The Space Between the Stars

by Anne Corlett

A Recommended Summer Read from The Verge and io9
A Recommended June Read from Hello Giggles and Tor.com

When the world ends, where will you go?

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...

• ISBN10: 0399585133
• ISBN13: 9780399585135
• Publish Date: 6 February 2018 (first published 26 April 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780399585135

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Feels like this one was done plot first, then people, and that’s not the way to write a book for me. I’ve got high expectations for someone named Jamie alone on a distant planet, the end of the world, etc. etc. But all the woman does is feel irritation and resentment. And make stupid decisions. When she’s making any decisions at all. Which is maybe… twice in the whole book. And the story is baffling. This Jamie is alone for all of two days before finding other survivors, but yet she’s a loner, but yet it’s nearly broken her mentally, but yet what she feels towards the fellow survivors is irritation and resentment. Nothing tracks. And not in the good way, where people are complex, unpredictable creatures that contain multitudes. It doesn’t track because the people are wet cardboard cutouts who hop between planets because apparently the plot needs them to.

Don’t get me started on how the sci-fi elements are baffling at best and non-existant at worst. And how that part is still better than the two lifeless “romances.”

The kindest thing I can say is, it’s very much a first novel. And I did refrain, in the end, through sheer willpower, from throwing it across the room.

[Quirky Cat]

Three and a half stars.

First, please take a minute to look at this cover. I’m not going to lie to you, I bought this book because of the cover; didn’t even read the description first (a quick search on goodreads shows me that there’s more than one cover for this book, so please note the one alongside this review). It was just too pretty to resist. That being said, I absolutely love the premise of this book.
The book is described as being “breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping” and while I don’t disagree with that statement, it isn’t entirely accurate either. I personally found the Space Between the Stars to be almost a relaxing read – there were plenty of details that broke up and distanced the more distressing events throughout the novel; the end result being an almost serene reading book about a woman trying to discover what she wants with her life.
Jamie Allenby desperately wanted more space, for what, she couldn’t really say. She could claim it was this or that (or him), but that wasn’t all of it, not really. So she got as far as she could from earth, a small colony on the edge of their civilization. It turns out that her isolation probably saved her life. A horrible disease (I don’t believe it was ever actually given a name in the book) rips through humanity; killing all but a lucky (or not so lucky) few.



I should admit that between the book cover and the concept of the book, my expectations were raised pretty high. Maybe that wasn’t fair of me. But the end result was me being slightly disappointed in what was otherwise a decent book. I just can’t let go of how much potential it had though – I hope it’s a concept Corlett picks up again, I think she could really do something wonderful with it.
Corlett kept reminding us about the low survival rate for the disease – one in a million. The math/ratio is questioned a few times throughout, but the number itself is repeated; perhaps to remind us of all the suddenly empty space? I will say that while it was less graphic – having the bodies turn to dust felt like a bit of a cop-out to me. Yes, it makes it so there’s less “clean up” or health concerns for the surviving characters, but it also resulted in me question what sort of disease could possibly do that, which broke the immersion a little.
Considering the low number of survivors, one would think everything from then on would become a struggle. Yet Jamie finds other survivors (on a small planet) within three days of waking up. A couple days after that a survivor comes by on a spaceship and picks them all up. It’s just a bit too easy, too fast for me. I would have been content with more time being spent with Jamie alone, and then Jamie plus survivors alone on the planet. This trend continues when they get to the inner system, Daniel, the man Jamie left, is also one of the survivors, and he conveniently stayed on the station. Admittedly things don’t go too well with their reunion, but that’s neither here nor there.
I suspected the conclusion before it was revealed – that someone had intentionally created the disease that killed most of humanity (admittedly that hadn’t been its intended purpose, but mistakes happen apparently). Considering how devastating it was, I’m glad that Corlett chose to include a reason for it happening. It gave the novel a sense of closure, once things were resolved on that end.
I think what I enjoyed the most about this book was Jamie’s journey – yes, she was physically heading towards Earth the whole time, but that’s not what I mean. Right from the start the reader gets the sense that Jamie doesn’t know what she wants. She doesn’t know where she wants to be. She does, however, know what she doesn’t want (for example, Daniel), a fact that one of the characters accurately points out, by saying she’s just checking off what she doesn’t want until she finds what’s left. The forced isolation caused Jamie to actually take the time she needed to figure everything out, and appreciate what she did have left. To me, that’s where this book truly shined.


For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

4.5*

You know the kind of book that you cannot stop thinking about long after you've finished it? Well, that is this book for me. It's also among my favorite books so far this year, so there's that. Here's the thing: it isn't a fully action packed space adventure, so if you're looking for that, this may not be the book for you. But if you are looking for some amazing characters who have to make some really difficult choices after the whole universe nearly collapses, then this is definitely a book to check out.

So, here are the things I especially enjoyed about this one:

• The characters were so well done. Jamie, the main character, is kind of a mess. And this is before the apocalypse. So after, you can imagine the kind of shape she's in. She knows that the odds are not great in regards to how many fellow survivors may be out there, but she's determined to find out. That's the best part about her, even as she falls apart in so many ways, she's still trying to survive. The other characters are equally complex, and we get to find out so much about their stories as the book goes on. I grew to care about each of them.


• Everything about this book was incredibly thought provoking. Truly, it was terrifying to imagine being in the shoes of these characters- basically alone in the universe, having to rely on strangers, not knowing who can be trusted in a terrifyingly empty new society. It also felt eerily plausible- the way people reacted, how easily turmoil would have ensued.


• Even though it was quite character driven, the plot moved quickly too. I was never bored, and I was always excited for what would happen next.


• The characters have really great relationships with each other. Some of them became friends, while others flat out did not get along, and it felt so authentic. Just because there are not a ton of humans left, it makes sense that some people will flat out disagree, and I liked that the book wasn't afraid to go there. There was also a bit of romance, but it definitely wasn't the focus- as people are kind of busy worrying about the fate of humanity. Still, the bits of romance were a very nice respite from apocalyptic doom.


• Space! Even though the book wasn't incredibly heavy on the science part, it still featured a lot of great spaceship shenanigans and other technology. And really, who doesn't love space adventures?

What I didn't as much:

• Really, my only minor complaint was that a few things seemed a bit unbelievable/coincidental. And while I wasn't totally able to suspend my disbelief, it also didn't really make me like the story any less. I was able to overlook it since the story and characters did a great job of pulling me in.

Bottom Line: I was so invested in the characters' stories and the stories of this world, and what led it to the state it was in. I felt quite satisfied with the story, and was contemplating it long after I was done reading.

**Copy was provided by publisher for review

[lovelybookshelf]

This book was your standard-fare post-apocalyptic novel with a bit of space adventure thrown in. Jamie is dealing with a profound personal loss that occurred before a virus wiped out most of humanity. She's hard to get to know--it's who she is, but it did make things feel sloggy. Secondary characters were hit or miss, kind of cliché and underdeveloped. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories, though, so I did like the escape this read provided.