Cold Eternity is a heady mix of science fiction, psychological thriller, political mystery and horror. Despite what the blurb suggests, the horror is relatively light - but when it arrives, it’s excellent. The atmosphere of the derelict cryogenic ship is deeply eerie, its dark corridors thick with shadow and the hum of malfunctioning tech. Barnes excels in creating an environment where dread oozes from the pages, where every flicker of light or glitching hologram makes you question whether what you’re seeing is real, a hallucination or some cruel joke.

The suspense, however, is hampered by the pacing. The opening spends a long time on setup, and even once the plot begins to move, momentum is repeatedly interrupted by the political subplot. The narrative often lingers more on mystery, buildup and Halley's emotional turmoil than on the horror itself, diluting the impact of its most chilling moments.

That political thread, concerned with scandal, corruption, and thorny moral questions of power and responsibility, is undeniably timely echoing many of our current world issues. And yet for all its relevance it never felt especially shocking or fresh. When Halley’s secret is finally revealed, her moral quandary resembles countless stories we’ve read before and the subplot drags out taking up far more pages than it deserves.

The novel closes out on a moral note, but for me, its final message rang hollow. After such a taut, dread soaked setup, the climax felt rushed and the conclusion didn’t deliver the kind of satisfaction I’d hoped for.

In the end, Cold Eternity works best as an exercise in atmosphere: a claustrophobic, shadowed labyrinth where paranoia thrives with small bursts of terror and body horror. But its reliance on familiar political scandal and uneven pacing prevents it from fully realizing the horror masterpiece it could have been.

My thanks to Bantam for the arc

It was the second book from this author that I read and I liked it as much as the first. It was quite different though, and in some ways it felt even more suffocating and I did enjoy this grim and eerie atmosphere. I did not particularly care for the characters (especially one of them, Karl) but it was a fast-paced quick read with an interesting plot that I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Cold Eternity is a fun creature feature set in space.

Halley Zwick is looking for somewhere to lie low after exposing a political conspiracy and she manages to find what seems like the perfect place: Elysian Fields. The huge spaceship is lined with cryo-tanks storing the bodies of the rich and famous from the past, but the technology that the preserved were hoping would grant them longer lives never materialized.

The setting of this book is fantastic. A ship full of frozen bodies is creepy enough as is, but that’s just the starting point of the horror. It doesn’t take long for Halley to start hearing and seeing things that defy belief. I did find the story slowed down a little bit too much for my tastes in the middle section, but it picked right back up when Halley finally figured out what was going on.

If you’re in the mood for space horror, this will definitely hit the spot!

Set in the future, in space, on a ship with a monster.
Sound familiar? I thought so too.
But
I found myself picturing the dead ship, wondering if Karl was actually real or a computer programme and feeling the exhaustion of being woken up every 3 hours to press a button.
This set an atmospheric insight into a ship with only 2 people aboard, well 2 people who are alive.
I could see myself sitting and talking to different bodies in cryo chambers! Maybe because I have that level of madness inside me 🤣
I enjoyed the twists and turns in the book, the writing was good and kept my interest. The characters development was good, with each interaction making you wonder if things were real or in her imagination.

The ending let it down slightly. But didn’t detract from the story as a whole.

Having read Dead Silence and feeling let down by the ending I was hoping that Cold Eternity would land better for me and it did.

Our main character Halley is on the run after a political scandal and needs somewhere to hide. After a questionable interview she takes a job on board the Elysian Fields , a ship full of cryogenically frozen celebrities and rich people , her and Karl as the only living crew.
Her job is simple , walk the corridors and push the button every three hours . Simple until she starts to see and hear things that shouldn't be possible.

Cold Eternity was creepy and very claustrophobic right from the start and had some great gory scenes.
Still not a perfect ending for me but a pretty solid space horror. I could see it making a good movie

DO NOT READ AT NIGHT ... that's it, that could be the review.

It's been a while since I picked up a horror book set in space. No regrets here but I will sleep better now that I finished it. First of all, the suspense was killing me. What happened to Halley for taking such a remote assignment? Why is the spaceship so creepy? Why this job...every page is an interrogation, and the book just flows and flows...until, YOU KNOW. YOU UNDERSTAND.
.
.
.
And you cannot do anything to help Halley but keep reading.

Gripping - Cold - Horrific...read it, it won't disappoint.

Pick it up if you like:
- Sci-fi and horror (very important)
- Mysteries
- Creepy spaceship with strange noises

Not my first book by S.A Barnes, I read Dead Silence a few years ago and I enjoyed it. How lucky I am to get the opportunity to get an e-ARC for Cold Eternity? Super lucky.

