I think the best way I can sum this up is "workmanlike". It is a generic, uninspired cash-in. The prose is competent, but the plot, structure and pacing are all lacking.

What's missing most is any sense of suspense which, in a horror story based on extremely suspenseful video games, is a big problem. For most of the story we have multiple POVs which play out as "Person A has weird/scary/inexplicable experience, possibly kills themselves, Person B speculates about happened to Person A, usually guessing exactly right". We get to see everything that happens so there is nothing left in doubt or to the imagination. It reads therefore as a pedestrian recounting of events without any sort of drama. Toward the end, we're left with a single POV which, given there's almost a quarter of the book left, means that person is in no real jeopardy until the very end.

The call-outs to the video games are, I suppose, necessary, but also feel a bit like getting hit over the head. Necromorphs are described to us as if being seen for the first time (as they are, by the characters) but anyone having got that far through the book is surely already familiar with the games so there's nothing surprising or horrifying about it. The main character ending up with a plasma cutter (the iconic weapon of the games) is a bit of coincidental fan service that wasn't needed and the discovery of how best to fight the monsters was laboured and unnecessary.

If you are familiar with the games (and why would you be reading this if you weren't?) the inevitability of what is to come hangs heavy over this like a Star Wars prequel movie. You know they have to hit certain beats because you know what happens next so none of it can surprise you, it can only disappoint.

I didn't have high expectations because the chances of the only Dead Space novel being good seemed slim but I wasn't prepared for just how much of a dull slog this was. The icing on the cake is probably in the acknowledgements when the author describes Dead Space as "the best bit of first-person SF/horror dismemberment out there". Dead Space, of course, is famously a third-person game but apparently the author doesn't know that. Or maybe he just played the Wii spin-off. ( )

Finally read it. Actually enjoyed the background information provided on the Dead Space universe.

Well, if you're a fan of the video game series, this is probably worth a peek. If you're not, it's probably not going to do much for you. The idea is that the author is trying to give you some backstory for how mankind first got interested in the Marker (some form of pre-human monolith that generates nearly limitless energy) and the founding of the Church of Unitology (the group that worships the Marker, believing it will bring them to transcendance.)

I personally don't think the book accomplished much in either of those areas.

The majority of the tale is focused on Dr. Michael Altman, a geologist working along the Gulf of Mexico. When he begins getting strange readings and radio signals coming from somewhere within a massive crater - a crater the locals claim holds the "Tail of the Devil" - and starts digging into it, conspiracies begin flying, bodies start appearing and Altman ends up kidnapped by shadowy government operatives who force him to work on their new pet project - digging up whatever's producing those signals and seeing what profit or tech they can scavenge from it.

As far as plotting goes, it's not bad; again, not doing much to present the concepts that it promised, but tolerably interesting. The pacing is quick enough, the language clear. The problems start cropping up when characters other than Altman begin getting involved. The Marker - the thing in the crater - causes, among other things, vivid hallucinations. Those phantoms typically take the form of the voices, personalities and appearance of one's dead loved ones. We're often told of who appears to any individual, but are rarely given more than a brief snapshot of the person in question. "Oh, that's Bob. He's a security guard. His dead wife is talking to him." "Oh, that guy? That's Ralph. He's an astrophysicist. His son's been whispering to him." They have very little emotional impact, because the characters it happens to are so rarely fleshed out enough for us to care about them. Further, not knowing much about them and thus even less about their loved ones, I could never really get behind why these folks are so hot to trot to listen to what these hallucinations are saying without stopping to question it. I accept it - primarily because my experience with the games and animated films fills in some of these blanks - but I don't have to like it.

Then there's the manner of motivation. Okay, the military wants the Marker because they think it can help solve their energy crisis or provide advancements in military technology. Yep. I get that. Then they find out that it produces dementia, paranoia, hallucinations. Does this make them think twice? Of course not! Then some of the scientists working on it start taking samples and trying to replicate the thing - and the weird fleshy mess that surrounded it - and inadvertently create a plague of undead murder-machines. Again, does this stop anyone? Nope; they decide that not only do they want it even more, they start worshipping the thing, claiming that transformation into one of these monstrosities is some sort of holy state. I don't care how unbalanced you may have been to start with, or how many blows to the psyche the Marker might cause just by being in proximity, I have difficulty believing that ANYONE would suddenly decide that this is an object of awe and devotion and that they should try harder to create more and set it free upon the world.

