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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
It must remain still—and it puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.
What do you get when you take...
You get a story that is by turns funny, bleak, hopeful, suspenseful, mysterious, terrifying, angry, violent, sexually charged, and horribly, horribly sad.
You get an ungodly fuckton of great writing.
You also get to have your cake and eat it, too. If you read this scandalously good book, you'll see what I mean, but I will decline to explain further—because I'll be damned if I'll let my friends with poor impulse-control ruin what is a fairly excellently deployed head-fake by clicking on a stupid spoiler tag.
Lisa Henry, man... this is my first book of hers, but it won't be my last. Homegirl can friggin' write.
I read this in one sitting and nearly wet myself with dread.
Between the stabs of aching pathos and the surprising laughs, between truly ghastly violence and the sweet bloom of tenderness, I found myself marveling—and shuddering—with the highs and lows of a very, very expertly crafted emotional ride.
Never mind the nauseatingly drawn-out and ruthlessly escalated suspense—ratcheting up and up, over and over—because when the inevitable happens and it turns out even worse than you'd feared, you're already freaking out about the next crisis before you've even managed to mop-up the diarrhea from the first one.
This thing is scary, and dark. It's also tender, and sexy, and funny. It's just... that good. That ghastly.
That fun.
The shit—to quote a pop song of relatively middling antiquity—is bananas.
B-A-N-A-N-A-S!
What do you get when you take...
- a battered 16yo kid
- draft him into the military
- put him on the interstellar equivalent of the Maginot Line
- rough him up over the next three years
- and then lock him in a room for ten days with the most famous prisoner of war in the galaxy, who may or may not be carrying a weapon of biological warfare intended to exterminate all of humanity, but who also says it won't happen like that and that everything is okay because the baddie is on his way to personally sort them all out, and if you could just be so good as to kindly ignore his throbbing erection, that would be lovely, thanks?
You get a story that is by turns funny, bleak, hopeful, suspenseful, mysterious, terrifying, angry, violent, sexually charged, and horribly, horribly sad.
You get an ungodly fuckton of great writing.
You also get to have your cake and eat it, too. If you read this scandalously good book, you'll see what I mean, but I will decline to explain further—because I'll be damned if I'll let my friends with poor impulse-control ruin what is a fairly excellently deployed head-fake by clicking on a stupid spoiler tag.
Lisa Henry, man... this is my first book of hers, but it won't be my last. Homegirl can friggin' write.
I read this in one sitting and nearly wet myself with dread.
Between the stabs of aching pathos and the surprising laughs, between truly ghastly violence and the sweet bloom of tenderness, I found myself marveling—and shuddering—with the highs and lows of a very, very expertly crafted emotional ride.
Never mind the nauseatingly drawn-out and ruthlessly escalated suspense—ratcheting up and up, over and over—because when the inevitable happens and it turns out even worse than you'd feared, you're already freaking out about the next crisis before you've even managed to mop-up the diarrhea from the first one.
This thing is scary, and dark. It's also tender, and sexy, and funny. It's just... that good. That ghastly.
That fun.
The shit—to quote a pop song of relatively middling antiquity—is bananas.
Psychic bonding, telepathy, empathic connections... These are some of my very favorite tropes out there, and I've been waiting what feels like forever for a book like this one, that explored those ideas to their fullest and made them shiny and new for me again.
Add in two characters I adore and a plot that had me on the edge of my chair more often than not, and this book was basically flawless. Everything I could have wanted and more!
Add in two characters I adore and a plot that had me on the edge of my chair more often than not, and this book was basically flawless. Everything I could have wanted and more!
“Dark Space” is an intense read, starring complicated characters who are stuck coping with a difficult situation. On the sci-fi side of things, Henry has done a terrific job creating a vivid and gritty world — both on a grand scale, and in the more immediate setting. The character voices are BEAUTIFULLY crafted, the people every bit as vivid as the fucked up world they inhabit. It’s an impressive feat, and I loved this book for it.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Strong 3.5 though.
