The Void Beyond

A Science Fiction Horror Novel

By: P.W. Hillard

Narrated by: Matt Jenkins

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the vastness of space, something lurks in the darkness.

Captain Morgan Starling and her crew travel the stars, shipping cargo from one system to the next. Easy work, until first contact with another race devolved into all-out war.

Now, they’re under attack from humanity’s mysterious alien foe, ambushed in the void between systems. When an unknown vessel comes to their aid, events spiral out of control, a twisted secret within its haunted corridors threatening to consume them, body and soul.

What they discover within will shatter what they know of life and death. Dragged into a battle with monstrous unfathomable forces, they must escape the nightmarish creatures that lurk out amongst the infinite black of space.

Forced into a desperate struggle for life, the crew must survive, if they ever want to get home...

©2020 Peter Hillard (P)2020 Peter Hillard

One hell of a good ride.

Although there are Dead Space vibes in this Lovecraftian tale The Void Beyond is it's own animal. If, like yours truly, you are a fan of cosmic horror and hard sci fi, then I recommend this book. This is one of the most gripping and engaging books I've come across. With my American ears it took some getting used to in regards of the narrator, but the guy did an excellent job. I'm not one for leaving a review, but damn, this book was awesome. By far the best book I've come across in a long time. I will be driving into the author's other works as well.

Could've Been Good

It's hard to go wrong with SciFi horror, but this book managed it.

It is basically attempting to be a mix of a deep space Lovecraftian horror and a ghost story. It falls very short on the Lovecraftian end, lacking in properly horrific descriptions and the famously vague allusions of the style. The ghost story aspect is pretty typical of the style (which I find to be boring).

The biggest problem this book has though, is the characters. They are flat, there is no character development. Most of them are annoying enough that when they were inevitably killed off, I was glad to not have to hear their stupid dialogue anymore. Perhaps the worst thing about them though, is that they are flippant about everything. I assume that was meant to be an attempt at humor, but it utterly ruins the story.

The narration is also pretty bad. Every character has the same voice, with no attempt at emotional inflection, whether they're complaining about someone's living habits or watching someone's head get ripped off.

I consider this to have been a waste of a credit.

Boring, Cliché, Plagiaristic, and Awful Narration

Narrator has 3 voices-
Cheery Sarcastic Male
Cheery Sarcastic Female
Cheery Sarcastic Vaguely Scottish Male

All of them are AWFUL. It seems as though, at several points in the book, the narrator is reading this story for the first time. Example- the narrator speaking for a character at full volume, with the ubiquitous cheer and disconnection to the events of the story that all characters share, followed by "...he said weakly, barely audible over his radio." Also the Scottish accent he tries to do is cringe-worthy at best.


That isn't to say a great book is ruined by bad narration.... oh no, this book is a bad book no matter who is reading it. The baddies in this are just about 100% plagiarized straight out of Dead Space. The characters aren't particularly different from each other in any meaningful way and immediately fall into the standard tropes... the smart one, the brave one, the smug one, etc.

One part that stuck with me was the self-deprecating "humor" of the author. A character being told about something creepy by another character responds with "...No way, that's like something you'd read in a terrible horror novel!"

The book nearly falls apart in the last few hours. continuity errors start to happen rather often (is there gravity or not?), (minor spoilers!) characters will die for seemingly no reason other than the author is trying to get some sort of shock value, which falls flat on its face because absolutely nobody would care about these characters.

There's also this weird bit of a lesson or philosophy that's hamfistedly shoved in there... I don't know why. I would rate this book 0/5 if I could. I finished it out of spite so I could write this review.

Ending sucks

The ending ruins the entire novel. By turning it into every other trashy slasher movie.

Horror in Space

Captain Morgan Starling and the crew of the Newport are in the middle of a battle against alien enemies. Then, a huge battleship appears and "saves" them. But, who (or what) is controlling the ship?

This book was very reminiscent of the movie "Alien" and just as creepy. It is hard to imagine something more horrific than being trapped on a ship in space with an entity that slowly kills off everyone onboard.

The characters were likeable and realistic and the dialogue between them was enjoyable. The alien, 729, was refreshing and quickly became my favorite character. The author did a great job with building the tension as the book progressed. The world building and character development were perfect and the book was well-written.

The narrator did a great job and the pacing was perfect. My only complaint was his (supposedly) Texas-type accents, which were pretty bad. All in all, this was a great book with enough Sci-fi to please fans of that genre without being too over the top for the horror fans. I will definitely be looking for more books by this author.

I was given the chance to listen to the audiobook version of this book through StoryOrigin and chose to review it.

Incredible once you know the characters' names

The beginning is a bit confusing. It jumps between characters with no warning. Once you're familiar with the characters it gets a smidge less jarring, but it does get better! It all makes sense by the end. Incredible story!

One Dimensional Story And Flat Narration

This book is framed as a horror in space similar to Alien or Event Horizon. It fails at both. I can't be sure where to lay most of the blame on the characters and writing or the narration. Both come across as extremely flat with little character arc or vocal enticement to keep me interested.

The plot itself also comes across as unnecessarily convoluted and over-simple at the same time. I guess that's not something you see in every story.

good horror novel

this was a very interesting book. it presents you with an intriguing question in the beginning and follows through throughout the book with giving bread crumbs of answers. a very fun read and will be reading the next one

Great book!

Could not turn this book off. The UK narrator gave it a nice change to the normal American narrators.

Couldn't hold my attention not worth the money.

Ive listen to quite a few audio books and this is the only one that couldn't hold my attention the story is pretty basic and the narrator makes the whole story seem like a comedy instead of a horror novel. Not worth the money.

Enjoyable listen

Quite liked the space horror. Was pleasently surprised by the story. One of my favourite characters I can't say who that is as it will spoil it but really good take on the old, man vs alien dynamic I would recommend this