A Space Between Worlds is a riveting and entertaining science fiction novel that starts as one thing and quickly spirals into a much deeper and wider conspiracy net. The opening pages confused me as I struggled to understand what was going on, but once I got past that hurdle I was absolutely hooked. It's got an interesting set-up; the Earth Cara lives on is Earth zero. However technology has advanced to the point that people can travel to alternate worlds... but only if their alternate self no longer exists. Cara is therefore valuable as for one reason or another, nearly all of her alternate selves are dead. She can travel to almost all of the alternate worlds. Only on her latest available world, Cara hits a snag. And that snag leads to discoveries that will change the shape of her own world.

This is a book that is both poignant and entertaining. It's also beautifully written. Johnson builds up the worlds beautifully, with each change potentially having a ripple effect that has long lasting effects. Along with the world building, the characterisations are exceptionally done and the romance angle was enough in the background to not niggle at me. No problems with queer romance, I just find any romance that takes over the story to be annoying. I particularly appreciated how real many of the side characters were, when they could have just faded into the background almost anonymously.

All in all, I really enjoyed this and will certainly seek out more of Micaiah Johnson's work. I felt it was a clever narrative that drew on themes of racial and social inequalities and disparities without standing on a soap box yelling about them. The characters were lively and interesting and I was genuinely invested in their well-being. And the narrative was interesting and unexpected at points, without ever having to rely on sudden shock twists without build up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

Thank you to @netgalley @randomhouse for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to @prhaudio for a free download of the audiobook.

I really wanted to love this book but for me it was just ok. I started and stopped it several times and was finally able to finish after getting the audiobook to follow along. The traveling through multiverses is intriguing and I enjoyed the concept and the impacts of one universe on another.

3 stars

#books #bookishlife #booklover #readingisfun #iowabookstagrammers #iowabookstagram #netgalley #putnambooks #prhaudio #ltbreaderteam

I love the concept of this book. I normally struggle with keeping up with the world building in sci-fi novels, and I think that affected my reading experience with this. But overall, I really enjoyed this book. I recommend this for sci-fi/new adult readers.

This story was very well written and entertaining. It held me captive from the very beginning. I am saddened that it is a stand alone. That we only b get a glimpse of so many crazy worlds. The character work in these pages is masterful. I definitely will be looking for more work from this Author.

I gave up on this one halfway through. I realized I didn't care about any of the characters, and I have many other books that I would rather spend my reading hours with.. By the middle of the book I still didn't understand the political or economic situation of the immediate locale, let alone on an (apparently) post WWIII Earth. There were hints that the world-visiting was somehow in aid of exploiting resources on alternate Earths, but it was never clear how this was done.

*Thank you Random House - Ballantine and Netgalley for the copy of this book for review*

In this dystopian world, multiverse traveling is possible - as long as your counterpart on that world is no longer alive. Cara is one of the most traveled "traversers" since most of her counter parts on the ~380 worlds are all dead. When one of the few of her remaining selves dies mysteriously, she uncovers dangerous secrets that could have disastrous consequences.

As a huge fan of science fiction and dystopian books, I had extremely high expectations for this story. The concept for this story was unique and I was immediately drawn in. However, beyond the basic description of traversing and the set up of the world, there wasn't much detail on the science fiction aspects - the overall lack of details made it hard to immerse myself in this world. The characters and relationships did not have depth to make me care about any of them. The high stakes part of the book felt super rushed but I can say that the ending was pretty good compared to the rest of the story. I can totally see this book translating better as a movie or limited series.

In this future, technology has been discovered that allows people to travel to different alternate universes, but they die if they enter a universe that contains their living counterpart. This means that people who have grown up in difficult environments have value for world walking, because they are more likely statistically to not have survived their childhoods.

Cara is one such person. Her lives are so dangerous that out of 380 worlds that have been discovered that are fit for travel, she has only 7 other selves left alive, so she has access to 372 worlds.

This book has a lot of interesting things to say about class, the things that people do to survive in a world that lacks resources, and how resources are mined from those who have less in order to benefit those who have more power. Cara comes from outside the walls of the modern city that she works in. She is keenly aware of social signifiers and knows how to signal that she belongs both within the city and outside it. Sometimes she purposely flags herself as a tourist when she returns to her family that still dwells outside the walls because it saves her a different sort of trouble.

Outside the walls, it's Mad Max Land. Inside, it's a corporate utopia/dystopia. The author has thought a lot about how power works on each side of the wall. Cara has done unpleasant things to survive. Her ability to code switch and play a role depending on where she is has turned into a powerful survival mechanism when she travels worlds.

