The Space Between Worlds is a debut science fiction novel by Micaiah Johnson.
An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
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 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 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.
I read The Space Between Worlds over my Thanksgiving break, and I
can't believe I haven't taken the time to post a review for it yet. It's
without a doubt going to wind up on my best of the year list. I can't
believe this is a debut! I'm excited to see what Micaiah Johnson comes
up with next.
The
Space Between Worlds is a multiverse story. In this reality, they have
discovered a way to travel between the dimensions, but you can only
travel to a world where you have died and therefore do not exist. There
are so many things that make this a great novel! I flew through it in
just a couple of days.
This book
is perfect for fans of Blake Crouch's Recursion. I was excited to see it
rank so highly in the Goodreads Choice Awards. It got my vote!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/5 stars
