Salvation Day

By: Kali Wallace

Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Kimberly Farr, Kyla Garcia

Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A lethal virus is awoken on an abandoned spaceship in this incredibly fast-paced, claustrophobic thriller.

They thought the ship would be their salvation.

Zahra knew every detail of the plan. House of Wisdom, a massive exploration vessel, had been abandoned by the government of Earth a decade earlier, when a deadly virus broke out and killed everyone on board in a matter of hours. But now it could belong to her people if they were bold enough to take it. All they needed to do was kidnap Jaswinder Bhattacharya - the sole survivor of the tragedy, and the last person whose genetic signature would allow entry to the spaceship.

But what Zahra and her crew could not know was what waited for them on the ship - a terrifying secret buried by the government. A threat to all of humanity that lay sleeping alongside the orbiting dead.

And then they woke it up.

©2019 Kali Wallace (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Kali Wallace, the world needs you - and this book. Salvation Day is a taut thriller, a near-future look at where we're headed next, a mirror reflecting the best and worst of humanity. It is all that, and so much more. I'd follow the rebellious heroine Zahra anywhere - especially into another nail-biter of a story like this." (James Rollins, New York Times best-selling author of The Demon Crown)

“Salvation Day is a masterful story set at a screaming pace. It had me holding on for dear life all the way through. I loved it.” (Mur Lafferty, Hugo Award-winning author of Six Wakes)

"Breakneck pace with real thrills and chills - plus lots of meaty stuff to think about. One of the major science-fiction debuts of 2019. Kali Wallace is a force to be reckoned with." (Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Quantum Night)

A Wonderful Mashup!

It’s a caper! It’s a haunted house! It’s full of political intrigue and a cult!

“Salvation Day” is all of those things. But most of all, it’s wonderful!

Good book, annoying issues with the reading.

The chapters in the book all have the same four rotating names. So each chapter of the same name are read by a different person.

In the chapters named Zahra the person reading does good but whenever a character finishes dialog and the character speaking is identified it sounds like the identifying part was just copy and pasted. No matter the character, for example if Bob talks when it gets to the part of the writing that says "Bob said" this phrase will sound exactly same, every-single-time. Like it was the same recording just copy and pasted. It is obnoxious. When another character talks, lets say Kate. When Kate finishes talking and the writing would say "Kate said" it will be the exact same recording of "Kate said" every single time. And so on for every character. Its weird too cause the reader does a really good job of reading every other part. But it really can be really jarring when a tense moment is going on and then "Kate said" sounding so generic and copy pasted. Like the way she says those parts to are just... odd. And to hear the same inflection, every single time is ugh.


The book itself was alright. There were some good moments and some twists and turns. But the pace stays the same and never really picks up.

What A Story!

I’ll get this out of the way to begin with. This story reminded me of a modern day (actually futuristic) retelling of Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain – which was one of my favorite books growing up and pushed me into my love for Science Fiction, Bio-Thrillers, and a new genre to that time Technothrillers. Salvation Day by Kali Wallace was an excellent combination of all of these genres and will stand up as one of my favorite books in 2019.

So, sitting down and re-reading the synopsis has me quickly realizing that this is going to be a hard review to write without spoiling anything. If I end up going off course, I apologize, and if I’m vague, that’s why.

Salvation Day tells the story of a group of people who have been forgotten. They were either outcast into the wastelands of the deserts in the former United States or they have chosen to live there because of one reason or another. They are seeking a new place to live… a Salvation Day you might say. They set their sites onto a derelict ship that (slight spoiler here) took the lives of every member of the ship except for one (spoiler over). But this ship holds the secrets of its dead crew along with many, many more.

The overall storytelling that jumped back and forth between characters but also between transmissions and other communication was really up my alley. I thought that it jumped around just enough as to not be confusing but to tell stories within stories.

When you finally get towards the end and the entire set up starts to make sense – I hope you’re as shocked as I am. This book had me hook, line, and sinker throughout and still managed to surprise me.

The story itself was excellent and was one that I absolutely flew through. This is aided by the triple narration threat that was Vikas Adam, Kimberly Farr, and Kyla Garcia. These three did a great job making Wallace’s great story into something even better.

Almost

I feel like they “jumped the shark” a bit early but the passionate ending saved the story. I give it 4 star’s overall.

Intriguing story, one character's narration awful

I enjoyed the story and how it unfolded, and most of the narration, but one character was narrated so shrilly and horribly by a narrator that I had to take breaks from the book. I like both narrators otherwise, but both took the book's description of a small, calm, light voice, and went with "breathy and high pitched" - the guy narrated particularly shrilly. I was praying for her to die throughout the book to put me out of my misery. Thank goodness she was only a secondary character - but in a book with a cast of 7 or 8 characters stuck together on a ship...that's a lot of punishingly shrill narration.

Great story, some questionable narration

Great story, but I could not get over how one of the narrators would say, "she/he said." It was absurdly emphasized (like it was recorded separately??) and comically distracting during some chapters, but overall I enjoyed the book.

Good writing but the story could have been tighter

I liked the characters. I liked the writing. I liked the performance. I liked the story. I just thought the plot could have been a little tighter. it lost focus towards the end.with the primary threat all but disappearing as the author reflected on the philosophical need for.governments (an aunt that was barely in the story previously) and individuals to be our brother's keeper.

They were good points and well written; they just would have worked better had they been more woven into the story instead of tacked on to the end.

Ok story

I enjoyed the story and narrators. It was ok. It is a little juvenile - with added violence and language.

Loved it

What if Jonestown went to space. The cult aspect of the story was a lot more interesting than the sci-fi parts for me honestly. Space lore was good as well i suppose. If you like government conspiracies, space exploration and varying insider perspectives from cult members, this one's for you.

Not what I expected

The plot itself was ok, but what I was expecting was space horror and what i got was mostly geopolitics and government corruption. Honestly the space horror seemed a little shoe horned in.