Something goes wrong in a jump, and Cara discovers information that affects both the world she has traveled to and her own world. She may know a little too much.

I love alternate world books because "what if?" is a favorite question of mine. I love books that set up a world and then explore permutations of that world. Cara runs into family members on other worlds sometimes. Those family members are sometimes very different than the ones that she lives with and this allows Cara to see possibilities. Nature vs. nurture is obviously a question that comes up too.

I'd gladly read something else by this author. I was expecting a good book and this one exceeded my expectations!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I'm so glad I finally found the time to get to this oldest book on my TBR-pile! I've had it there since it was nominated for a Hugo two years ago, but other deadlines pushed it aside till I finally had a moment this January to dive in.

And oh, what a smart, elegant, emotional novel it is! I wish all professors of literature were like Micaiah Johnson, because then I'd know that society was in for writing that seriously contemplates human values and conditions instead of the pretentious navel-gazing dreck that passes for fine arts literature nowadays. Clearly, I have an ax to grind with the authors and industry professionals who've wasted hours of my life pushing works with dull plots and tedious writing. I mean, y'all, I just read a book where the one guy is described as being "basted with a light batter of money." Tell me someone else does all the cooking for you without telling me etc. while you focus on your Very Serious Writing Career.

But I digress. The Space Between Worlds is a sci-fi novel about a woman who can walk between the many dimensions of the multiverse. The catch is that you can't travel into a dimension where your counterpart is still alive. Cara's alternate selves seem to be really good at dying, as she discovers over the course of her career as a Traverser. But when she realizes that she has a surprising connection to some of the most powerful people in all the dimensions she can walk into, she'll have to decide whether her cushy life is worth risking for the fate of people who aren't the ones she actually knows and loves.

This is a shockingly deep examination of what people owe others, how we can give back in our own ways, and how we're obligated to lend a helping hand where we can. It's also a persuasive argument for how opportunities can change most people for the better, even if some remain incorrigibly villainous no matter what you do. Bi-friendly and sex- and sex-worker-positive, this novel wears its progressive politics on its sleeve, even as it urges readers to not take things at face value but to give everyone the kind of consideration you'd want for yourself when navigating difficult situations.

Above all that, it's just some really tremendous writing, with plot twists that had me yelling like someone (else) had slapped down gin rummy at the competitive family card game. I cried at parts and fully laughed at others in this amazing book. It's hard to believe that this is Ms Johnson's debut novel. It's so assured and perfect, and I'm so, so glad I had a chance to experience this multiverse she's created. I'm honestly a little scared at where a sequel might go, but fingers crossed Ashtown will be as moving and intelligent as this was.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson was published August 4 2020 by Crown/Del Rey and is available from all good booksellers, including <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/15382/9780593156919">Bookshop!</a>

so many people have raved about this book. I wanted to love it. I think it was too scifi for me - and yes, I know that's the genre, but I wanted to give it a chance even though it's not usually my favorite. I found the plot hard to follow.

I read this book as part of voting on the Astounding Award, and I'm really glad I did! I appreciate the way Johnson uses the multiple-worlds conceit to bring out different facets of her characters.

I took a bit to get into this book, but I am glad I came back to it. The world building and traveling were fun and provided the backbone of the plot. However, the strongest part of the book was the relationships between the characters and that was believable as a motivator for the plot. My only complaint was the romantic relationship was hard to buy into. The strength of the relationship seemed like it needed more time to build to where it ended up. I almost felt like there was more chemistry with a side character. All in all, I would read more by the author and appreciated the complexity of this world and the individuality of multiple side characters. I gave it 4 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy.

Cara is a traverser of worlds and walks between the spaces of the multi-verse to gather data for the corporation she works for. But this specialty comes at a cost. In order for a person to traverse the multi-verse, they have to be dead on the Earth they are traveling to. Born in Ashtown, the rural area of the barren wastes outside of Wiley City, she's dead on a lot of Earths. For Cara, a hop to another dimension is just another day at the office, until one day, she travels to an Earth where she is still alive. Despite the brutal affects on her body, she is saved by an unlikely ally that will forever change the course of her life on her own. Nik Nik is the Emperor of the wastes and someone that Cara hoped never to cross paths with again. I enjoyed this book and the world building. It is a brutal dystopia, but not without hope. The love interest isn't very well fleshed out, so it is a small part of the story and the main storyline about Cara and Nik Nik is more interesting anyway. #netgalley #thespacebetweenworlds

I really enjoyed this book. I wanted a few more details in some places, and the ending wasn't my favorite (though I saw there might be a sequel, so that would explain that), but overall I really liked it.

