Salvation Day by Kali Wallace – Review

Published: July 9, 2019

Publisher: Berkley

Series: Standalone

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 320 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.

They thought the ship would be their salvation.

Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya—the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.

But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship—a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.

And then they woke it up.

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Salvation Day what I expected in sort of a superficial way – everyone on a spaceship dies from a mysterious illness. Cue a group of people who want onto the spaceship where *gasp* THE PARASITE IS STILL ALIVE AND INFECTIOUS. See, classic, right?

Once you get down to the finer details, Salvation Day has some interesting twists that aren’t as predictable. The Earth has suffered greatly from human impact (climate change) and society has collapsed and rebuilt itself. In the desert wastelands there are outlier groups that when it boils right down to it are just cults. One of these cults has acquired a ship and gone to space where they plan to eventually move into the big ol’ contaminated research ship. The story focuses on the team sent to kidnap some important young adults who they plan to use to get past the ships automated defenses.

This is definitely more focused on the characters and the matter at hand than on in depth world building, but what we got was interesting. It was enough for the story, which being a standalone didn’t need (or have time for) too much. 

I really enjoyed this and read it pretty quickly. There aren’t dull moments and honestly, this would probably terrify me as a movie. SO. STRESSFUL. I’d highly recommend this if you’re looking for a quick sci-fi thriller for summer!