Salvation Day

I've read one of Kali Wallace's previous YA books, [b:Shallow Graves|22663629|Shallow Graves|Kali Wallace|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1434989166l/22663629._SY75_.jpg|42162445], about a teenage girl who wakes up after being murdered and discovers she can see auras around bad people, leading her into a paranormal world she never knew existed. I thought it was great so when I saw that this book was coming out I was totally willing to give it a chance, perhaps even eager.

Salvation Day is Wallace's first adult novel and boy, is it a ride. Set many centuries in Earth's future, it takes a lot of my favourite science-fiction tropes and uses them all with aplomb. The blending of action and politics show more elevated the story beyond a simple 'abandoned spaceship is more dangerous than it appears' plot; it gives depth to the characters and their motivations, and creates an imaginable future as a result.

The book alternates perspectives between Zahra Dove Lago, a disenfranchised young woman angry at how her father was scapegoated after a massacre, and Jaswinder Battacharya, a post-graduate student and only survivor of the aforementioned massacre. Zahra is part of a desert cult that believes the site of the massacre, an abandoned ship floating in space, is perfect for their family of exiles and refugees - they just need Jaswinder to open the ship. Everything starts to go wrong from there, as hostages never behave themselves and neither do the long-dead corpses of the massacre.

To start with there's no romance, it's far more of a sci-fi action-horror story, but Jas' unrequited love for his best friend, Baqir, is a driving force for him. So there's a tiny bit of gay content. Jaswinder is a great character, thoughtful and full of compassion, but deeply haunted by the violence he's seen and the losses he's endured. Likewise Zahra is another interesting character. She's determined and desperate to prove herself to the leader of her group, she thinks well on her feet and is also driven by the pain of the losses she's endured.

I just really enjoyed it. I even teared up a bit at the end. Despite taking place hundreds of years in the future, the characters are very human and recognizable, easy to sympathize with and connect to, which is essential to me as a reader. show less

Received via NetGalley for review.

This book ticks all my boxes: science fiction, cults, horror, and alien parasites. I knew I HAD to read it. And I am so glad I did. There are a few VERY minor quibbles I have (sometimes Jas and Zarah's narrations are too similar, and there are two instances where information is repeated almost verbatim), but the horror and slow reveal of what had happened was so well done and engaging that they don't distract anything from the reading.

House of Wisdom floats in space, surrounded by a deadly impenetrable security net, as evidence of humanity's greatest failure: a research vessel meant to spend years traveling space but instead was infected by a virus deployed by a jealous ex-employee, killing all those show more aboard. There was one survivor, a young boy who claims to have no memory of what happened. 10 years later, when a cult decides that the sprawling abandoned ship is the prefect new home for their family. But when they force their way aboard with the lone survivor, they quickly realize that what they knew was a lie, and there was so much more violence and terror on the ship than they had imagined.

The story is told by both Jas and Zarah, the survivor of the initial outbreak and the leader of the cult's seizure mission, respectively. It was a good choice to lead with Zahra - her belief in Adam was solid and true, and it seemed as though there was no reason for it to be otherwise. The world was a dangerous place, and the government wasn't helping. Why not take control of an abandoned and (as far as they knew) harmless ship so they could escape peacefully? By the time Malachai reveals that Adam has made it all up, so many things have gone wrong that Zarah could no longer deny the sense of wrongness that was always there. Zahra is a true believer, yes, but she is pragmatic and only wants a better life. I wish we had spent a little more time on the Homestead, to see what Adam was truly capable of, but Zahra's fear and reverence of him, combined with the flashes of the deteriorating situation on the ship, did the job.

Jas's sections were the truly scary ones (the scene where Anita's parasite reawakens his father's and starts repeating his mother's last words to him? Truly chilling and dreadful). He never fully elaborates on what he experienced before his mother sent him on a suicide escape pod, but the information we do get and the state of the bodies left behind are more than enough to fill in the blanks. And when the parasites begin to reawaken, struggle, and repeat phrases, to imagine that happening ship-wide... no wonder he doesn't want to remember.

All of the actions and choices undertaken by the characters rang true, and the history of the future and the current situation, while never fully explained, didn't need to be. It's all too easy to imagine the hope the stars bring, and the terror and despair when we realize that hope was in vain. show less

Since watching the first Alien movie, I have come to equate ill-lighted, deserted ship corridors with dread and danger, and in this respect Salvation Day fits the bill in a delightfully scary way.

The background: a few centuries before the novel’s time frame, Earth was devastated by an event called the Collapse, which brought humanity on the brink of extinction. Hauling itself up by its proverbial bootstraps, the survivors decided to rebuild a better world, although only partly succeeding: the Councils are enclaves where the inhabitants can enjoy an optimal quality of life, away from the huge stretches of desert left by the Collapse; in these barren areas end up the people who either refuse to live in the Councils or are not granted show more citizenship, and the harsh life they lead fosters an increasing animosity toward the ruling hierarchy.

While before the Collapse a number of colony ships had left Earth in search of a new home for humanity, almost all of them disappearing without a trace, for a long time space was not a priority, and only recently mankind started to look again toward the stars, its bolder attempt being the construction of the ship House of Wisdom, a massive research vessel that should have been the first attempt to reach out again to deep space. The dream, however, ended in nightmare when a deadly virus was released in the ship, killing everyone on board with the exception of a young child: since then, the vessel was placed in quarantine, enforced by a net of drones keeping everyone away.

As the story starts, a group of people belonging to a sect living in the deserted wastelands takes over a shuttle headed for one of the Moon cities, taking hostage a handful of graduate students, among them Jaswinder Bhattacharya, the sole survivor of the House of Wisdom. The kidnappers’ goal is to commandeer the derelict ship as a means of escape for the cult’s families, and to do that they need to deactivate the security drones using Jaswinder’s genetic imprint. The group is led by Zahra, daughter of the man accused of releasing the deadly virus on House of Wisdom, but they all respond to their charismatic leader Adam, whose promises of a better life have inspired them all.

No plan ever survives its field deployment, however, and things start to go awfully wrong: just a handful of people manages to board House of Wisdom, half the terrorist complement and four of the hostages, and what they find contradicts any information so far released by the Councils about the deaths of the ship’s crew. There are no indications of a viral infection, most of the corpses floating in microgravity showing signs of extreme violence, while others barricaded in isolated areas seem to have died suddenly without any mark on them. Jas knows that the official version was not the true one, but never said anything because he wanted to bury the terrible memories of the day in which he lost both his parents – still, he has no idea of the real threat facing the boarding party, and of the shocking discoveries waiting for them all on the deserted ship.

Reading the synopsis for Salvation Day, I thought it would turn out to be one of those blood-chilling thrillers where uncertainty about the situation and a hostile environment play a huge part in the story, and in some way it is – but in the end this novel is much more, especially where characters are concerned. Jas and Zahra are deeply flawed, and at first it’s not easy to create a connection with them: both scarred by traumatic events in their childhood they keep much of their inner workings bottled up, and for this reason they present to the outer world a façade that has little to do with their real personality. It’s only as the story moves forward, and we put together the little pieces of their lives’ puzzles that we come to see them in a different light, and to understand the reasons for their actions. The harrowing discoveries they make along the way help to create a sort of bridge between them – a tentative, unsteady one, granted – to the point that they find themselves working toward a common purpose: it’s interesting to learn they have both been led astray by lies, lies other visited upon them, lies they choose to believe because the alternative would be worse, and ultimately it’s the shared desire to expose those untruths that breaks the barriers between them.

