The Ghost Line

In this creepy novella, a ghost story set in the abandoned splendor of a richly appointed spaceship, Grey and Herbison invoke shades of Alien and The Shining while still giving their tale a fresh twist. When a small team of highly skilled would-be thieves boards the derelict Martian Queen, a luxury space liner left to drift between Earth and Mars for decades, they discover an unsettling mystery that may jeopardize their ability to profit from what they find. Saga and Michel have dreams of settling down to start a family, pilot Gregor drinks to escape old sorrows, and their employer, the enigmatic Wei, refuses to share her secrets. After they rouse the ship from its long sleep, they experience what might be ghosts, echoes of its previous life, or possibly something even weirder. As the tension rises, so do questions about what’s really going on. Now Saga and the others must unravel the Martian Queen’s mysteries before it claims them all. The final explanation could be more robust, but the story is still shiver-inducing, thought-provoking, and decidedly eerie. (July)