The Space Between Worlds

By: Micaiah Johnson

Narrated by: Nicole Lewis

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's 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)

©2020 Micaiah Johnson (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

­“[The Space Between Worlds] remained two steps ahead of my imagination, rattling it out of complacency and flooding it with color and heat.... Profoundly satisfying.” (The New York Times Book Review [Editors’ Choice])

“Johnson’s world-hopping debut uses science fictional tools and an exciting plot to address urgent questions of privilege and position.... A compelling stand-alone debut that will leave readers thrilled, thoughtful, and anticipating the author’s next book.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Johnson bursts onto the scene with this thought-provoking, high-concept sci-fi debut that impresses with exceptional worldbuilding and a distinctive protagonist.” (Publishers Weekly)

Brilliant!

This what good science fiction looks like! A great read reminiscent of Asimov. The narration is rich and expressive.

Eagerly awaiting more

The worst thing about reading this book was finding out it was the author's first and only. I fully intend on reading anything and everything she ever publishes. It was amazing.

Nice surprise

Enjoyed quite a bit I liked the use of the multiverse to explore the I retesting ideas of socioeconomics, race and identity

Excellent. Textured. Thrilling. New.

I loved this book. It was engaging and fascinating. Parts of it were brutal and raw, by it was honest and unabashed without being gratuitous. I was a huge fan of the time it took to build the world and all of the elements that made up this world.

An adventure with amazing world building

Wow this was amazing. The words were poetic, flowery and super relaxing to get into.

I got this as I believe it was part of a sale and sorta forgot I picked it up. I believed it to be maybe a bag of chips kinda books to sit back and relax to. I was absolutely misjudging this book because I ended up having to sit through the entire thing because I just did not want to stop until the end.

The world building in this book is absolutely amazing. I found the writing so descriptive and totally was able to paint a picture of everything that was going on and describe the world's and situations.

This was a far future type of book. Some of the writing made it seem very disconnected from the reality I know. Guns are a thing of the past and basically folklore as guns are seen as so primitive and unethical. The book focuses on this new world of using dimension hopping as fuel to the economy.

I found the concepts and descriptions behind these concepts to be so creative and a new approach to this kind of story telling.

I've seen dimension hopping done so much and was so happy that the author took a new approach with why certain people can hop and others can't, what happens when hopping and some of the rules that apply and to keep in mind when hopping. These rules really help get rid of that pointlessly hopping for sake of adventure trope out of this.

This book was a relaxing and interesting adventure. I felt like the twists and turns in the story were handled in ways to not outright shock but just ruffle feathers enough to get excited. I really liked the approach to not get too crazy with thrown around plot devices. The pacing was perfect too and I never felt like the book go too slow or too fast as something interesting was always going on.

I also really appreciated the very natural approach of having an LGBT main character. It felt well fitted and was a good human representation without it feeling plugged in for dramatic effect.

I really wanted more from this world by the time the book ended. I felt like I understood these characters and totally fell for the MC and the strong supporting side characters. I could totally see this becoming a trilogy with the well built world being expanded on further.

was difficult to track

I enjoyed the performance so much I let the storyline ( which was difficult to follow) fall to the wayside. Cant really put my finger on why, but felt there was alot of unnecessary bits that just tangled up story. Not really adding to plot just ... well not sure what it did besides take up time. The characters are richly colored and distinctive. No cookie cutters, or black/white - Evil/good. Again the performance was amazing.

So good

It was the cover of this book that first caught my attention. In this time of pandemic and political anxiety, I was looking for a book to immerse myself in. This first time novel fit the bill. The narration is great as well. I highly recommend listening to this book.

Excellent book and narrator

This has been my favorite book so far this year. I read it first and then listened to the audiobook because I loved it so much. The narrator (Nicole Lewis) is excellent and adds depth to an already great story. I will probably listen to it again.

A Page Turner!

The world building is excellent. The characters are multi-layered. The protagonist is believable.
I was hoping this would be a good read. I was not dissapointed.

Good Sci fi book. loved the black voice

the narration on this story was great really kept me wanting to listen. the story was fun and definitely different from what I normally would listen to in sci-fi.