Requiem by John Palisano

Publisher - Flame Tree Press

Published - Out Now

Price - £20 hardback £4.95 ebook

Ava must fight an entity locked in on taking out the crew of the Eden, a moon-sized cemetery in space, as it brings back the souls of the dead buried aboard. One such soul is Ava’s lost love, Roland.

The spirits of the interred on the Eden haunt those aboard, including a visiting musician is tasked with writing a new song for the dead. Her Requiem calls a cosmic entity that illuminates their darkest fears and secrets. One by one, they're driven mad. Ava fights her grief and must rise up before they're lost and the entity reaches Earth.

We have all seen in horror people go to investigate a place where something is wrong and things get even worse. People seem to forget doing the same thing and not realising you get the same result can be madness. But we enjoy watching it happen to other people! Sadly reading Requiem by John Palisano I feel I’ve read a science fiction horror novel that really doesn’t quite work:

Ultimately the story requires quite a lot of leaps. Earth is creating a giant graveyard in space. It’s gone horribly wrong so a rescue crew is sent. Then bad things happen to them and soon we get into a world of alien presences and a fight back.

It’s very choppy. Palisano wants to plunge us straight into the action but doesn’t really give the cast time to make us seen than as more than stock characters who either die or get into extreme situations in one case without any warning. Even the Eden plot ends unexplained at the end as an appendix rather than the main story! A horror novel where I don’t care about cast or situation feels a very disappointing experience. Lots of ambition but does not manage to make an effective story. Sadly, not one I can recommend.