Anne Corlett

The Space Between the Stars, by Anne Corlett, is the calmest, most down-to-earth, maybe the most reasonably possible dystopian novel I have ever read. A calamitous plague has killed almost everybody on several planets, but a small group of survivors band together and face their new lives. I know - so what's new? It's this: the story doesn't dissolve onto a series of bang-bang shoot-em-ups or dreadful encounters with plagued zombies or violent earthquakes, spewing volcanoes, and show more planet-shattering meteors. Rather, the story concentrates on how the inner character of each of the members of the small band shapes each of their experiences and their objectives, and how each person affects the others.

Through this prism, we see the world as viewed by a captain (Callan) of a trade clipper space ship; his chief engineer (Gracie); a veterinarian (Jamie), the protagonist; a wandering preacher of no particular denomination (Lowry); a scientist who is a 'believer' (Rena) and who talks frequently about the voice of God coming from the space between the stars; and a mentally disabled young man (Finn). Throughout the story I felt a very strong parallel with the crew of Serenity in the television show Firefly. That show, too, had a captain of a trading space ship, an engineer, an itinerant preacher, and an unbalanced young (psychic) adult, as well as some others. The show's director, Josh Whedon, even pitched it as "...nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things." ("Firefly series ready for liftoff", http://jam.canoe.com/Television/TV_Shows/F/Firefly/2002/07/22/734323.html).

That's not to say that the story disregards the standard memes - there are people who are vying for power and there is some shooting and dying, but the story is more a meditation on aloneness and connectedness, on what would it be like if you threw an apocalypse and everybody didn't die and the ensuing conditions were quite amenable? What then? The story provides some insight on what sort of factors might cause an apocalyptic event and what sort might help survive it. The Space Between the Stars is a thought-provoking novel which is more about the true nature of humans and less about the dystopia.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. show less

I didn't think it was possible to make a post-apocalyptic interstellar survival adventure story tedious and boring, but here it is. Straight away, the premise is absurd: an incurable virus that instantaneously and simultaneously infects every human colony throughout the galaxy, and doesn't only kill the infected, but somehow reduces them to a pile of grey dust, with only 1 in a million surviving. Then rather than doing anything about it, the main character spends the first couple of chapters show more fretting over what to wear and whether it's ok to steal a chocolate bar from the general store even though she is the only person alive on the whole planet, before spending the next few days playing back in her head the last conversation she had with her estranged partner. She complains about being lonely, but then gripes about the invasion of her privacy when she finally does encounter other survivors who dare ask her anything about herself. The other characters are just as flawed and awful, crude caricatures more than personalities.

I gave up at 20%, after 10 minutes of mediocre content was stretched out to 2.5 hrs. Normally at this point in a book I'd continue reading just to see how things play out, but I really don't care if they make it to their destination and are reunited with their loved ones, are abducted and consumed by cannibals, or crash into an asteroid along the way. show less

I liked this book. I don't love it, but that's for the realness of the main character's trauma. I understand the main character's need for space, though I think her encounters that ram home how important it is for people to have choice and their own space are a bit ham-fisted. Jamie was too much like me when I was at my worst depression, floating through life, and only making decisions when sudden panic told her to. Basically this is the story of someone with depression and generalized show more anxiety getting over her issues in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting. Also, I don't agree with Jamie about forgiveness or whatever that was at the end. Screw the zealously religious lady, and I'd be a great deal more upset with people like the priest and Daniel too. I feel like psychiatric drugs must have become taboo to prescribe or something because multiple characters needed them and some good therapy. I don't dislike the book for all that, but I must admit to being frustrated with it. show less

The Space Between The Stars is – for me, at least – this year’s Station Eleven. It spoke straight to my heart and unstrung it. Even more so than Station Eleven, this is a post-apocalypse that acknowledges the tropes and then rejects them. It acknowledges and embraces that life is messy and people are complicated. It upholds what it claims to believe in, however awkward, rather than sacrificing its ideals on the altar of necessity. Consequently, I find The Space Between The Stars both show more hopeful and incredibly satisfying. And in spite of being a grumpy sentimentalist who claims to hate romance, I'm not ashamed to admit I was shipping madly from the start.

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review show less