I’ve joined the Book of the Month club. Yup. Usually I grab a zillion romance novels from any of my many conferences and just chow down. But without conferences, I’m looking elsewhere for books. So I tried the Book of the Month Club. Click on the button below if you want to check it out.
My first selection was a debut book The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Ever watch the tv show Sliders? It’s based on the idea that humans can move between very similar but not exact worlds. And in this story, humans can only traverse into a world where their counterpart has died.
Guess what I thought of this book:
- Loved it! Parallel worlds has always held a fascination for me. What would be different for me if I had turned right instead of left? (That’s a Doctor Who reference for my Whovian friends!)
- Hated it! There wasn’t any Quinn Mallory jokes or being chased by FBI agents in skirts. This book is not a remake of Sliders.
- I couldn’t put it down! For a book that didn’t have many high action chases or pulse pounding disasters, I still adored this book. Even when I put the book down, I went back to it soon afterwards.
- Not a romance! There is a romance in the book, but it’s not central to the story. It’s been so long since I read something that wasn’t romance that I almost forgot how good the other genres can be. Especially with cool world building and great characters.
Answer: All of the above except the hate part. I loved the world building, I really enjoyed the characters, I kept reading long after I should have gone to bed, and it is not a romance and yet I really enjoyed what romance there was. It’s a cool book!
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.
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.
“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
“Clever characters, surprise twists, plenty of action, and a plot that highlights social and racial inequities in astute prose.”—Library Journal (starred review)