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stabilesero's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
If you're expecting hard sci-fi, you'll be disappointed. If you're like literary fiction with a sci-fi twist, I think this would make a really good "dip-your-toes-into-a-genre" type of book.
I'll start off by saying, I didn't really like the main character, Jamie, but it was only enough for it to drop down .25 stars. I loved a lot of the additional characters however, even the smaller ones you meet for a few pages/chapter.
I think it was the whole philosophical theme of who is worth saving/what makes a person worth saving and the religious questions Ren asked that made this stand out for me. It's a concept I've not come across before... Therefore: I didn't expect the title to mean what it did.
For a debut novel, this is a beauty. I look forward to seeing more from Corlett.
I'll start off by saying, I didn't really like the main character, Jamie, but it was only enough for it to drop down .25 stars. I loved a lot of the additional characters however, even the smaller ones you meet for a few pages/chapter.
I think it was the whole philosophical theme of who is worth saving/what makes a person worth saving and the religious questions Ren asked that made this stand out for me. It's a concept I've not come across before... Therefore: I didn't expect the title to mean what it did.
For a debut novel, this is a beauty. I look forward to seeing more from Corlett.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Miscarriage and Sexual harassment
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Rape
laura_corsi's review against another edition
2.0
You know how it is when you are younger and you are too shy or too loud and awkward or just don't fit in for whatever reason? You tell yourself (or at least I did) that when you grow up you will figure out how to fix your oddities and everyone will do the same for themselves so then things will be better you will fit in. However, when you do grow up, you find that you and everyone else is much the same. Your psychosis or mal-adaptations still exist. Well, this book is finding out that even at the end of the world we are all much the same as much as we would think we would change and get over our obsessions because death and survival are that much more pressing. Interesting.
hebberelle's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to like this one, but I found myself rolling my eyes over the main character's inability to cope with ANYTHING emotional over and over again. This could have been such a very different book.
midici's review against another edition
3.0
I found the concept of this book really intriguing. Most end-of-the-world scenarios involve violence, and last stands, and a dramatic struggle for resources. The Space Between the Stars has none of that. The end was inevitable, and survival was merely chance. There's no shortage of resources, no dramatic break down of society. Instead everyone woke up in the dust of their old lives and had to decide for themselves what sort of life they would like to live now.
Jamie is one of three survivors in a far-flung planet, one that had a sparse population to begin with. She had, ironically enough, originally gone there to get space and distance from her life on the planet Algeria. Lowry is priest, of sorts, and Rena is a scientist with a religious fervor that far outstrips his.
They are picked up by a pilot, Callan, with his engineer, Gracie. Along the way they stop to grab two more survivors from similar circumstances, Mila and Finn.
As the book continues, the different encounters with survivors provides a sort of snapshot into the different ways people react to this disaster. Some, like the main characters, look for others so they aren't alone or stranded. Some, like the mining town, fall to violence. The group of cosplayers on Earth that decide to simply live in character seem to be ignoring reality in favour of a preferred fantasy.
In Algeria we get a better sense of how the social structure is impacting the organization of the largest group of survivors. Those in charge of the capitol want everyone to stay on planet, to collect everyone not on planet and bring them together, to enforce a strict social order, and to start up a breeding program as the virus that killed 99.9% of humanity seems to have affected fertility...
The background hints of forced emigration off Earth, the identity marks tattooed on everyone's hand, protest ships - all of that was interesting and provided a sort of depth and colour that I enjoyed. Unfortunately I found the background more interesting than most of the characters.
Rena, who introduced as an unbalanced character becomes more so as the book goes on. She starts by believing that this is part of "God's plan" to start over with the "worthy". But Jamie, with her birth defect, Mila as a prostitute, and Finn with his own disorder, do not fit Rena's view of 'worthy' survivors. At the end of the book it's revealed that the disease was man-made; the attempt to create a forced sterility that could be spread to everyone and prevent the 'wrong' sort of people from having children. While it's an interesting idea (with ties to actual terrible attempts that have been made throughout history), the implications are not delved into too deeply. In the end, Rena is prevented from restarting a second wave of the virus, and the survivors decide that the life they want is one on the coast of England, free to do as they wish.
Jamie is one of three survivors in a far-flung planet, one that had a sparse population to begin with. She had, ironically enough, originally gone there to get space and distance from her life on the planet Algeria. Lowry is priest, of sorts, and Rena is a scientist with a religious fervor that far outstrips his.
