Book Review – Echoes of Olympus Mons by Eric Malikyte

There aren’t that many sci-fi horror stories that I’m aware of. Someone please correct me one what I’m missing because I really enjoy the genre. On the movie end, I can think of Event Horizon, the original Alien (Aliens, great as it was, was more action than horror) and, uh, Predator, I guess. And, let’s face it, Predator was just a badass retelling of Beowulf with an alien and guns, which is why it won the Academy Award for Best Movie Ever Made.

I’m sure there are more out there, but those are the only ones that come to mind.

Anyway, like I said, the sci-fi genre is rife with possibilities for some good horror stories, especially ones that introduce a brand new kind of bad guy. That’s why Eric Malikyte’s Echoes of Olympus Mons was such a treat. It wasn’t just that it was well-written with some suberb character development and a hefty dose of science, it was the fact that he came up with a monster that hasn’t been done before. I won’t spoil it by telling you, but it’s a genuinely unique take on sci-fi horror.

Malikyte keeps you guessing throughout the book. Even though the action is spelled out, he leaves enough wiggle room to make you wonder if what’s happening is really happening or not. He paints us solid, real characters who are far from perfect charicatures, and gives us a vision of Mars that shows a red planet that frankly doesn’t give a rat’s ass about us.

If you enjoy well-written horror that doesn’t go over the top and descend into straight gore – although there is plenty of that – pick up Echoes of Olympus Mons and get ready to spend a few nights with a book you can’t put down.

Once they see you nowhere is safe.

Olympus One colony students Hal Leon and Akio Sato have made history. Their invention, a camera that images dark matter, has had its first successful test; but what it reveals may put human life on Mars in jeopardy. 

Hal believes that the strange animalistic silhouettes hidden in the dark matter web prove his theories. The wiry, inhuman forms appear to look to the sky at some invisible threat before they’re wiped away by a wave of nothingness that resets the dark matter web to normal, until it all repeats again—a never-ending cycle. 

That is, until something else appears in the dark matter web, and students and colonists alike start dying under mysterious circumstances. Can Hal and Akio figure out what’s causing these grisly murders, and does the dark matter camera somehow hold the key to the mystery?

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