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chuckstafer's review against another edition
4.0
Great sci-fi adventure series starter! It started quickly and then totally sucked me in and I couldn't put it down easily! Looking forward to the rest of the series to get the full story!
camt_'s review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
ezwolf's review against another edition
I wanted to like this so much, I’ve really gotten in to like isolation sci-fi horror and I’ve kind of read myself into a corner where all the books recommended as similar to ones I liked, are just other books I’ve already read.
I’ve tried to put my finger on why I am not liking this and can’t say for sure. But the writing is kind of stilted and the way Petrov narrates has me wrong footed every time we come back to her.
I’ve tried to put my finger on why I am not liking this and can’t say for sure. But the writing is kind of stilted and the way Petrov narrates has me wrong footed every time we come back to her.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Confinement and Death
blouping's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
ashnichole's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
drewcox's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
aisleyreads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Terminal illness, Sexual content, and Death
Cosmic horror/psychological thriller. Deals with the harmful effects of fixating on an idea, like for example, hunger, living in darkness, etc.forsidious's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Somewhat intriguing concept that's drawn out needlessly long. I always question any book over 500 pages and this one proves the rule. It could be half the length it is.
Never scary. Focuses far too long on the space zombies which is boring and cliché. The idea of compulsions is interesting, but it focuses on boring ones. Cannibalism isn't scary, it's overdone.
Super abrupt ending with a cliffhanger which is disappointing given I won't be continuing the series.
Audiobook kept my interest well enough on 2x speed. Wouldn't recommend physically reading it.
C - 7, A - 9, W - 7, P - 6, I - 8, L - 6, E - 7
Never scary. Focuses far too long on the space zombies which is boring and cliché. The idea of compulsions is interesting, but it focuses on boring ones. Cannibalism isn't scary, it's overdone.
Super abrupt ending with a cliffhanger which is disappointing given I won't be continuing the series.
Audiobook kept my interest well enough on 2x speed. Wouldn't recommend physically reading it.
C - 7, A - 9, W - 7, P - 6, I - 8, L - 6, E - 7
willrefuge's review
2.0
4.5 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/paradise-1-by-david-wellington-review/
Alexandra Petrova is a washed up Firewatch agent. Exiled to a distant retirement colony, she and her ragtag crew have been instructed to investigate the area and report back.
Zhang Lei is having rather a bad day. Then again, all days are bad—this is just the latest of them. If it were up to him, Zhang would’ve simply laid down and died long ago. Unfortunately for him, someone has seen fit to keep him alive, often at the expense of his personal feelings on the subject.
When their ship is attacked only a moment after dropping out of hyperspace, Zhang and Petrova must band together to defend the ship—and complete their mission—before anything else goes awry. Unfortunately, it seems nothing about their mission is as it appears.
The orbit of Paradise-1 lies littered with debris and destroyed ships. The planet they’ve been sent to investigate: lies dark, with no transmission or signs of life. Not that they can check. What life still exists in the skies above this world seem intent on keeping them off it.
But with no way back, they can only push forward—one way or another.
—
Paradise-1 was sold to me really in two phrases. The first is right there on the cover: “Endless Dark. Endless Terror.” The second, from the book’s blurb, is: “What the crew of the Artemis find is more horrifying than anything they could have imagined.” Both of these quotes on their own seem to hint at an epic and horrible adventure. Together, they almost promise it.
Needless to say, Paradise-1 fails to deliver.
Mostly, it was boring. There’s a lot going on in this book, but not 700-pages a lot. There’s a good bit of distance between anything that happens and anything else that happens, repeated again and again over the course of 680 pages. It could’ve easily been half that amount—and still been boring. The “endless horror” bit is a bit much; I’d more class this as infrequent weirdness punctuated by long periods of silence that I’m assuming were meant to build tension, but instead just separate one oddity from another, and screw the pacing all to hell. There do exist some genuine white-knuckled moments. They’re just few and faaaar between. The rest of the time is spent talking, traveling, or is simply wasted on existing among the stars. Upon starting this, I’d assumed it’d take a little to land on the planet, then a bit more to explore it.
