The Iron Garden Sutra (The Cosmic Wheel #1), by A.D. Sui

The Iron Garden Sutra is a meditative and dark sci-fi novel that kickstarts the Cosmic Wheel duology, written by A.D. Sui, published by Erewhon Books. A proposal that successfully puts the weight into character development to weave a story with horror beats similar to Dead Space, but adding an extra layer of reflection over grief and loss, delivering one of the novels of the year.

Vessel Iris, a Starlit Order monk, is sent to perform funeral rites to a recently discovered generation ship, a way to put the long dead crew and passengers to rest. He expected to be alone there, only with his in-built AI, but he finds a group of scientists who have come to explore the ship. An encounter that is not easy for the reclusive Iris, but who tries to communicate with them, even if he's received with hostility by some of the group; however, when it becomes clear that even if all the passengers are dead, there's something putting all the group in danger, they will need to collaborate in order to survive.

This novel is partly articulated over the character of Iris, a complex and enigmatic character that we get to intimately know through the book; we get to explore his past and how it shaped him to become a Starlit Order's monk, but we can see that his feelings and beliefs around grief and death are rather complex, even bordering the contradictory extremes. He mechanically performs the rites, but we also get to observe who he's not too keen on alive people, partly fearing to develop a bond, but taking the extreme situation the group gets in, we finally get to see how he opens himself. 
The group of scientists comprises a bit of everything: some are really kind with Iris from the start, while others are almost against his labour. Sui keeps them in a secondary role, but we get enough to even appreciate them, especially the growth of one particular character.

The atmosphere of this novel is impeccable, making an excellent job of transmitting that immense, abandoned ship; time has passed, only corpses remain, and however, there's something threatening our characters. Paired with it, it's interesting how this novel takes its sweet time to meditate about what grief and loss means, and how we can cope and continue even in those circumstances; I personally loved Sui's approach to the themes, especially as they are paired with a monk as the main character.

The Iron Garden Sutra is an excellent novel, a perfect choice if you are looking for a book that blends together horror with a more meditative side of sci-fi, which puts the emphasis on grief and how to cope, while also delivering a superb story. This novel closes the ship arc, but opens one that I feel it will be much more interesting!