Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
Reviewer: Rari
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About The Book
There’s something lurking in the caverns under Blackrock…
The pirate settlement of Blackrock depends for oxygen on the vast algae vats set into caverns deep under the surface of the rocky moon. But recently, vat workers have been turning up dead. And not natural deaths—they’re shooting their own friends, walking off 30-metre drops, stepping out into the path of a ghost to be torn to pieces, driven mad with terror. The overworked doctors at the small hospital can’t find any trace of what’s causing it, but everyone who’s come back alive swears there’s something down in the caverns beneath Blackrock. Something alive. Something unnatural. Something that wants them dead.
Jem and the rest of Puppy’s small medical crew answered the pirates’ distress call, and they’ve promised they’d do whatever they could to help. And Jem has spent thirteen years running from her own terror and guilt. But deep in the caverns below Blackrock, she and the rest of the crew will have to face up to a terror they can’t run from, unless they’re willing to let the entire settlement of Blackrock die.
And Puppy’s crew could never do that.
Set in the world of The Devil and the Dark, Blackrock is the third book in R.M. Olson’s gripping space-horror series, The Dark Between Stars.
The Review
I may have bullied someone into giving me an ARC of this book. I also may have annoyed that someone a LOT.
But I’d do it again, because this book was so WORTH it.
Puppy and his group of ragtag medical professionals are on their way to Blackrock, the stronghold of the pirates who were both the bane of the navy and the resource planets. Both Thaddeus and Jem have reservations, but they couldn’t leave Puppy be.
Things grow tense as Shine shares some of his past, his mission, and his suspicions about Puppy, suspicions that Thaddeus shares as well. Though doubtful, both Jem and Knives are torn, and Jem has a feeling that Shine was going to kill her back in the Level and can’t get past it.
In Blackrock, they discover a strange ailment that causes hallucinations that drives people to kill their friends, or to stand still while ghosts tear them apart. Even as he resents having to help the people he had fought against as a naval officer, Thaddeus tries his best. But when they are affected by the toxin and learn something that threatens the very existence of Blackrock, they have to take a chance to save everyone here while risking falling victim themselves.
I loved Jem’s character growth in this, and how her relationship with Knives is evolving. Knives is much more real in this one, and I love that she’s the one in need of a rescue, which is not a common thing.
I also have theories about Puppy and the trauma in both Jem and Knives’ past, the incident that made Thaddeus lose his sister and Shine his parents.
I’m sad there are no more published books in this series, but Imma grab another book by the author in the meantime.
Medical thrills, sci fi, space operas, and complex characters – trust me, 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.
