Nether Station: A Novel of Cosmic Horror review

Long time no chat! I have a couple of things coming, but first and foremost, a Netgalley ARC review!

This post's review is for NETHER STATION, by Kevin J. Anderson, published by Blackstone Publishing and releasing on October 29, 2024.

Score: 3.5 Stars! 🌕🌕🌕🌗

As a fan of speculative science fiction as a whole, and more specifically stories such as Project Hail Mary and Event Horizon, as well as the concepts proposed in Alien: Prometheus, I was immediately ecstatic to read Nether Station. Further reading and learning it is a Weird Tales Presents publication made my interest skyrocket, as I'm not only an avid fan of weird literature, but a long time fan of Weird Tales itself.

Immediately, I found the scientific concepts easy to follow along with as a non-scientifically learned person-- while it doesn't exactly hold your hand and throws you immediately into the concepts used as the foundation of the story, Nether Station also provides enough context clues to keep you afloat while also guiding the reader seamlessly into the story. It's an easy to understand speculative science fiction tale, and requires no hard knowledge beforehand.

Upon finishing this novel, I felt mixed in opinion as a reader. There were a few things Nether Station tackled exceedingly well! And then there were other concepts that felt a bit dorky in execution.

To start, Cammie Skoura is an absolute treasure of a primary character. Her growth in overcoming her fears and isolation was stellar, and not only that, but she deserves every ounce of heroism the ending gives her. Nevertheless, I found the way several of the male characters approached her to be needlessly creepy, and the focus on her non-romantic relationship with the head scientist being questioned several times felt unnecessary.

As a cosmic horror fan, and particularly a Lovecraft fan, I found the detailed descriptions of horror to be horrifying. From the greenhouse scenes with plant decay and intelligence, to the scenes with the rats and monkey, and even further to the detailed scenes regarding the dead, everything felt outstanding, and several times I gripped my reading device in fear at these creatures reactions to madness and horror.

The exploration of the wormhole itself, as well as the exploration of this unknown alien civilization felt exciting. The mystery behind what was going on in the wormhole led up to a grand conclusion that I felt was successful and horrific. The shared knowledge of the alien race, too, kept me keyed in as a reader, and several times I found it hard to put the book down due to how exciting these mysteries became.

That said, other parts of the cosmic horror, not so much. The rather obvious Lovecraft namedrops made several parts of the novel feel more like At the Mountains of Madness fanfiction rather than something that stood on its own, which is what I anticipated reading at first. Once I realized what was happening, as a fan of the specific stories referenced within Nether Station, I was able to immerse myself in the now-shared universe a bit more and I did appreciate what Nether Station accomplished within that viewpoint.

One thing I found myself unsure of as a reader was what happens to Benedict Noor in the novel. I found him perfectly unlikable, and a perfect antagonist toward the main cast within their own group. He very clearly represents a certain type of person found in real life-- the know it all businessman entrepreneur who thinks his money supersedes science-- and the tension between him and the characters made for a great storyline. That said, his "ending" didn't feel ultimately satisfactory within Nether Station. I would have liked to see those ramifications he suffers upped a bit further, see them drawn out.

Overall, Nether Station is a great read, even with my complaints. I enjoyed my time reading it, and I look forward to its official release. As well, I look forward to Kevin J. Anderson's sequel, Nether Vortex.

Thank you to NetGalley, Blackstone Publishing, and Kevin J. Anderson for this advanced copy.

 

Thanks for reading! I know it's been a hot minute, but there will be some other posts soon.
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