The Space Between the Stars is a story concerning one woman’s journey, not just across the stars from A to B but also a search to find herself.  As debut novels go I think this is very good.  I wouldn’t say it contains much sci fi to be honest and it’s not particularly a story packed with action, it’s more a character study set against a rather grand back drop.

As the story starts we make the acquaintance of Jamie Allenby as she awakens from illness to find herself quite alone.  Jamie lived on a pretty remote planet in the colonised universe but even though there weren’t many people there were some, on this particular day though it seems that the virus sweeping from planet to planet has turned everyone to dust.  Jamie heads to the nearest port looking for survivors and just as she begins to despair she meets with a couple of characters and before long they find themselves on a ship desperately trying to return to Earth.

I liked The Space Between the Stars, it’s well written and quite thought provoking.  However, before I say anything further I will point out that this is very low in terms of sci fi – in fact strictly speaking Jamie could have been travelling from one end of any country on earth to another with much the same outcome as travelling from one planet to another by spaceship.  There are no aliens, no light travel, no warp speed and actually not too much by way of explanation.  The universe aspect is simply the backdrop.  This also isn’t a story that races away in terms of plot. Yes, of course, being an apocalypse style book there are a number of encounters but to be honest these felt a little formulaic, perhaps not if you don’t read too many books in this style but otherwise this isn’t really reinventing the wheel.

Now, I don’t really mean to sound negative with any of the above I’m simply making the point because I think it helps in terms of expectations going into a book.  I got on quite well with this book, I enjoyed it, it has a mystery aspect and a little romance, although this does not dominate the plot, but, there are other elements that are skimpy.  Basically, I have slightly torn feelings.  In one respect, I liked this and didn’t struggle to finish it but on the other hand I had these niggles, some storylines felt very easily resolved, there was some incredibly good luck happening on a fairly frequent basis and travelling between the planets seemed incredibly quick, but, I quickly came to realise this was a certain type of read and with that in mind, once I stopped expecting an alien attack or a hoard of zombies it wasn’t a struggle any more.  So, if you want something more from this than one woman, feeling very alone, embarking on a journey and having some revelations along the way then this might not be the story for you.

In terms of characters.  Well, we have Jamie, and this is very much the Jamie show.  Jamie has experienced certain things in her life that have led her to run to the furthest corner of the known universe where she would have the freedom to live and work without having to interact too often with other humans.  She’s tetchy and I suppose she comes across as a little self centred.  She certainly spends a lot of her time thinking through why her prior relationship didn’t work and mulling things over rather than maybe considering how she would survive.  However, I guess she’s simply built a wall around herself to protect others from getting through and emotionally hurting her.  In times of crisis though she finds she wants to return home – at first for an ideal that she holds in her mind but as the story progresses I think simply to go home – may it ever be so humble, etc.  Along the way she finds her hard exterior cracking and eventually she begins to let others get beneath her skin.

On the whole, I think this is an enjoyable read.  I had certain issues that prevented it being a great read but nonetheless a positive debut and I would definitely be interested in reading more work by this author.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.