Brady Garrett is counting down the years until he gets out of the army and goes home to his remaining family — his sister and father. But the return of Cameron Rushton, poster boy for the army, and Brady’s subsequent ~bonding to him, puts paid to that idea.
Cameron was abducted four years ago by the Faceless — a merciless, far more technologically advanced alien race — when he was serving as a Hawk pilot on the Defender 8 base/space station/doodad. He is “returned” by the Faceless like a fallen ID card to a lost-and-found kiosk, and he and Brady become connected when the opening of Cameron’s pod is bungled (i.e. it didn’t come with readable instructions so what do you expect).
(Brady and Cameron become telepathically bound when the army cuts open the alien pod Cameron came in … for some reason the alien technology also allowed Cameron to latch on to Brady as a sort of backup battery until his body could begin to function on its own. Brady is what keeps Cameron’s body going.)
Cameron claims to be sent as an envoy by the Faceless battle regent Kai-Ren, who wants to have “peace”. While they wait for the Faceless to appear and to prove Cameron a liar or a true envoy, Cameron and Brady share a room, a bed, a shower, and their heads. Brady gets to know Cam, and vice versa, but they’re both aware that their relationship has an expiration date. The return of the Faceless will mean either all their deaths or their permanent separation.
Notable events
〇 While Cam is being interrogated by superior officers and they don’t like the information he’s telling them, they beat up Brady in an effort to get him to say that Cam isn’t telling the truth. (Spoiler: Cam is lying but Brady refuses to acknowledge that he is.)
〇 Brady’s father dies and he goes into this angry, self-destructive state, knowing his sister is all alone, and that he can’t go back to help her.
〇 We also find out that Brady was raped by another soldier, Wade, when he was new to the station. The Faceless battle regent Kai-Ren also had intercourse with a drugged and restrained Cam (it’s not clear if Cam views the entirety of their sexual relationship as forced). The first time Kai-Ren had intercourse with Cam it was to establish a telepathic connection, but apparently the other times was probably not just for that.
--
When the Faceless finally do appear, the human generals sign the truce, but it appears Kai-Ren wants to take Cam with him. Kai-Ren also contemplates asking for Brady as well which kind of sets Brady off (Brady is able to “hear” and understand what Kai-ren is thinking thanks to his still intact telepathic connection with Cam).
Brady is allowed to stay though, but when he returns to the barracks he is set upon by Wade and a couple of his cronies, then left in the UV room to die. Cam returns (possibly with the help of the Faceless) to save him in time. The Faceless save Brady and return him to life, and there is a chapter where it seems as if the Faceless are going to have two human pets, but in the end Kai-Ren returns both Cam and Brady to Defender 3. It’s HFN as they are allowed to back planetside to continue to serve in the military but be able to stay with Brady’s sister.
Thoughts
1. I don’t know if there will ever be a time when humans can stop being shitty to each other about sexual preferences, but apparently even though we have encountered more powerful aliens and have legit space stations and all, people are still homophobic?? What year is this that people are still het up over the queers?
2. A rather half-hearted excuse for why there are no women soldiers, i.e. they’re afraid that the enemy (the Faceless) will “break the breeding cycle” as a first tactic to destroy the human race.
- And keeping them in one place (earth??) isn’t like putting all your eggs in one basket?
- Even if you allowed women to go into the military it’s not like 100% of them will?
- The Faceless don’t particularly seem to care how many humans there are. 7 billion or 700 billion, seems like they can still annihilate the human race
3. “Captain Loh” is the only guy who sounds vaguely like he’d be non-white. Everyone else in this space station sounds white. I guess Defender 4 and 5 were where the Asians used to be!
4. I like Brady, actually. He’s an angry little thing. I relate to his raging insecurities and his merciless, pitiless view of himself. Sometimes life doesn’t mean anything bro.
5. Doc is possibly the only other human worth respecting in the whole of Defender 3 and that is just honestly a depressing thought.
6. What happened to Wade & Co? I demand retribution.
Overall enjoyable although I have Nitpicks and Questions.
