CarlAlves

I had heard a lot of buzz about author Brett Talley, so I was looking forward to reading The Void, his second novel, and Talley not only met but exceeded my expectations . The book is part sci-fi, part horror, and all together creepy. Set in deep space in the near future when distant space travel is possible, there is one caveat to the ability to travel long distances in space. When the travelers go through a warp drive, they are put to sleep where they have dreams that border on nightmares. The dreams are always the same, and sometimes they drive the person to madness. One thing I really enjoyed about the novel is the richness of the world of the dreams. They remind me quite a bit of the dream sequences from the movie Inception. As I mentioned, normally the dreams are all the same, except in this voyage, their are slight differences in each person's dream. Talley does a good job of giving the reader the sense that the world he created is about to fracture in a big way. Aidan Connor, the story's protagonist, has recently been in a shuttle that was destroyed, leaving him the soul survivor. Meanwhile, a couple of the passengers of the shuttle have their own agenda, unbeknownst to the rest of the crew. All of these things build a sense of inevitable doom that permeates the novel.

When the crew reaches their destination, the dreams start to blend into reality, as they discover a ship that was part of a scientific experiment. That's the point in the story where things really start to unravel for the crew. Talley does a masterful job of creating chills throughout the novel as well as building up tension. As a fellow writer, I appreciate his craftsmanship and ability to manipulate language with great skill. The Void is well worth reading and I would highly recommend it for your reading pleasure.
Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity