Rise by Ron Wolff

The ship that brought them hope… now wants them dead.

Adam is the first—and only—human born on Mars. He survived the massacre that killed most of his colony. Now he just wants to keep the others alive.

But Earth has sent new a documentary crew, five genius teens, and a mission wrapped in lies. They don’t believe what happened here. They were told there’d been an incident. They think the survivors are just traumatized kids.

Until it starts again.

Forced to abandon the Martian surface, the survivors take refuge aboard the orbiting starship Horizon. But the nightmare came with them. Something that doesn’t just kill.

It learns. It evolves.

As the infection spreads and the ship turns against them, Adam must lead a fractured crew through a living maze of metal and memory—before there’s no one left to save.

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When the thing hunting you can learn, adapt and find its way into the machinery around you, nowhere is safe.

✶ PRE-READING ✶

Rise is the follow-up to Colony, so although it can be followed on its own, I'd strongly recommend reading these books in order. There's a lot of context from the first story that makes this one more meaningful, particularly when it comes to Adam and the survivors of the Martian colony.

I was looking forward to more of the hard science fiction, and to finding out what happened next after the events of Colony. I was also hoping Adam would continue to be as cool as I remembered him.

He did not disappoint.

✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... the hard-SF elements give this story a fantastic sense of physical reality. There are limits on the air, changes in gravity, escape pods, ship systems and all the other little details that remind you that these characters aren't simply running around an ordinary building. They're on Mars, and then aboard a massive ship in orbit, and every environmental problem has potentially lethal consequences.

I particularly loved the maps of both the Mars colony and the Horizon. Being able to see where the characters are in relation to one another made the story much easier to visualise—and in a claustrophobic horror story, knowing the layout only makes everything more uncomfortable.

It surprised me by... how little I cared when some of the more speculative ideas stretched my suspension of disbelief. (Highlight for spoilers)

Earth has apparently built its largest-ever ship to transport colonists to Mars, only for the ship to remain in orbit afterwards rather than being reused, despite there still being supplies aboard. And the ancient insect lifeform on Mars somehow manages to interface with the ship's computers and control them.

My sensible brain has questions.

My something is making insect noises inside the spaceship brain does not care.

Because Rise is fast. And creepy. And increasingly skin-crawling.

The characters are strong enough to keep the story moving, too, and Adam remains one of my favourite parts of it. I particularly like that the survivors never simply accept being dismissed. They keep fighting for what they know is happening, even when the people around them don't believe them.

That persistence becomes one of the most important things about the story. When everyone else thinks you're traumatised, confused or imagining things, how do you convince them that the danger is real?

And then, of course, the danger starts spreading.

I hope there's a third book to round out the story, because I'd happily follow Adam into another nightmare. But even if this is the end of the collection, I've thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: Dead Space by Kali Wallace. If you enjoy science fiction that traps its characters somewhere hostile and then adds an increasingly unsettling threat, this should hit a similar nerve.

TV or Movie Recommendation: Alien. Obviously. The combination of industrial spacecraft, claustrophobic corridors, limited resources and something very unpleasant moving around where it shouldn't be is hard to beat.

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A colour palette: gunmetal grey, emergency red and the harsh white of artificial lighting.

A soundtrack: low mechanical hums, ventilation systems and distant metallic scratching that absolutely should not be there.

A season: the hottest part of summer, when the air feels heavy and every room seems too warm.

A mood: claustrophobic, frantic, suspicious and increasingly terrified.

A scent: hot metal, recycled air and something faintly organic where nothing organic should be.

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

Seven of Wands.

The Seven of Wands is about defending your position when other people are challenging it. You know what you've seen. You know what you believe is happening. Now you have to stand your ground while everyone around you tells you you're wrong.

That's particularly fitting for Adam and the other survivors. Their fight isn't only against the thing hunting them; it's also against disbelief.

They have already survived something terrible, and that means the people around them are inclined to interpret their warnings through the lens of trauma. But Adam keeps fighting for his corner. He refuses to let other people's disbelief make him doubt what he knows.

The threat may be evolving, but so is his determination to protect the people who depend on him.

✦ THE TRUE QUESTION ✦

How do you keep fighting when nobody believes you?

Rise is full of physical danger, but some of its tension comes from a different kind of helplessness: knowing something is wrong while the people around you refuse to see it.

For Adam, giving up isn't really an option. There are people who need him, and even when the situation seems impossible, he keeps looking for a way to protect them.

Sometimes courage isn't believing you'll win.

Sometimes it's refusing to stop trying when you have no idea whether you can.

Final Thoughts

Rise publishes on the 15th of September. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.