Ahoy there me mateys!  I received an eArc of this sci-fi novel through NetGalley in exchange for me honest musings . . .

I really enjoyed the author's first novel and this one was a lot of fun too.  The highlight for me of the author's writing is her eerie atmospheres.  In this story, psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her study into ERS, a space based illness that leads to hallucinations and violent tendencies.  She is assigned to accompany an exploratory crew to an abandoned planet where one of their members had a tragic accident.  Or did they?

The crew just wants to complete their aborted mission and get paid.  Ophelia is determined to help them work through the past trauma on the planet.  The crew wants nothing to do with her or her offered help.  The setting of an abandoned planet with horrible weather conditions was excellent fun.  I loved how every thing started going wrong.  The abandoned station, ruins, distrust of the crew, and unanswered questions were the best part.

I do wish that this book did not focus so much on Ophelia's own trauma.  I felt that too much time was spent with her facing her past demons, discussing her past, and not enough on the situation at hand.  I felt like I spent more time in her head then on the planet.  I think her PTSD helps make her an unreliable narrator but I would have preferred that the focus was actually on ERS and the current predicament.  Part of the problem was that, for me, sending a psychologist who is that damaged seemed silly and the reasons for it (politics etc.) were not convincing.

Despite that flaw, I still read this pretty quickly and wanted to know how it would all resolve.  I do think many readers will enjoy Ophelia as a main character.  I wanted more insight into the crew dynamics and more definite answers into ERS and the mysteries on the planet itself.  No regrets reading this though and I will read whatever the author writes next.  Arrr!