Full Title: Nether Station
Author: Kevin J. Anderson
Genre: Science Fiction Horror
Published: 2024
Publishing Company: Blackstone Publishing
My Five Star Rating: 4 stars

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Science Fiction That Reads Like Horror

If you like science fiction thrillers with elements of horror, this book is for you. At times it reminded me of Alien, one of my favorite classic movies. For fans of hard SciFi, this isn’t exactly what you’d get from writers like Alastair Reynolds or Stephen Baxter, but it is a phenomenally good balance between believable science and a splendidly terrifying story.

Hard SciFi That Doesn’t Go Too Hard

Kevin J. Anderson is one of my favorite writers precisely for that reason. He tells an incredibly good, believable story without getting bogged down in obscure details of the actual science. I find many authors these days go overboard with that, slowing down the pace of the story immeasurably.

Space Exploration With a Terrifying Twist

Primarily a tale of space exploration, Nether Station quickly breaks down into a chilling adventure following a group of scientists fighting for their lives. They are thrust into a situation where they are faced with the almost impossible task of not allowing the proverbial “evil genie” out of the bottle. In this case, the genie is an ancient race of aliens trapped inside a wormhole.

Interesting Characters Fighting Their Own Demons

The novel centers around a young, socially inept astrophysicist by the name of Cammie Skoura. Cammie is a beautiful woman, but she wouldn’t believe it if you told her. If it has nothing to do with wormholes, she’s oblivious to it.

Up to now, her work has been exclusively theoretical, but when an actual wormhole is discovered in the Kuiper Belt out near the orbit of Pluto, her career takes a more hands-on form.

Wormholes Used for More Than Space Travel

Soon, a wealthy industrialist organizes a private mission to the very edges of the solar system to study the wormhole. He recruits Cammie for the mission since she is one of the foremost authorities on the phenomenon.

When they get there, they discover that the wormhole is actually a gateway to other areas of the galaxy, but that’s not all. This gateway was once used by several different alien species eons ago.

There are ancient artifacts floating in space all around the wormhole, and it’s up to Cammie’s team to piece together what happened.

The Classic Struggle Between Good and Evil

Upon closer examination of the gravitational anomaly and surrounding area, they find signs of violence everywhere. The closer Cammie’s scientific team get to understanding what happened so long ago, the closer they get to unleashing the ancient evil all over again.

A Very “Easy” Read

This is an excellent book and a truly easy read. I love reading novels like this. They are almost effortless as the pages slip by, almost like watching a movie in your mind. I must say, horror isn’t usually Kevin J. Anderson’s thing.

Sure, he’s a science fiction writer, but I think this might be his first SciFi horror. I may be mistaken, however. In any case, he does a superb job.

My Rating

I would give Nether Station 4 stars out of 5. Definitely worth your while not to pass up. Check out some of his other books, especially the novels in the Dune series he’s written with Brian Herbert.

Trivia

Kevin J. Anderson is not related to the famous science fiction writer Poul Anderson, but it turns out they knew each other quite well. Poul Anderson apparently attended Kevin’s wedding. (Source: goodreads.com)