As far as the story itself is concerned, it’s a deceptively conventional one, because the premise of the hijacking of a derelict ship does not walk the expected path, thanks to the twists and surprises disseminated through the story and enhanced by the excerpts of logs and diaries from the former doomed crew that pop up here and there building toward the final revelation – and let’s not forget the quotes from a message sent back in a probe by one of the colony ships departed before the Collapse, because it plays a vital role in the overall plot.

What’s more, in the honored tradition of science fiction narrative, Salvation Day offers much food for thought about the issues of our present, seen through the filter of the future: in this case it’s about the manipulation of truth in the name of higher goals or about the moral questions facing those who have the resources for survival, like the Councils, in respect of those who struggle in the wastelands, where it’s far too easy for desperate people to fall under the influence of any would-be dictator like the cult leader Adam.

This is a story with many layers, skillfully blended into a highly suspenseful background, and one that unfolds before your eyes not unlike a movie: I for one would appreciate seeing this turned into one, because its claustrophobic atmosphere, steeped in darkness barely illuminated by red emergency lights, from which emerge the floating corpses of the dead crew, would be very effective on screen just as it is in this well-crafted book. show less

Salvation Day should be my jam. After all, there are very few things about a space thriller I would not like. In fact, I still say the premise is a good one. Plus, the execution of the story is decent. It is the ending where Kali Wallace loses me. I wanted more answers than I got, while some of the answers left much to be desired. There is a major event that feels like an easy out rather than the grand gesture Ms. Wallace intends it to be. Moreover, I never connected with any of the characters to care about their fates. She doesn’t flesh them out enough, so they remain one-dimensional and nothing but characters in a story. The virus twist is a fun one in all its aspects. Had Ms. Wallace spent more time on that, it would make a better show more story. Instead, she focuses on the politics at play in this futuristic world of hers that is not very interesting with characters who are less so. So very disappointing. show less

Desperate members of a cult excluded from the Councils—which govern the parts of Earth that are easily livable—plot to steal a spaceship and find their own place to live. But the plot goes wrong when the ship, a prototype abandoned after a previous disaster, turns out to be highly dangerous. Maybe not more dangerous than the cult leader, though. The sole survivor of the previous disaster—now a hostage—and the daughter of the man blamed for it—now a hostage taker and cult member—have to decide what they’ll do to protect what they love. It’s a good adventure story and also a story about the effects of inequality and abuse.

Pros: compelling, thought provoking

Cons: limited tension

The world believes that 10 years ago Zahra’s father killed everyone aboard the House of Wisdom spaceship using an old virus. Zahra now belongs to a wasteland ‘family’ that plans to hijack the ship and use it as a new home, escaping the reach of the United Councils of Earth. To access the ship Zahra and a small group kidnap the only surviving member of the House of Wisdom massacre, Jaswinder Bhattacharya. But the Councils were wrong about what happened on the ship and Zarah’s small infiltration group is about to learn the horrifying truth.

This is a very compelling read. I had a hard time putting it down and finished it in one day. This did have the unfortunate side effect show more that I didn’t really have time to fear for the characters’ lives or feel any emotional connection with any but the point of view characters. There was only limited tension built up before bad things happened.

The story is told from the alternating points of view of Zahra and Jaswinder, with occasional transmission logs in between giving information from the time of the original massacre. Both protagonists were in many ways broken people with tragic pasts and complicated presents. They were interesting to learn more about and easy to sympathize with.

The book occasionally had characters point out the racism and politics of their world, especially with the treatment of Jaswinder’s best friend, Baqir, who immigrated to the Councils but lost family members and an arm to a disease before their application was processed.

The mystery on the ship was handled well, with information being revealed at a satisfying rate.

It’s a great, quick read. show less

So it might be because I've been reading too many "The 100" fics, but I really thought this was a YA sci-fi novel. It's super readable, the characters are diverse, and the villain is almost stereotypically cartoonish in his villainy. However, as a general science fiction novel, I was left wanting more everything a la Three Body Problem (which is actually sometimes too much).