The Space Between Worlds

A book that’s totally out of my comfort zone but sparked my interest is The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Science fiction isn’t normally my thing, but I just had to have this. I read it as soon as my Book of the Month edition arrived at the beginning of June, and wow, what a great novel this was!

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Audience	Adult
Genre	Science Fiction
Setting	Future World; Alternate Earths
Number of Pages	344
Format I Read	Hardcover (BOTM)
Original Publication Date	August 4, 2020

Official Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.

WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • “Gorgeous writing, mind-bending world-building, razor-sharp social commentary, and a main character who demands your attention—and your allegiance.”—Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—NPR, Library Journal, Book Riot

Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.

On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.

But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world but the entire multiverse.

“Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Review

As much as I love to hop between genres, one that I usually struggle with (and thus avoid) is science fiction. However, one theme that absolutely fascinates me is the concept of parallel universes. This is what led me to finally give science fiction a go with The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Set in a dystopian future Earth, it follows a young woman named Cara whose job is to travel to other Earths on which she’s already dead… which is nearly all of them. For some reason, her other selves all died young, but her absence on other Earths is what allows her to travel to them.

This book has subtle but nuanced world-building. It’s not clear how far into the future it is, and while some things have stayed the same, a lot has changed. It seems that climate change has had disastrous effects on our planet, and the class divide has only widened. The biggest advancement seems to be the ability to travel to other universes: Each additional Earth has a number, and the bigger the number, the more significant the differences between Home Earth and that parallel universe.

The Space Between Worlds is divided into three parts, and each one is quite distinct from the others. We learn a lot about Cara early on, and the story progresses rapidly, especially in later parts. There’s danger, complicated relationships with men and women, complex family dynamics… all in a thought-provoking and action-packed story.

Some social commentary that stood out to me in reading The Space Between Worlds include discussions on guns and how unsafe they really are, the persistence of racism and classism, and ruthless ambition as compared between tech giants and murderous emperors. Then there’s the question of who really knows you… and how different you may be in disparate circumstances.

Final Thoughts

The Space Between Worlds is an excellent novel: inspired, thoughtful, and absolutely engrossing. It wraps up well, but leaves room for more… and I’d love to read more in this universe (pun intended). This was my first time reading science fiction, and I’d consider the experiment a success! I’ll be reading more sci-fi soon, most likely also about parallel universes!