Next would be the matter of the action sequences. As the book approches the climax, the research facility is infested with the beasties - Necromorphs, in the Dead Space universe's terminology - and Altman is often shoved into battle with them to reach his objectives. That's fine. The long, run on sentences where it constantly tells us "Altman shot three of this kind, four of that kind, one of this one and stopped to reload" before doing a rinse-repeat, however... those are not fine. There's no real horror to be had in the necromorph's introduction, and within 10 pages of that it seems almost like combat with them has become routine and worthy of even less description or tension than the chair in the corner of the cafeteria. For a scientist. Who's never owned a gun or committed a violent act. Yeah, not buying it. Further, it's just dull. These are metamorphic piles of blood and sinew, animated by the alien sentience of the Marker. They are horrific to look at, do not move or react in the manner of a human - or even animal - opponent, do not feel or react to pain and only seem to stop coming when all their methods of attacking or subduing prey have been removed. Such as having all their limbs cut off, or complete disintegration. Very little of this level of detail is ever addressed - most of it I know from my experience with other media in the franchise, that lets me fill in the blanks.

That right there is one of the reasons I utterly loathe most sci-fi books that spring off movies, TV shows, games or other media; the authors seem to come pre-equipped with a checklist of stuff they MUST include... but they don't bother detailing them much, as they operate under the near universal assumption that someone is already familiar with the concepts from the other media. "See? It's a Slicer! You know what that is, you played the game! Moving on!" My belief tends to be, even if your audience is likely familiar with it, you can spare a moment of description. Both to provide those who already know some of the material a more vivid glimpse of YOUR imagination regarding it, and for accessibility to people who aren't already rabid fans. Plus, would it hurt to expand a bit? Try something that wasn't already in the source material but that fits reasonably well? Apparently, it would.

The book's inevitable conclusion was also ridiculous and unbelievable; anyone who knows the source material is well aware that Altman isn't going to come through this unscathed, of course, but the manner of his removal and the dialogue of the other characters once it's done is just silly and doesn't really feel like it would lead to the situations presented in the games. It felt more like the author said "Oops, hit my target page count! Time to wrap it up!"

Honestly, with all the issues I have with this book, I was tempted to rate it even lower; what stopped me is a little story I made up in my own head. This isn't what REALLY happened; this is some in-universe conspiracy theorist's story of what happened. Reading it as metafiction - even if that's not actually the author's intent - improved the value. Slightly. Or could just be a sign of my own Marker Dementia.

All in all, I found very little to like in this book except for it bearing the Dead Space logo on the cover; perhaps the next attempt will do better. But as I said above, unless you're already a Dead Space fun, there's not much here to recommend. It doesn't stand well on its own as decent sci-fi. Even if you ARE a Dead Space fun, it doesn't have much to offer, either. Not one of the higher points in my literary exploits of late, I'll say that. ( )

I have to admit that I discovered the "Dead Space" universe a little later than most, starting with an ex-rental purchase of the game and then onto a couple of animated movies.

The premise is simple - Ancient artifact from space turns people into monsters. Despite that rather simplistic base theme, it makes for a rather good light reading yarn. Creepy in places and interesting throughout, it's hardly the finest example of literature around, however it is damn entertaining.

For horror fans I'd say its a must. For Sci-Fi fans I'd say its worth considering and for everyone else I'd say Why not?.

Despite its rather unashamedly simple concept, it does delve a little into spirituality and mankind's acceptance and/or belief in the idea of deity, divine purpose etc - so it gets a few extra points for the questions it raises there.

Character wise, I found nothing particularly to rave or complain about. The characters filled their roles nicely and whilst I found no particular attachment to any of them, they were really secondary to the main storyline.

A good read in all. ( )