space Opera, Space Exploration
Reviewer: Rari
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About The Book
On a desert settlement on a remote planet, the limited water is as precious as life. Until it starts to kill them…
Thaddeus and the rest of the small medical crew have just arrived at their next assignment—a small, drought-ridden settlement, where people are dying in horrific, unnatural ways. They suspect the water source has something to do with it, but how do you live without water?
The crew soon realizes the deaths are only part of the problem. The people are hostile and suspicious, the settlement’s doctor is hiding information, and the crew can’t get off the planet until the annual storm blows through. They need to find what’s killing people, and quickly—but trapped in a hostile settlement on the harsh desert wasteland with water running low, even that might not be enough to keep them alive.
Set in the world of The Devil and the Dark, The Water Paradox is the second book in R.M. Olson’s gripping space-horror series, The Dark Between Stars.
The Review
Book 2 in the Dark Between the Stars, this one starts off where Inhuman ends, at least for our protagonists.
They have been called to help in another resource planet, but this one is a desert planet which dehydrates them within minutes. The settlers don’t want any assistance, insisting that the call for help was a mistake. Their leader is also their doctor – Cuddy – and the settlers seem hostile to Puppy and his team.
Things become even more strange when a settler called Neena and her partner come to the ship at night and have Puppy and Thaddeus disguise themselves and go to the settlement to examine several corpses. The dead are desiccated, as if all the moisture inside them were sucked dry, and the settlers who wanted them there confirm there were patches of water around the bodies.
With an actively hostile people and no way to find out what’s going on, can Puppy and crew solve the mystery? Or will they fall victim to the same thing that’s killing the settlers?
Not gonna lie, this one was even more interesting than Inhuman. I finished it in hours. It helped that I was bedridden and was unable to do much of anything else.
This book hit me hard in the feels. The start itself was something that would have triggered me hard, if not for the really thoughtful warnings provided by the author at the start. And things don’t get any better. Puppy remains as enigmatic as ever, and though Shine and Thaddeus both think him suspect, they can’t help but follow him. Shine’s suspicions are deepening by the minute, but he can’t help but be drawn to Puppy.
I’m fully not convinced Puppy is an evil mastermind yet, but I guess I’ll know when the next book is out. Once again, Jem and Thaddeus were the POVS I found most engaging, though Knives came a close second. Shine just doesn’t do it for me, but the plot and the rest of the characters more than make up for it.
If you love sci fi with an element of mystery, adventure, and horror, you will love this book and this series.
The Reviewer
Rari is an author and editor writing under the name of Niranjan K. She is an avid reader of all things fantasy, and loves to discourse at length about her favourite books as well as shows. This blog is the space where she will be sharing her views and insights of the books, shows and movies that she likes.
