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“The world not as it is, but as it is meant to be.”

Author: Kali Wallace

The House of Wisdom is half legend, half nightmare. A once mighty exploration vessel, it orbits now in space, abandoned, all its inhabitants dead, the victims of a virus that spread and killed indiscriminately. There was only one survivor – a lone child named Jaswinder Bhattacharya – who was shot into space in an experimental vessel. And he has said nothing all these years.

Flashforward ten years. Jas is an adult man now, traveling on a spaceship with his childhood best friend (and would-be lover) and a group of other students to the moon. He never speaks about House of Wisdom and what happened there. He claims he doesn’t remember. But is that really true?

Jas is soon confronted by his memories and their meanings when a separatist group known as “The Family” hijacks his ship and holds everyone hostage. Jas’ unique genetic key will let them into the abandoned spaceship, which they plan to commander for their group, leaving Earth behind to build their own utopian society. They know about the virus. They are all inoculated, all prepared. They are also ready to die for their freedom, for a chance for The Family. Zahra, leader of the mission, also has her own personal ties to House of Wisdom and the secrets it holds.

Of course, when The Family and its hostages arrive at House of Wisdom, the full horror and the full truth are revealed. It was never a virus, and no one is safe. What the original 400+ people on House of Wisdom did at the time – what they sacrificed, what they endured, what they killed for – could all be undone and the world reshaped as we know it.

Salvation Day blends horror and adventure with moments of introspective growth. The heroes and villains here, if indeed there are any, are complicated. Their stories intertwined. There are no simple answers, and soon it becomes apparent that “The Family” does have true claims on justice. They have been outcast and segmented in society, mistreated, thrown into the desert as an unwanted people. Their charismatic leader is both using them and propelling them toward seeking their own rights.

The students, of course, are equally blighted on their end – the victims of mischance. As the narrative unfurls and they interact with the ship, their captors, and one another, fear battles the survival instinct and right and wrong mix, entwine, and degenerate against a backdrop of past lies and the potential of a shattered future. It’s safe to say, the characters grow and change, all at a rapid pace as history comes alive around them again.

Image by Fran Soto from Pixabay

The story alternates between Jas, who was just ok, and Zhara, the original villainess turned anti-hero. It’s Zarah’s chapters that truly shine for me and her growth that is the most poignant and nuanced. She realizes things about herself, her heredity, her biological family, and her chosen “Family,” rapidly deconstructing and reconstructing her understanding of reality and her assessment of the right thing to do.

Jas is more stayed. He did remember, but now he is confronted by his own silence, his own inaction. He is central to the ending, but compared to Zhara, his stoicism is less enthralling, his emotions more cloaked.

And what of the horror on the ship? This is where sci-fi and exploration horror blend perfectly. We get an answer – a terrifying one – and yet the horror takes backstage to the adventure and the character growth, giving what is an otherwise fast-paced narrative time to breath and build on itself. Everything here happens quickly, and we feel the adrenaline rush, but we also feel the timelessness of death and terror, of a frozen spaceship suspended in space, of a future at risk. The minutes freeze, and author Kali Wallace perfectly paces the action so that we can enjoy the story – jumping at the right moments and stopping to introspect at the right moments.

The only slightly sour notes are Jas’ romance with his friend Baqir and the conclusion. Let’s tackle the romance first.

The romance/love is never really spoken – just something that hovers between the two men. It becomes annoying as a plot device because, of course, Baqir is the first one targeted by the kidnappers. This just feeds into that old trope of putting the love interest at risk without letting the actual character grow. Baqir does, to his credit, give us some important prospectives on the marginalized Family, however.

The real problem is the ending. It’s perfect . . . but then it keeps going. Honestly, a cliffhanger might have been better here than the deux ex machina, threaten-the-powers-that-be motif. We’d been believing everything up until this point, but that final chapter pushes it a bit too far. Also, and this sounds dark, I know, a horror book with a happy ending isn’t necessarily a good fit. Perhaps it didn’t have to be a sad ending or a catastrophic ending, but something with a little more somberness maybe? Something that still speaks of the visceral impact of what we just went through and the years of therapy all these characters are going to need?

But those are all minor quibbles. In the grand scheme of things, Salvation Day was an amazing space horror/adventure story, and there are really too few of those out there. Be sure to treat yourself, pick this up, and get ready to get paranoid.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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