Review of "Ghost Station: A Sci-Fi Horror Novel" by S.A. Barnes

Dr. Ophelia Bray became a mental health professional to 'do good', and to make amends for her notorious family.

Ophelia's forbears, the Brays, founded the Pinnacle Company, a research & development enterprise that got extremely wealthy by mining asteroids and extrasolar planets.



Pinnacle "dumped it's employees out there" in dangerous environments, and spent as little money as possible to maintain decent working and living conditions.



The situation came to a head when Ophelia's father, Lark Bledsoe - a miner on the Goliath station - contracted a space sickness called Eckhart-Reiser Syndrome (ERS). ERS can cause insanity and violence, and Bledsoe rampaged through Goliath with a wrench and pickax, slaughtering dozens of people.



Now Ophelia is a psychologist at the Montrose Corporation, which also mines asteroids and extrasolar planets. Ophelia counsels Montrose workers, providing medication as needed, to reduce the odds of ERS.



Montrose sends Ophelia to a planet called Lyria 393-C, which is being surveyed for ore and other valuable components. One Montrose employee on Lyria, a woman named Ava, contracted ERS and died.....and Ophelia is tasked with counseling the remaining personnel, to prevent the spread of the illness.



When Ophelia arrives on Lyria she meets the survey team, composed of five people: Mission Commander Ethan Severin;



Pilot Birch Osgoode;



Inventory Specialist Suresh Patel;



Engineer Kate Wakefield;



and Scientific Coordinater Liana Chong.



The entire crew resists counseling, and Suresh and Birch are out-and-out hostile. Ophelia repeatedly tries to get the team to speak to her, and to demonstrate she can be useful, Ophelia joins the crew to do surveys; collect samples; etc.



The Montrose team examines artificial structures, studies natural phenomena, takes core samples, makes analyses, etc. It seems Lyria was once home to intelligent beings called Lyrians, who left artifacts behind.



In addition, it appears a previous survey team left Lyria in a hurry, abandoning some of their personal possessions.



Before long, some Montrose crew members become aggressive, and Ophelia fears ERS is taking hold. This is followed by shocking discoveries; auditory and visual hallucinations; physical stigmata on the personnel; and a horrible bloody death.



It's clear SOMETHING is happening on Lyria, and since this is a horror-science fiction novel, it's something BAD.

The story is interesting and moves along at a brisk pace. My major criticism revolves around the character Ophelia, who's overly obsessed with her past. Ophelia constantly thinks back to terrible events that befell her, to the point she's almost paralyzed with anxiety.



I kept thinking, 'Ophelia, you're an adult and a medical professional with important responsibilities. Put the past aside and get on with your life.'

That said, this is an engaging sci-fi story that would probably appeal to fans of the genre.

Thanks to Netgalley, S.A. Barnes, and Tor Publishing Group for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars