If you are looking for a dark science fiction to get into, set primarily on a space ship, fighting for humanity, Salvaged by Madeleine Roux is for you! If you are a fan of the Aliens movie franchise, you will not be able to put this one down. Though I did have a physical copy of this book, I listened to Salvaged as an audiobook, so I will be talking about that format in my review as well.
Themes for Thought
In the future, people have moved away from Earth and research vessels are abundant, exploring the universe. Advances in technology are being made and humans have expanded their colonies into far reaches of the cosmos. We might have spaceships that can travel far and wide, however, long-term space travels are still hard for humans. New drugs are being researched to make this form of travel more effective.
Salvaged follows Rosalyn, a talented bio chemist, who has taken up the job of a space janitor, ‘salvager’, cleaning up the mess left behind when accidents happen and people die. Learning to deal with her past and present by relying heavily on alcohol, Rosalyn is given a final chance to redeem herself and keep her position by answering a distress call of a research space ship named the Brigantine. But as it turns out, people are alive on the Brigantine, except something is really wrong with them.
Salvaged is the story of fighting for ones’ humanity when the pull from the other side is too powerful. It is about finding the one thing that is so precious to us that it grounds us to our deepest selves and our memories, while we are floating away in space.
On Control
Salvaged comes with a cast of well thought out characters, each with their own struggles and strengths. When the Brigantine gets affected by the alien parasite, who they refer to as ‘Mother’ or Foxfire, the crew feels connected to each other in a telepathic manner. As they feel themselves losing control, they use their skills in the field, their past, or a combination of the two, to understand how they are being affected as well as how to combat this thing that speaks to them in their head. Misato and Edison were exceptional characters and their way of thinking and approaching the stressful situation was quite commendable. Rosalyn somehow holds the key to Firefox and that was quite an interesting angle in my mind.
Throughout this struggle, Mother herself is a force to be reckoned with, tapping deep into their memories and getting the crew to accept her and give themselves up to her.
“You’re just spores, some kind of network bound at a molecular level but also a telepathic level. I don’t have to understand the nuances of that to know you aren’t a human woman. So it’s either a trick or there’s something here I don’t understand yet.” – Misato in Salvaged
With powerful characters that question themselves and each other at every move and are somehow working together towards one mission, to stop the spread of the parasite, I loved the writing and plot of this book. There are twists and turns that I was unable to anticipate.
On Life
Like I mentioned above, Salvaged is the story of survival. Through the characters, I learned a number of valuable lessons. Misato was hands down my favourite and, as the oldest person in the crew, she had insights about life and strategies to help herself keep in control, that the other members did not have. This quote from the book describes the Foxfire, the parasite that has taken over their minds, so well:
“Life wasn’t always some magical, mystical thing to be protected and cherished; sometimes it was simply greedy expanding chaos, a teeming, overwhelming force.” Misato in Salvaged
🎧 The Audiobook Experience
This was initially a hard audiobook for me to get into and that’s partly because of the atmosphere that lingers throughout this whole read. Emily Woo Zeller does an amazing job of portraying the different characters as well as expressing the gravity of the situation that they are wrestling with. This is the first time in my years of listening to audiobooks when I can confidently say the audiobook was way better than how I would have read this book in my mind.
The story of a mind controlling alien parasite in Salvaged and the struggle of each of the crew members of the Brigantine – I could not have done justice to that. Please do check out the audiobook if you read them.
This is a thriller, horror, and science fiction read with a dark atmosphere that will linger with me for a while… the best part being, I WANT TO go back and read it again.
Salvaged is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
Will you be picking up Salvaged? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
A WOMAN ON THE RUN. A CAPTAIN ADRIFT IN SPACE. ONE OF THEM IS INFECTED WITH AN ALIEN PARASITE.
In this dark science fiction thriller, a young woman must confront her past so the human race will have a future.
Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she’s come to hate, and her messed-up life. She’s run all the way to outer space, where she’s taken a position as a “space janitor,” cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions. But no matter how far she goes, Rosalyn can’t escape herself. After too many mistakes on the job, she’s given one last chance: take care of salvaging the Brigantine, a research vessel that has gone dark, with all crew aboard thought dead.
But the Brigantine’s crew are very much alive–if not entirely human. Now Rosalyn is trapped on board, alone with a crew infected by a mysterious parasitic alien. The captain, Edison Aries, seems to still maintain some control over himself and the crew, but he won’t be able to keep fighting much longer. Rosalyn and Edison must find a way to stop the parasite’s onslaught…or it may take over the entire human race.
