Ghost beyond Earth
Released: Jan 01, 1996
Publisher: Pan Macmillan/Australia
Format: Paperback, 591 pages
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Description:
It's the late 1990's and NASA has Space Station Freedom orbiting above the Earth. One of the modules is the Cryogenic Module, a secret project. It's where the bodies of wealthy and famous people lie deeply frozen, preserved until the medical science of the future can revive and heal them. The Cryogenics Module has been a successful, covert source of extra funding for NASA. In space and shadowed from the sun the extremely cold temperatures make low Earth orbit the perfect place to keep corpses in hibernation. Now it's time to try and revive the first patient. It will be a man who, unknown to the space station crew, had already attempted to cheat death with black magic and evil rituals. It brings dire consequences as the crew attempt to bring him back to life.In the middle of outback Australia on an isolated cattle property the ghost of a couple's dead child begins to appear in the house. Young Ellen was an angel when she was alive. As a spirit returning from the Dead she is much, much worse. Ellen is terrifying.There is a dreadful connection between the space station corpse being revived and Ellen's sudden ghostly appearances. Matthew Kindling, a lapsed priest tortured by his own fearful visions of the Dead, may be the only person who can keep everyone alive.Author's Introduction: All my horror stories are based on a single, inspired idea and I start writing from there- writing the book is as much a journey into the unknown for me as it is for the reader. That’s kind of scary in itself! Ghost Beyond Earth was my first published horror novel by a major print publisher and the concept was born from thinking; what would happen if the Space Shuttle was haunted? If what? Okay, the thing is I’m always trying to create a situation where my main characters can’t easily escape the dilemma they’re in. I used to get annoyed at ghost stories where people could simply leave the haunted house, the blood pouring from the wall- the cursed room... whatever- if they wanted, yet didn't (obviously, for the sake of the story). One day I saw footage of the space shuttle in orbit and figured it was a great place to be haunted. You couldn't get away, right? But the shuttles aren't much bigger than a Volkswagen with a jet engine bolted on the back, so after some research I came across Space Station Freedom, the forerunner to today's International Space Station (SSF was never built). Similarly, the other half of the novel based on an outback cattle property also provides for a sense of dangerous isolation from where the characters can’t easily escape.For readers who may be put off by the space station stuff- don't be. Ghost Beyond Earth isn't science fiction. The astronauts are in present-day conditions of weightlessness and eating out of tubes. Ghost Beyond Earth is a ghost story with a dash of witchcraft- and certainly a horror story.
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