I love sci-fi horror, ever since I was a child watching playthroughs of Dead Space. This book gave me those Dead Space vibes I am always searching for, from the eerily 'empty' spaceship, the gore and to the threat the MC faces. It ticks all the boxes for me.

The only aspect that really reduced the rating for me, without giving spoilers, was Karl's character. I didn't understand him.

I liked the 3 siblings involvement in the story and learning more about their fate as the story progressed.

The conclusion was nice, there is not a lot to say on that.

I loved this. Creepy and randomly horrifying, it fairly rocks along and is highly addictive.

An isolated, inescapable location and just one main character, Halley, hiding away from the world and on the run, this is a tightly wound thriller, compact and massively engaging.

It's not easy to rest a whole novel on the shoulders of one, with only peripheral others but S A Barnes manages it perfectly. You root for Halley all the way and there are plenty of edge of the seat moments and a healthy dose of ewww. Terrific.

Recommended

Cold Eternity is my first S.A. Barnes, novel, generously provided by the publisher via netgalley.

Cold Eternity is a sci-fi horror that brings readers along into the eerie corridors of Elysian Fields—a drifting generation ship, preserving cryogenically frozen elites. Formerly a museum, our protagonist visited as a child, but now returns, hiding from her less than ideal present in the forgotten ship, endlessly sailing the void of space.

I enjoyed the creeping atmosphere, and the inter-personal tension between Halley's co-stars, and the background political intrigue. Her isolation and gradual unraveling are vividly and believably described. She came alive as a character and I felt for her and the decisions she had to make. Also, without spoilers, the ship’s 'quirks' deliver unexpected shocks without relying solely on gore (though there is also plenty of that).

My only critique is, that the multiple plot threads compete for attention, especially from a solo POV over a relatively short space of time, and small space. I wanted deeper exploration of Halley’s relationships, instead of frequent diversions into new subplots.

Cold Eternity was an interesting take on the horrors in space, there were some genuinely creepy moments. I recently bought Dead Silence which I know is highly recommended so I'll be reading that soon.

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

Space is terrifying. And an almost abandoned cemetery in space just doubles the terror. The idea of so many corpses inside a spaceship makes me shiver. It is in its core a tomb for all the sarcophagus.
Which is way I was ready to be scared from page one, eager to know what Halley Zwick was going to find, what she was going to go against. I did not really mind the reason behind her being on the run, I just wanted space horror.
And it did definitely deliver. Maybe not in the way I thought it would be, maybe not the ‘anxiety rhythm’ I felt while reading Dead Silence, but horror anyway. Her paranoia was soon my paranoia, was she really seeing what it was described, was the noise simply noise, was she really talking to… them?
S.A Barnes has done it again. Queen of Space Horror, indeed.

Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think I got my fill of claustrophobic dread. Creepy is another word that comes to mind. I really got spooked by this one. The sense of dread and unease that permeates the entire book doesn’t just let up.
Things start out slowly and build up to this horrific climax.
A lone young woman running away from her past is trapped on a spaceship filled with cryogenically frozen (dead?) bodies. You immediately know this is not going to end well but the story still delivers. The spaceship and the surrounding worlds are so well described that you feel like you are actually there. The characters are well fleshed out. The main character - Halley with all her flaws and doubts is great. There are plot twists and surprises aplenty.
An excellent read.

Fun read that goes by fast. There wasn’t enough horror for me, however I still enjoyed it. Was maybe expecting more from this story.

This was a fantastic read, so intense and creepy! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is very much a locked in a room, isolation horror. We have a woman on the run who takes a mysterious job out of desperation. She’s observing a ship in space that is a facility for cryogenically frozen people. However the technology for revival never worked properly. So the people are just in stasis. It doesn’t take long before she starts to see odd things on the ship and gets freaked out. But her circumstances force her to stay until she earns enough for a transport.

We have a horribly dangerous situation, some pretty gruesome horror and the most intense sense of being trapped and isolation. The setting was amazing for this. However there’s a layer beyond the creepy ship. There’s a whole story relating to the cryo company that we learn throughout the book. Absolutely fascinating, and throw in a hallucinating AI for good measure!

Gripping and highly enjoyable.

Halley is on the run and what better place to lie low than the Elysian Fields where cryo-tanks full of wealthy celebrities from a century ago lie, waiting for humanity to discover the key to immortality? It’s a nice quiet spot to sit and think what to do next. Only it isn’t quiet. Something is very much alive and it’s hungry.

