Fans of sci-fi horror will likely recognize the initial setup of A Quiet Universe. A lone fighter enters an ominous derelict spaceship and discovers that terrible things have happened there, chaos ensues. Within that familiar claustrophobic frame, lays a blackened heart that will not let you go until you’ve turned all the pages.
The book follows a character-driven plot structure, with the fabricant CERHA/Sarah taking the lead. The concept of fabricants/artificial humans is central to the mythos of the world (read the appendix), as is the concept of both humans and fabricants “printing” new bodies and transferring their consciousnesses into them. There’s lots of consciousness wibbly-wobbly happening here that contributes to an overall atmosphere of creeping uncertainty. The characters are memorable and believable, particularly Sarah herself, who goes on a number of personal journeys during the run of the book. Upon Silver Tides is, in actuality, her Inferno. Won’t get into the other characters because that’s spoiler territory, but like I said, they all make an impact.
The lore of the book’s world really creeps up on you as you’re reading. The book respects its audience enough to not hold your hand, so like with all good works of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, you gotta be paying attention to understand the context.
The general tone of the book is akin to Pandora’s Box: violent, disturbing, horrifying, but with the sharp glint of hope at the bottom, and Atkinson does a fantastic job with increasing and releasing the “pressure.” So while it is a brutal read, the reader has some space to breathe (assuming your reserve oxygen reservoir is operating correctly).
Speaking of tone, I’d describe the book as having a “staccato” rhythm/tempo: it moves from creepy to action-packed to ultraviolent to introspective, and you never quite know when the shifts will happen. In a less cohesive work it’d be hard to palate, but in this book it’s delicious.
As I mentioned before, the premise is fairly familiar. Inspiration-wise, this book is a pastiche of Alien, Event Horizon, and Signalis (which is a freaking awesome video game that you SHOULD PLAY if you like this book), and while I didn’t spot any direct references, as a fan of all those, I found the mix to be comfortable. This is one of those works that wears its influences on its sleeve in order to do something original.
On those merits alone I’d recommend A Quiet Universe to anyone looking for a good horror novel. But as I close out this review, the dedication at the beginning of the book is flashing through my mind, followed by a resounding, final ‘No.’ As a (presumably) cishet male, while I know of gender euphoria, I don’t think I’ll ever fully comprehend what it means to someone experiencing it. But I feel like I came closer to understanding after a specific moment in this book, where a character rejects dysphoria with the fury of a thousand suns. So yeah, this book is GREAT trans lit too.
As of this review, A Quiet Universe and its sequel, A Sea of Silence are available for purchase on Kay Atkinson’s itch.io, with the third book in their Fleet and Fabricant series, A Mask for the Sun coming out in June. There’s also a very strong audiobook for the first book available that I also highly recommend.
O. A. Bhatti 
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