Had there been no this twist, this would've been another dreary parallel-worlds-based read. But this! This twisty made it all so much more stand out! 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. EVEN WORTHLESS THINGS can become valuable once they become rare. This is the grand lesson of my life. (c) Cara's parallel selves are exceptionally good at dying - from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn't outrun - which makes Cara wary, and valuable. Because while multiverse travel is possible, no one can visit a world in which their counterpart is still alive. And no one has fewer counterparts than Cara. Mostly I was not really convinced by her motivations for everything. And everything happened and unfolded so conveniently, that I didn't feel like there was any suspense at all. I was quite bored. The way the storylines and characters were introduced also left me feeling like there were separate disjointed storylines. If things were gradually introduced in a different way I think it could have added to the complexity of the plot rather than it being in phases that felt loose and unexciting :/

World Between Worlds | Wookieepedia | Fandom World Between Worlds | Wookieepedia | Fandom

I then want to heap praise on it for keeping so much focus on the same sets of characters that our main character has always been interacting with, showing a lot of subtlety and flexibility with the greater tale. But then, there's a lot of that in multi-universal novels, too. Or any novel. This still does a fine job that remains interesting to the end.But perhaps my favourite thing about this book is its social commentary. What is science fiction (or fantasy for that matter) without some social commentary, really? Everything about the book makes you think and that’s the best thing here. I mean, I love books where I can just get lost as much as the next person, but the sheer power of books that make you think? Unmatched. The Space Between Worlds opens on Cara, who is “traversing” into another dimension to collect information for her employer, the Eldridge Corporation. This extraordinary task is routine for Cara, who is at the top of her field due to her—or more precisely her multidimensional selves’—aptitude towards dying. This skill is important because, by some anomaly of physics or the mysterious god Nyame depending on who you ask, the only way to travel to another universe and survive is if your other self in that universe is already dead. If a character has a different personality and motivations in one or more of the 378 multiverses discovered, is that proof of the fact that we are victims of circumstance and our upbringing? Can that be an excuse for bad behaviour and eventually redemption?

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, Paperback The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, Paperback

Cara's younger sibling Esther lived in Ashtown in the Rurals, an area all about "charity, piety and religion". Esther was warm and generous, all that was good. Could she become ruthless? He thinks if I study the figures and look for patterns the way analysts do, I’ll be valuable to the company for more than my mortality rate. (c) Apart from that, those on Earth Zero who are white and/or rich live in a high tower whilst those who are not live in slums and shantytowns, victims to a blazing and scorching sun. This draws a lot into the themes and criticisms that Johnson makes as those with paler skin don't work and don't go outside, which draws a lot into the argument of colorism as the rich intentionally have paler, whiter skin, giving them more privilege and more power as they'll appear more conventionally beautiful to those in their society. The writing is utterly brilliant and I couldn’t stop marvelling at how simple yet powerful the writing was. The little paragraph at the beginning of each part comparing the way people of the scientific world and spiritual world saw things was so fascinating. She needs my absence more than anything. A witness to the shame makes it worse, even if it’s a friend. (c)She takes it as an insult, which I take as an insult. We can’t ever really talk. I want to take her hands and tell her that, yes, she is better than me but that is because she is better than me. (c) THAN ME, THAN ME, THAN ME. Gosh. That's a thoroughly unpleasant way to think one's way through life, isn't it? The World Between Worlds, otherwise referred to as the Vergence Scatter, was described within the Chain Worlds Theorem, visualized in the Sacred Jedi texts kept within the Jedi Temple on the planet Ahch-To. [3] It was accessible from a painting of the Mortis gods— Father, Daughter, and Son—that decorated the exterior of the Jedi Temple on the planet Lothal. [1] Which means that the most valuable traversers are the ones most likely to have died young. The people who live on the margins. All that subtle anger I’d harbored against her, thinking she thought she was better than me, did she feel it? (c)

The Space Between Worlds | Howling Giant The Space Between Worlds | Howling Giant

Even worthless things can become valuable once they become rare. This is the grand lesson of my life. Another me is gone. As I walk into the valley, I’m a little more valuable walking down the mountain than I was walking up. 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. I can hear her smiling but not smiling from 196 worlds away. I’ve dodged the physical training for my job since just after my hiring six years ago. She’s so uptight, you’d think she’d just report me, but forcing me on these long walks is her answer.Conceptually, The Space Between Worlds has a lot of potential. In this version of parallel universes, you can only travel to a different one if your counterpart is already dead. Enter Cara, who has died in most other worlds, so she's able to travel between them. Yep, I can totally get behind that. But that was pretty much it for things I enjoyed, and it was only a very small part of the story. I really did love the set up for this book and the idea of how the multiverses worked and how they were used by the major corporation. The science has no real explanations about how it works but I was okay with that. I really enjoyed the limitations on multiverse travel. The main character, Cara, was fun and I loved the hints of mystery about her from the very beginning. Human beings are unknowable...Even if you hustle and make it in the rough, you have no idea if you would thrive or die in the light of real riches, if your cleverness would outlive your desperation". "In the Wiles, I pass for someone who has known stability and money her whole life. In Ashtown, I pass for someone who remembers how to pray and scrape. I am always wearing costumes but never just clothes". Q: I’ve never been afraid to die, which has probably been my problem on more than one Earth. (c) Just one of the problems, I bet. Human beings are unknowable. You can never know a single person fully. Not even yourself. Even if you think you know yourself in your safe glass castle, you don't know yourself in dirt.”