The Plasm

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A Lovecraftian sci-fi/supernatural horror set in space. While some might say that it's reminiscent of the movie Event Horizon, I found it to be an original premise and a whole new take on the universe that was created by HPL. Actually, I think he would have appreciated it.

It's a quick read and definitely worth your time if you're a fan of supernatural horror.

Two partners, Sam and Steve come across a spaceship that was lost mysteriously and accidentally unleash a blue plasma that feeds on everything it touches...

The bit about the ship was a nice touch “Sailors have the Marie Celeste; airmen have flight 109 ... spacefarers had the Vordlak.” Experiments were done on it to harness energy from what was thought to be the supernatural but was actually drawing from another place with a Lovecraftian being living in it .. Unfortunately all the creepiness is done away soon after because the blue glowing blob, basically another Shoggoth retread, while obviously dangerous just isn't that interesting. There are things about dreams and a black pyramid but it's not the main focus, it's all just another set up to do a blob story.

This follows two sets of main characters because what happens on the ship causes a breach on Mars as well, with another blue blob consuming and growing. The main characters are OK, but nothing special. All the side characters are terrible, soldiers that just keep shooting at the plasm even though it was shown to be ineffective, and other spacefarers that of course don't believe the things happening are real and choose to ignore them. It's really obvious they were only there to die, and they were mostly pointless characters to the story.

The set up to this is great, as well as the short story that is used throughout, but it really lost steam in the second half and just became another generic story with Lovecraft stuff thrown in.