This book wasn't quite what I expected but I still had such a great time reading it!
Dead Space - Martyr explores the discovery of a strange alien artifact on earth, and the rise of a new cult centered around said artefact. The story follows Michael Altman, a geophysicist, as he attempts to unravel the secrets of the mysterious artifact, and the military's involvement with it.
This is the origin story of the Dead Space franchise, and is a great start for people who are curious about the franchise but have never played the games (or who just want to read a good scifi book). Gamers will recognise familiar names and will probably have an idea of the catastrophe awaiting them at the end. No matter to which group you belong, Martyr is a thrilling story for everyone.
This book takes its time to grow the narrative, explores characters and slowly builds up tension over the course of the story. The chapters are short, and contineously switch between several characters, which makes for a great reading pace. There is a lot of conflict, suspicious military activity, secret laboratories, increasingly violent behavior and hysteria, hallucinations, and a very, very high and brutal body count throughout the story.
I was getting a little impatient towards the end, but only because I knew what was coming and very much anticipated the "big boom". Safe to say that the chaos was very much worth the wait.
Martyr feels strangely 'low scifi', given the fact that there isn't much to go around in terms of high-tec that one would usually expect in a scifi story. There are mentions of resource scarcities on earth, 'moon skirmishes', and a frequent use of highly advanced submersibles, which remind the reader that this story is set in the near future. But the book never specifies the year in which this story takes places, which left me feeling a little disorientated. Just a little detail that I noticed, but which never took away from my enjoyment of the book.
It's for that reason that I think Martyr makes a good starter for people who are unfamiliar with scifi, or normally don't like scifi.
This book was originally published in 2010 and has now been re-published. The story and characters have a certain 'early 2000s narrative' vibe around them. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but just another thing that I noticed.
BONUS: If you don't want to commit to a new series, Martyr can be easily read as a stand-alone.
Try out Dead Space - Martyr if you enjoy:
- a mysterious, dangerous alien presence
- corrupt military meddling with things that they can't control
- mass hallucinations and insanity
- violent outbursts
- secret underwater laboratories
- body horror and gore
- extraterrestrial horrors beyond your comprehension
- a creepy cult