Alternate reality stories are some of my favorite things, and I loved the author's take on it. The premise of The Space Between Worlds is that alternate worlds exist, but you can only travel to ones that are similar to your own (they have to resonate, to use their word). Unfortunately, if you travel to another world where another version of you already exists, the travel will kill you. So the company that manages the world hopping recruits only people who didn't grow up privileged, or came from areas with wars, because they're the least likely to have their other selves still be alive. Cara is dead on almost all of the worlds, making her very valuable. Except company gossip says they're close to not needing the travelers at all.

I loved the resolution of the conflict, how the hints were laid, and that it wasn't the typical resolution you'd expect. 4.5/5 stars, and I'll definitely be reading the the author's next book.

A quite unique book, ''The Space Between Worlds'' is about Cara, a world traveler.

The multiverse exists. The technology to move from one universe to the other exists. The only catch? Your shelf in the world you want to visit has to be dead.

Cara is alive in 8 out of the 380 worlds her universe knows exist. So, her job is easy. Jump to one world, collect data, and jump back to her world.

What happens, though, when one of her shelves is murdered?
She needs to find out who did it.
And why.
And fast.
Because she is next.

It is a long book and it gets kind of repetitive around the middle, but all in all, it is a nice book to keep you company.

Johnson does a great job with worldbuilding and furthering the plot. The first half of the book was absolutely engaging and raised some really important. I enjoyed the concepts that Johnson discusses, hypothesizing what my life would look like in multiple versions of me (not in the same world, of course). For me, the book started dragging a bit in the second half, which was disappointing, but overall, I thought this was a good read

I rarely read Sci-Fi, because even though I love the futuristic, slightly more realistic than fantastic take on fiction, I rarely find a book that balances science and fiction well enough for me. Until now at least.

Cara is a traverser. Her job is to travel to one of the other dimensions close enough to her own to connect and bring back data. And Cara is valuable in what she does, because traversers can only go to worlds where their other-them is dead. And out of 381 worlds, Cara is alive on just eight.

There is so much to this book that I can't even begin to summarize it properly. The story unfolds, bit by bit, one problem building on the next, and still it's always the same. A bloodthirsty, power-hungry emperor seeking too much for the good of the world, needing to be stopped. Classism and Capitalism standing in the way of real connections, real freedom only in the "feral" lands.

I loved everything about this book. I loved the basis of the multiversal travel, I loved the setting, the perfect white Wiley city against the dust-filled, dirty, bloody Ashtown that somehow manages to have more and less morals at the same time. I loved the characters, all of them, because all of them felt real, they felt close and it hurt when someone died. So much so that you wished the multiverse opened up to escape to one of their other selves, find comfort in the knowledge that they're alive SOMEWHERE else.
Every part of this book felt exciting. The ever-present tension in the main relationship as much as in the one you almost wish would happen, the hurt, the healing, the coup, the revelations.
The way that this book completely turns around, good turning to bad and bad to good and ugh...I loved it so much.
Sometimes, just sometimes, things felt too smooth. Sometimes things felt too detached, problems solved too quickly when the scenes could have been made a little longer, fights a little more descriptive.
But I never once felt like I was missing something.

I saw other people complaining how some things were brought up again and again while others were never explained - runners for example. But to me that made perfect sense. After all it's Cara who tells this story, Cara who focuses on what she doesn't know and doesn't need to repeat what she's known all her life.

My only issue might be with the end, which bears the same problem I mentioned before. (view spoiler) then again, some part of me is a sucker for a happy ending :)

I loved reading this. And I would recommend it to anyone with just the slightest interest in multiverses and multiversal travel. It's great, it's strong and so perfectly subtly lgbt - other gender identities and sexualities never mentioned as something other, something special, just mentioned like the most natural thing in the world.

Thanks to Netgalley to providing me with the free book - I most likely will be buying it to have this beauty standing in my shelf :)

I really enjoyed this book and found it difficult to put down. The plot moves along at a fast pace with compelling characters. The only negative for me is that I wish there was a bit more world building, especially with respect to the setting's history.
4.5/5

This was a 2022 Hugo Awards Finalist for the Astounding Award, which is what moved it up to the top of my TBR List. I've been reading SF for decades and this is one of the most imaginative novels I have read in years. It involves parallel universes, a post-apocalyptic Earth, vast inequalities between classes and types of neighborhoods and worlds, trauma from sexual assault, and so much more.

While some of those sound (and are) grim, the story is hopeful in ways that I really did not expect.

It continued to surprise me right up to the last scene -- which ain't easy to do.

Good Job to the author. Highly recommended.