They are picked up by a pilot, Callan, with his engineer, Gracie. Along the way they stop to grab two more survivors from similar circumstances, Mila and Finn.
As the book continues, the different encounters with survivors provides a sort of snapshot into the different ways people react to this disaster. Some, like the main characters, look for others so they aren't alone or stranded. Some, like the mining town, fall to violence. The group of cosplayers on Earth that decide to simply live in character seem to be ignoring reality in favour of a preferred fantasy.
In Algeria we get a better sense of how the social structure is impacting the organization of the largest group of survivors. Those in charge of the capitol want everyone to stay on planet, to collect everyone not on planet and bring them together, to enforce a strict social order, and to start up a breeding program as the virus that killed 99.9% of humanity seems to have affected fertility...
The background hints of forced emigration off Earth, the identity marks tattooed on everyone's hand, protest ships - all of that was interesting and provided a sort of depth and colour that I enjoyed. Unfortunately I found the background more interesting than most of the characters.
Rena, who introduced as an unbalanced character becomes more so as the book goes on. She starts by believing that this is part of "God's plan" to start over with the "worthy". But Jamie, with her birth defect, Mila as a prostitute, and Finn with his own disorder, do not fit Rena's view of 'worthy' survivors. At the end of the book it's revealed that the disease was man-made; the attempt to create a forced sterility that could be spread to everyone and prevent the 'wrong' sort of people from having children. While it's an interesting idea (with ties to actual terrible attempts that have been made throughout history), the implications are not delved into too deeply. In the end, Rena is prevented from restarting a second wave of the virus, and the survivors decide that the life they want is one on the coast of England, free to do as they wish.
noranne's review against another edition
3.0
This book started out good and then slowly meandered off into annoying navel gazing. The story is thin and incredibly obvious, the post-apocalyptic aspect is nonsensically handled (e.g. magical wind turbines that will never need maintenance?), and we spend far too much time trapped in the rather unlikable MC's head. The book just didn't quite come together.
lsparrow's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the premise and the start of the book - I even enjoyed much of the adventures and finding of oneself. It felt a little too much like it was trying to tie everything together with a neat ending which I think took away some of the strength of the beginning of the book.
drjoannehill's review against another edition
2.0
Some good ideas but poorly executed. It's not sci fi or speculative fiction; that's just a convenient device. I only read a bit of speculative fiction but I would expect a lot more world building than this. There could be a really interesting story about colonising other planets, the aftermath of a virus that wipes out nearly all people, and how to survive isolation.... but this is not it.
carolinevaught's review against another edition
3.0
I kept waiting for this to get better...the stakes just didn't feel as high as they should have and the people that survived where just too...ideal? It all fell together too perfectly. And the romance was so forced, it was painful.
flexolo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Genocide, Ableism, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Alcoholism and Cancer
Minor: Suicide attempt
ameserole's review against another edition
4.0
The cover is freaking beautiful guys.
I honestly had no high expectations for this book but in the end I definitely fell in love. Man, I love books so freaking much!
The Space Between the Stars was really sad (in some ways). Mostly because it deals with a ont of loss. Besides that you learn to love the characters and just kind of go with the flow throughout the book. Or that could've just been me?
God, I have no idea if I could go through what Jamie did in this book. Knowing that she's broken and struggling constantly would've just made me want to crawl into a ball, cry, and then wait until I died from the plague. YES, THE PLAGUE PEOPLE. The plague was kicking everybody's ass in this book.
Jamie is a great character that some may or may not like. I loved her. I loved her journey and how she dealt with everyday and realistic struggles. I'm sad that the book is over but I know for a fact that I'm going to reread it sometime soon.
I honestly had no high expectations for this book but in the end I definitely fell in love. Man, I love books so freaking much!
The Space Between the Stars was really sad (in some ways). Mostly because it deals with a ont of loss. Besides that you learn to love the characters and just kind of go with the flow throughout the book. Or that could've just been me?
God, I have no idea if I could go through what Jamie did in this book. Knowing that she's broken and struggling constantly would've just made me want to crawl into a ball, cry, and then wait until I died from the plague. YES, THE PLAGUE PEOPLE. The plague was kicking everybody's ass in this book.
Jamie is a great character that some may or may not like. I loved her. I loved her journey and how she dealt with everyday and realistic struggles. I'm sad that the book is over but I know for a fact that I'm going to reread it sometime soon.