• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics / Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Fear For All
        • Demons
        • Ghosts
        • Gothic
        • Lovecraftian
        • Monsters
        • Occult
        • Psychological
        • Slasher
        • Vampires
        • Werewolves
        • Witches
        • Zombies
      • Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: MEATSHIP by Sam Rebelein

June 3, 2025 by George Dunn Leave a Comment

Rating: 8.5/10

Synopsis:

Captain Evangeline Coarse is halfway through her journey home from war when her ship loses power and she’s left floating in the dark. Now, she must find a way to survive not only the cold loneliness of space, but also the maddening stink of one hundred thousand war-corpses in the hold. 

Review:

I’ll level with you, having read both “Edenville,” and “The Poorly Made and Other Things,” by Rebelein, I went into “MEATSHIP,” aware it would probably be a little weird. It’s also called “MEATSHIP,” which felt like at least a subtle indication that what was to come might be unhinged. Maybe that’s just me. Even with my expectations primed, Sam found a way to once again frazzle my brain in the most gloriously foul way, with just how absurd this rotten, bio-mechanically nauseating gem of a story is. It packs a cosmic punch and an other-wordly stink. A smelly sci-fi horror that can only be described as truly, deeply strange, “MEATSHIP,” does a lot in its slim page count, commenting on how not to do parenthood, legacy and the emptiness of space. Rapture Publishing are putting this one out June 24th, and you’d be a fool not to treat yourself, and order it here. 

I’ll tell you a little about the plot, although I have to say, if you’re not already sold… because it’s a sci-fi horror called “MEATSHIP,” (one word, all caps of course) then you’re probably not the implied reader. It’s exactly as surreal and squelchy as it sounds.  We follow Captain Evangeline Coarse who is flying the WBMC CHARRON during the war with the Far-Giants. You’re following right? Her role as the captain of a death ferry is essentially to return human corpses back home, which sounds grim but rather noble and rewarding… until something goes wrong, the lights go out, and the dead bodies in the hold start to decompose. 

As I said, this is a story with a whole miasma (if you will) of good stuff packed into it. There’s a whole lot of meat on its bones. There’s pointed commentary on the atrocity of war- the government sucks, patriots die, nothing is resolved- even on an intergalactic scale. Beyond the warfront it discusses the pressures exerted upon us by parents, and the detrimental effects that can have in trapping people in careers they hate, corroding their self-worth and creating ludicrously high standards. It also highlights that appearances aren’t always what they seem, and that often truths are sinister. But amidst all that unpleasantness, it goes to show that we as individuals control our own fate, and we can end up on the right side of history, should we choose to be. 

I haven’t been able to smell anything since I got COVID nearly 5 years ago. I’d like to personally thank Sam Rebelein for the realisation that should I ever find myself upon a space ship of decomposing bodies, I am uniquely suited to survival. Silver lining. I digress. Truly an unforgettable read, if you’re looking for something short and full of stink, something potent and pungent in equal measure, hold your breath, and dive into “MEATSHIP.”

Filed Under: Bizarro, Cosmic, Creature Feature, Fear For All, Psychological, Reviews, Sci-Fi Horror, Survivalist, Weird Tagged With: MEATSHIP, Rapture Publishing, Sam Rebelein

About George Dunn

George is a UK-based book reviewer, who greedily consumes every form of horror he can get his grubby little hands on, although he particularly enjoys indie and vintage horror.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Book Review: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

Review: Cathedral of the Drowned (The Lunar Gothic Trilogy Volume 2) by Nathan Ballingrud

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Review: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In