Occupant

By: Zach James

Narrated by: Robert Dane

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Humanity has reached the stars.

No longer bound to Earth or the Core Sol System, the human race has expanded into the far beyond, seeding itself throughout the final frontier. It has been a time of great expansion, hope, and progress.

These remote colonies, some found at the fringes of the Outer Rim, rely on supplies brought to them by deep-space commercial shipping vessels, which transport the needed goods and commodities to keep humanity alive and thriving in the most remote and austere locations. This story follow the crew of one such ship, the PlanetTEC-owned shipping vessel known as the Yunoma. Thirteen crewmembers on a standard long-range delivery trip. Something that should have been trivial, and frankly, boring.

But the men aboard the Yunoma soon make a terrifying discovery. Space is a big place, and it contains unimaginable horrors that none of them could have conceived. It's fast. It's dangerous. And it's hungry.

Occupant marks action thriller author Zach James' first foray into the realm of science fiction and horror. Inspired by old-school, slow-burn science fiction and horror, Zach combines his love of classic horror and his overactive imagination with the primal human fear of the unknown in this story set in a new universe that shows just how hostile space, and the things found out there, truly are.

©2022 Zach James (P)2022 Zach James

Another fun book by an up and coming author

Loved this book! The story was engaging and felt like Dead Space mixed with Alien. It was a perfect October book. Without any spoilers, I'm really hoping the author writes more novels within the universe he built in this book. There is a lot more story in there. Keep it up Zach!

Great homage to classic space horror!

Love Zach James' work with Modern Mercenary series and hope this will lead to another chapter in this tale!

An Instant Sci-Fi Classic

For anyone who's a fan of Alien, Dead Space, The Thing, and The Expanse - you'll love this. Great pacing and a great and terrifying atmosphere. The author seems to be a gun and gear guy like myself, and I'll admit I was taken out of immersion a bit when hearing that guys in the 2200s are still running Daniel Defense Mk. 18s, PlateFrames, and Multicam and desert MARPAT combat uniforms, and hearing brands like Mio also threw me off.

If I had only one gripe about the book is that I wish the weapons and kit were more imaginative and "Sci-Fi" instead of things that left me scratching my head as to how guys 200 years in the future are running 2000s-era equipment in a universe with androids, cloning, etc., as things like Mk. 18s should be in a museum by that time and looked at the same way we look at rifles and kit from the Civil War.

All that being said, I absolutely loved the book. I think it fits right alongside the big Sci-Fi horror classics from John Carpenter and Ridley Scott. Occupant will be an instant recommendation from me, and I eagerly await a sequel!

A great entry into the space-horror canon!

If you like things like DeadSpace, The Expanse or Alien this is going to be a book for you. It does spend quite a lot of time worldbuilding, but that just makes the payoff even better! I hope the author publishes more books in this genre!