Brady Garrett is counting down the years until he gets out of the army and goes home to his remaining family — his sister and father. But the return of Cameron Rushton, poster boy for the army, and Brady’s subsequent ~bonding to him, puts paid to that idea.
Cameron was abducted four years ago by the Faceless — a merciless, far more technologically advanced alien race — when he was serving as a Hawk pilot on the Defender 8 base/space station/doodad. He is “returned” by the Faceless like a fallen ID card to a lost-and-found kiosk, and he and Brady become connected when the opening of Cameron’s pod is bungled (i.e. it didn’t come with readable instructions so what do you expect).
(Brady and Cameron become telepathically bound when the army cuts open the alien pod Cameron came in … for some reason the alien technology also allowed Cameron to latch on to Brady as a sort of backup battery until his body could begin to function on its own. Brady is what keeps Cameron’s body going.)
Cameron claims to be sent as an envoy by the Faceless battle regent Kai-Ren, who wants to have “peace”. While they wait for the Faceless to appear and to prove Cameron a liar or a true envoy, Cameron and Brady share a room, a bed, a shower, and their heads. Brady gets to know Cam, and vice versa, but they’re both aware that their relationship has an expiration date. The return of the Faceless will mean either all their deaths or their permanent separation.
Notable events
〇 While Cam is being interrogated by superior officers and they don’t like the information he’s telling them, they beat up Brady in an effort to get him to say that Cam isn’t telling the truth. (Spoiler: Cam is lying but Brady refuses to acknowledge that he is.)
〇 Brady’s father dies and he goes into this angry, self-destructive state, knowing his sister is all alone, and that he can’t go back to help her.
〇 We also find out that Brady was raped by another soldier, Wade, when he was new to the station. The Faceless battle regent Kai-Ren also had intercourse with a drugged and restrained Cam (it’s not clear if Cam views the entirety of their sexual relationship as forced). The first time Kai-Ren had intercourse with Cam it was to establish a telepathic connection, but apparently the other times was probably not just for that.
--
When the Faceless finally do appear, the human generals sign the truce, but it appears Kai-Ren wants to take Cam with him. Kai-Ren also contemplates asking for Brady as well which kind of sets Brady off (Brady is able to “hear” and understand what Kai-ren is thinking thanks to his still intact telepathic connection with Cam).
Brady is allowed to stay though, but when he returns to the barracks he is set upon by Wade and a couple of his cronies, then left in the UV room to die. Cam returns (possibly with the help of the Faceless) to save him in time. The Faceless save Brady and return him to life, and there is a chapter where it seems as if the Faceless are going to have two human pets, but in the end Kai-Ren returns both Cam and Brady to Defender 3. It’s HFN as they are allowed to back planetside to continue to serve in the military but be able to stay with Brady’s sister.
Thoughts
1. I don’t know if there will ever be a time when humans can stop being shitty to each other about sexual preferences, but apparently even though we have encountered more powerful aliens and have legit space stations and all, people are still homophobic?? What year is this that people are still het up over the queers?
2. A rather half-hearted excuse for why there are no women soldiers, i.e. they’re afraid that the enemy (the Faceless) will “break the breeding cycle” as a first tactic to destroy the human race.
- And keeping them in one place (earth??) isn’t like putting all your eggs in one basket?
- Even if you allowed women to go into the military it’s not like 100% of them will?
- The Faceless don’t particularly seem to care how many humans there are. 7 billion or 700 billion, seems like they can still annihilate the human race
3. “Captain Loh” is the only guy who sounds vaguely like he’d be non-white. Everyone else in this space station sounds white. I guess Defender 4 and 5 were where the Asians used to be!
4. I like Brady, actually. He’s an angry little thing. I relate to his raging insecurities and his merciless, pitiless view of himself. Sometimes life doesn’t mean anything bro.
5. Doc is possibly the only other human worth respecting in the whole of Defender 3 and that is just honestly a depressing thought.
6. What happened to Wade & Co? I demand retribution.
Overall enjoyable although I have Nitpicks and Questions.