The Space Between Worlds
Book description
The Sunday Times bestseller. Winner of the Kitschies Golden Tentacle award.
A stunning science fiction debut, The Space Between Worlds is both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
'My mother used to say I was born reaching, which is true. She also used to…
Why read it?
4 authors picked The Space Between Worlds as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The Space Between Worlds is less time travel than it is parallel dimensional travel but I think it’s worth fibbing for.
Cara is a traverser – someone who can travel between different versions of her world. She retrieves data about those worlds – what went wrong and what went right – and brings it back to her own for study. She can do this because the Caras in these worlds are all dead. Except when one isn’t, royally mucking up her job.
This book is gritty and queer (though I’m not going to promise an ending wrapped up in a…
From Hannah's list on queer stories about time and space travel.
I love adult sci-fi, but as a mostly contemporary reader, sometimes I can find the language and length a little daunting. I picked up this book intrigued by the premise—multiverse travel is finally possible, but you can’t visit a world in which your counterpart is still alive. Our main character, Cara, is a skilled traveler with the ability to visit hundreds of worlds because so many of her parallel selves are dead. But when one of her last remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, Cara is tasked with uncovering what happened in this high-stakes, action-packed page-turner. Steeped with searing class…
From Jas' list on stories by Black authors to give you all the feels.
The Space Between Worlds is such a thrilling read—it’s got the perfect meld of the hard-hitting science questions and just the right touch of spiritualty. Johnson deals with the multiverse paradox in such an intriguing way that I was blown away with each chapter. Her characters are fabulous as well—just the right amount of attitude and wonder and snark. Johnson’s characters are queer but that’s not the crux of the story, it’s just who they are, and that quiet representation really drew me in. Her characters make mistakes—make the wrong choices—suffer the consequences—own up to them and learn from them…and…
From Kellie's list on science fiction featuring queer characters.
Even after I wrote my first book about the multiverse, I found myself drawn to reading more and more in this very niche genre. So it takes a lot to surprise me or show me something new in this space. This book had an amazing twist and I couldn’t put it down. The book had several great layered elements which I really enjoyed and I loved seeing the different alter-egos. Seeing such disparate versions of the different characters was really fun and shows the author’s creativity.
From M.K.'s list on if you want to escape this reality for a bit.
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