Instead, we spend the entirety of the book above Paradise-1, only to earn just the barest glimpse of it (a tease, if you will) at the very end. An ending, I might add, that gives up fuck-all. I’d been skimming a bit by that point, but my genuine reaction was still “That’s it?” It was such a letdown that I had to reassess how invested I’d actually become in the damned thing. The answer is… complicated, but at least somewhat.
I’d be tempted to say that there’s a good story hiding within here somewhere, but only if you enjoy cliffhangers. And only if you’ve made you peace with stories that give you no resolution at the end. Still, I did make it to the end. And I was legitimately pissed off by the ending. And despite the overwhelming lack of terror, it was pretty dark. So… while my rating won’t be great, and I can’t in good conscience recommend this, it really could’ve been worse.
TL;DR
From what I can tell there are really two camps on this: the people that finished it seem to quite enjoy it, while those that didn’t enjoy it mostly didn’t finish it. Personally, my recommendation is to skip Paradise-1, but if you don’t, or you’re curious—give it a try. If you like it—great! But if you burn out—give it up. Nothing happens at the end, anyway.
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/04/08/paradise-1-by-david-wellington-review/
Alexandra Petrova is a washed up Firewatch agent. Exiled to a distant retirement colony, she and her ragtag crew have been instructed to investigate the area and report back.
Zhang Lei is having rather a bad day. Then again, all days are bad—this is just the latest of them. If it were up to him, Zhang would’ve simply laid down and died long ago. Unfortunately for him, someone has seen fit to keep him alive, often at the expense of his personal feelings on the subject.
When their ship is attacked only a moment after dropping out of hyperspace, Zhang and Petrova must band together to defend the ship—and complete their mission—before anything else goes awry. Unfortunately, it seems nothing about their mission is as it appears.
The orbit of Paradise-1 lies littered with debris and destroyed ships. The planet they’ve been sent to investigate: lies dark, with no transmission or signs of life. Not that they can check. What life still exists in the skies above this world seem intent on keeping them off it.
But with no way back, they can only push forward—one way or another.
—
Paradise-1 was sold to me really in two phrases. The first is right there on the cover: “Endless Dark. Endless Terror.” The second, from the book’s blurb, is: “What the crew of the Artemis find is more horrifying than anything they could have imagined.” Both of these quotes on their own seem to hint at an epic and horrible adventure. Together, they almost promise it.
Needless to say, Paradise-1 fails to deliver.
Mostly, it was boring. There’s a lot going on in this book, but not 700-pages a lot. There’s a good bit of distance between anything that happens and anything else that happens, repeated again and again over the course of 680 pages. It could’ve easily been half that amount—and still been boring. The “endless horror” bit is a bit much; I’d more class this as infrequent weirdness punctuated by long periods of silence that I’m assuming were meant to build tension, but instead just separate one oddity from another, and screw the pacing all to hell. There do exist some genuine white-knuckled moments. They’re just few and faaaar between. The rest of the time is spent talking, traveling, or is simply wasted on existing among the stars. Upon starting this, I’d assumed it’d take a little to land on the planet, then a bit more to explore it.
Instead, we spend the entirety of the book above Paradise-1, only to earn just the barest glimpse of it (a tease, if you will) at the very end. An ending, I might add, that gives up fuck-all. I’d been skimming a bit by that point, but my genuine reaction was still “That’s it?” It was such a letdown that I had to reassess how invested I’d actually become in the damned thing. The answer is… complicated, but at least somewhat.
I’d be tempted to say that there’s a good story hiding within here somewhere, but only if you enjoy cliffhangers. And only if you’ve made you peace with stories that give you no resolution at the end. Still, I did make it to the end. And I was legitimately pissed off by the ending. And despite the overwhelming lack of terror, it was pretty dark. So… while my rating won’t be great, and I can’t in good conscience recommend this, it really could’ve been worse.
TL;DR
From what I can tell there are really two camps on this: the people that finished it seem to quite enjoy it, while those that didn’t enjoy it mostly didn’t finish it. Personally, my recommendation is to skip Paradise-1, but if you don’t, or you’re curious—give it a try. If you like it—great! But if you burn out—give it up. Nothing happens at the end, anyway.