Welcome to the Madhouse

A Medical Space Station Thriller (The Grace Lord Series, Book 1)

By: S. E. Sasaki

Narrated by: Marc Leclerc

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

In space, medicine can be murder....

Grace Lord, combat surgeon in training, has just landed her dream job aboard a medical space station. Attacked by a powerful, gorilla-enhanced combat soldier the moment she steps onto the station, she quickly realizes this assignment will be far from typical. She treats the wounded space marines of the Conglomerate under the watchful eyes of stalking androids who all look alike and a mentor with a serious case of megalomania. Meeting a drop-dead gorgeous psychiatrist almost makes it worth it, until the station docks with a mysterious vessel....

The ship is void of crew. There are only some suspicious-looking oily puddles instead. Then Death comes hammering on the station with a flying fist. Before she knows it, Grace and her companions are on a race against the clock to find a cure for the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known before the medical station is blown out of existence....

Welcome to the Madhouse is a unique medical-sci-fi thriller that will put you on the edge of your seat. If you like sci-fi that combines gripping suspense, laugh-out-loud humor, and unforgettable characters, then you’ll love S. E. Sasaki’s debut novel.

Buy Welcome to the Madhouse to see a new side of sci-fi today!

"A layered debut that sings odes to the grandmasters of sci-fi." (Kirkus Reviews)

"S.E. Sasaki is a hidden treasure, a powerhouse artistic talent who in Madhouse brings us medical science fiction on a personal, engaging level that is addictive to read, sometimes scary, and always fun. Recommended!" (Ed Greenwood, best-selling international creator of The Forgotten Realms©)

©2015 Sharon Eiko Sasaki (P)2020 Sharon Eiko Sasaki

If you love Star Trek or The Orville, you’ll like this one

Welcome to the Madhouse, A Medical Space Station Thriller, is the first adventure in the award-winning Grace Lord Series written by family physician, talented author, and visual artist S.E.Sasaki.

The action of Welcome to the Madhouse follows a hard-working surgeon on the Conglomerate’s Premier Medical Space Station, the Nelson Mandela.

Grace Lord is a combat surgeon in training who has just landed her dream job aboard this facility. Right from the beginning, things take a turn for the worse when she is immediately attacked by a crazy robot and later, a mysterious vessel that carries a plague with a high mortality rate docs with the station.

In this story that is pleasantly reminiscent of both Star Trek and the Orville, Doctor Grace Lord has to find a cure for the deadly disease before the station, and the entire universe for that matter, are destroyed.

Beautifully written, extremely amusing, featuring some unforgettable characters, and driven by an expertly constructed scenario, Welcome to the Madhouse is science-fiction literature at its best!

The audiobook version of Welcome to the Madhouse is performed by theater actor, voiceover artist, and audiobook narrator Marc Leclerc. He reads in a pleasant voice, seamlessly switching between characters and accents. Marc effortlessly brings to life male, female, alien, and robot protagonists. Although his performance starts at a breakneck speed, Marc settles down fast and delivers quite an enjoyable narration.

I am aware that it is customary for an audiobook that has a female lead to be narrated by a woman but have no worries, Marc Leclerc handles everything just fine and with the production having a lot of male characters, I think nobody will find a fault with this choice.

If you like science-fiction series like Star Trek, Babylon 5, and The Orville, you’ll love Welcome to the Madhouse and even the second audiobook, Bud by the Grace of God!

Surgens, AI, and Tigers. Can't ask for more.

From the very start you are swept away to the future. Where war is fought with genetically modified humans. This is where Grace fits in. A brilliant young surgeon comes to a distant space station and learns to put the pieces of these warriors back together. But little does she know what she has in store for her in this fun and exciting space drama. Loved it!

A True Madhouse!

Welcome to the Madhouse: Book One of the Grace Lord Series was written by S.E. Sasaki and Narrated by Marc Leclerc. This story lives up to its title, it's a true madhouse of a tale. Jump starting with immediate action, then moving to a weird love triangle, onto the ethics of being a surgeon who is healing soldiers that will just go back to fighting in an unexplained war. After that it takes a hard right to a viral outbreak with an extremely high mortality rate, then double backs to this weird love triangle topped with a murder mystery. And on and on with the weird turns.


While this story kept me entertained it felt like it was being told in a vacuum. I wish there was more explanation of the world this story took place in. This could have provided more depth and understanding to the main characters. The characters were entertaining and sometimes hilarious; though they still lacked depth in the way the characters acted differently than their previously described characteristics and mindsets.


Marc Leclerc's narration of this story started off rough but ended well. He started off at a very fast pace of speech but later got into a solid reading cadence. The differences in voice for different characters were distinguishable and consistent.


Editing, quality, and production were on par with most books I have listened to. It was clear, with no issue with sound or quality.


Disclaimer: This Audiobook was provided free of charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias, honest review.