This heroine in space story gives the creepy vibes of the Alien franchise and mixes it with some clever storytelling. Halley is alone for the majority of the book, so expect a lot of introspection and thinking things aloud as she tries to understand what she’s got herself into (some readers will be fine with this, others will be skimming to the action). Halley’s an intriguing and fun character to follow, and holds the story together. For me, the ending was a bit of an anticlimax, but otherwise a creepy, entertaining read.

If you are looking for great space horror, I think anything that S.A. Barnes writes fits the bill very nicely! Her books always leave me with a chill up my spine of how horrible things can go up there in the cold reaches of space. Makes me glad to be very firmly on earth!

But I really enjoyed traveling (and running for my life) with Halley as she finds her way on to a ship carrying frozen corpses (rich people looking to cheat death) for her new job, while running from the really big scandal she found herself in the middle of. Too bad there is no peace to be found on that ship! Just creepy holograms, threats of death, and something that may or may not be roaming the halls and whose next target might be Halley! Lots of scary creepy bits, missing people (as if Halley doesn't have enough on her plate, she looks into this as well), heartbreak, finding a way out of the mess without dying horribly, and trouble to be found in this story (plus you get a good look at the lengths some people go to avoid dying, especially if they have the money to try anything) and I loved it all!

I will happily read anything that this author writes because I know it will be a chilling creepy read. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this awesomely scary space horror!

A woman hiding from her past takes a job on a barge that holds cryogenically frozen millionaires from over a century ago. Her job is simply to guard the bodies, even though every0ne knows there's no way they can be re-awoken now that the technology has proven to be less effective than expected. So now the ship is a former museum turned mausoleum, staffed with a skeleton crew -- perfect for someone who doesn't want to be noticed.

But then Halley realises the AI holographic ghosts may be more sentient than anyone realises... and there's something crawling around in the dark that seems to be not quite human... What secrets are held among the not-quite-dead? How does it connect to a terrifying incident in Halley's past? And are there some things in this universe more terrifying than death?

SA Barnes' latest novel is a cracking blend of Alien(s), the aesthetics of Resident Evil, and the cosmic sense of terror that comes from the tradition of Lovecraft. Some of it shouldn't really work, and yet Barnes' confident, breezy writing convinces us that it all ties together seamlessly, and her instinct for chilling setpieces both intrigue and terrify. A haunted house novel set among the stars, with themes that echo into our very modern fears of death and other forms of intelligence, A scarily great read that will send you rushing out to find what else this author has written (or at least that's what I'm going to do right now!)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC!

I had this on pre-order for the audiobook, but it got cancelled, which I was sad about! Thankfully, I requested this when it came up on NetGalley and was happy to get it approved!

I've read all of S.A. Barnes' books so far, as I'm always on the lookout for good sci-fi horror, so I was eager to read this. Our story this time focuses on 'Halley', a woman who is trying to keep a low profile after going on the run from her previous job. She takes up a job offer to work on the Elysian Fields, a ship filled with cryogenically preserved people from when people thought they might be able to crack the tech. Unfortunately, that never happened, so now the ship is just cruising around the system carrying people who will never wake up. Given the role's anonymity and the unlikelihood that anyone will figure out she's there, she jumps on the role, despite being warned off it.

Her job is simple: perform rounds of specific floors to check nothing is out of the ordinary, and press the button every three hours to stop the board from getting annoyed. She's familiar with the ship from when she was a child and had visited it when it was a museum/educational place.

The strange things start quickly; she begins to see things and hear weird noises around the ship. She's not allowed in the lower decks, nor the upper deck with the bridge and a 'special exhibit'. The only real form of entertainment is the rooms of the celebrities put into the ship, alongside the hologram theatre featuring the founder of the ship, Zale Winfeld's three children. Things don't add up for her, and she's determined to figure out what's happening with this strange ship.

Usually, with S. A. Barnes' books, I enjoy the start and find the end falls flat. Surprisingly, this time it was the other way around. The first half bored me, and there was too much talk of Halley moping around and the political world. I don't mind world-building, but nothing felt very spooky for a 'dead ship'. I almost DNF'ed multiple times, but decided to keep going. Thankfully, it improved dramatically in the second half and nailed the landing. This half was full of spooks, scares, and some gruesome imagery, and I enjoyed it. I wish the start had been as interesting!

Hopefully, the author can combine the great starts from her previous books with this type of strong ending to produce the sci-fi horror I've been waiting for!