The Space Between the Stars
By Anne Corlett
In a breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping debut novel, one woman must confront the emptiness in the universe—and in her own heart—when a devastating virus reduces most of humanity to dust and memories. All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit... Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that’s left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive. Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie’s own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be...
I found the concept of being the survivor of a post-apocalyptic event interesting particularly with the way Anne Corlett writes. It wasn’t just your basic space travel, let’s have some indepth examination of humanity thing that is often so typical with this genre. Of course there was some of that, because if you’re a lover of sci-fi you’ll expect it, but there was an emotional depth to her story and characters I hadn’t expected when I began reading. I don’t often go in for this kind of thing unless it’s on a big screen so I thought it’d be a refreshing change of pace; by the end I was glad I had diverged from my normal go to path of genres.
When I read a book with the purpose of reviewing it I normally do it in one sitting, barring unplanned interruptions, so that I can have everything fresh in my mind when I write. This one however I found myself stepping away often not because it was a bad book but because it forces you to ask a lot of questions about yourself and pushes you into an emotional journey you weren’t prepared for when you opened the pages. I loved that this book pulled me in and made me feel so involved in its mesmeric story line. You will crisscross along an emotional gamut rarely found in sci-fi books to the point your thoughts become intertwined with those of the characters leaving you to wonder what happened as if their journey didn’t end when you closed the book.
Though there is some of the prototypical examination of humanity, what will the actions of the few be, will they devolve, what questions will be answered, what choices will they make, etc there is also enough romance and thrills to keep you entertained. Think the TV show Firefly but on a literary level.
The character group takes on the stereotype often found in small group space movies where nearly everyone can find someone they identify with and they end up in various situations that all come to one driving conclusion; what kind of person do you want to be when the only mirror left is yourself? It’s a bit like a space version of Lord of the Flies.
I would definitely recommend this if Sci-Fi is your normal thing and if it’s not then give it a chance because it’ll be worth it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from amazon.com