The Space between words.
Okay, speed runs here. Multiverse, girls in love with each other, single-shot standalone novels…
I put off reading this one. I found a nice hardcover copy in a used book store and thought “Score!” because these days all I can find in a used book store are Dr Suess, various Tom Clancy novels, and a thousand copies of books by Orson Scott Card like the world wants to just purge him from their libraries. So I snagged my copy of The Space Between Worlds and was ready to go. Then my singular sibling told me she hated it. So I… put it off?
After three and a half decades with this kid as family you would think I would remember that we have vastly different taste in books (possible that she highly recommended Time War to me, and we know how that went). So, in a fit of desperation to avoid all things social media (all of a sudden, weird, I know), I finally, finally picked up this book to read it, years after buying it.
I think there are two major points of contention I have with this book. One is a theme I keep encountering where a queer female main character pines after her female love interest, but spends the bulk of the story recalling her sexploits with men (or worse, engages in no-strings sex with men) only to have final, caste reunion with her main interest. I give this book pass, since the mains do fuck eventually (thank god), and the story build-up needed the tension of the other characters. The other issue is: what is with everyone writing about multiverse theory all of a sudden and why can’t I get my own multiverse story out there faster?
I can’t claim a comp here, not for my first book. This story isn’t in space, it isn’t a locked room mystery, and more than anything, it is something I read a year after I published the first book. But I could, possibly, be able to compare it to a sequel on the premise of multiverse, which is promising. Hint hint wink wink about where my story building is winding up. There are some obvious differences. Hell in a multiverse concept that is the whole damned point. Slight differences across multitudes of realities. This book (Space Between Worlds, not mine, we’ll get to mine later) does a good job exploring the impacts of socio-economic impact on various life paths someone can have and I just… never feel like doing that much thinking when I write. I commend an author who can weave that sort of detail into their work. But the story had nice layers, and a tight control over what was happening through the parallel paths, which made for a cleaner execution in what could be a very messy rabbit hole.
From a science standpoint, this is something I always struggle with multiverse/time travel theories. They rub so aggressively against what little belief system I have for myself. I don’t subscribe to much of any religion, but I do cater to the idea of an infinite universe, and any time someone tries to make rules to govern that infinite universe beyond the known current rules of our own world, I get itchy feeling. In this book they can only travel to worlds where they are already dead in that timeline, and they can only travel between worlds where there is enough similarity between their home world and the one they are traveling to. So if I critique this from a scifi/geek/connoisseur/insufferable personality standpoint (read: think too hard about it. Don’t do this with multiverse), I want to ask “so of all the infinite possible small deviations that can cause a timeline or universe to split, you only have 350 worlds that are “similar enough”? And there’s no overlap here? That someone from a world 349 worlds away can’t also travel to some number of worlds further than someone from Earth Zero? And why is there always an Earth Zero? Can’t you tell how much fun I am at parties?
Right, suspension of belief. I can do it. The book was fun, and there is some hope for me that the popularity of alternative or multi-verse is still prevalent. It means I can probably find a LOT more comp material out there for my sequel, though, my publisher seems to already be pretty gung ho on releasing it so I won’t be sending a million queries again.
In all this was a fun story. And clearly, once again, proof that my sibling and I have drastically different ways of consuming media, queer media specifically. I didn’t actually have a problem with the relationship. It had some enemies-to-lovers vibe, and at least it provided the closure of the two love interests sealing the deal (they did the sex, okay?) before the end of the book, rather than just fading to black after chatting about all the other men they slept with instead. I like a good sexual resolution. Sure, I would rather they spent more time together. But I can’t win them all, can I?
Stay tuned for my budding realization that my quest for a really good science fiction story with a well-rounded, tension filled and satisfying lesbian romance weaved throughout, is a near futile task. It is a mission I have taken on in hopes of contributing to change, but as I continue this reading journey, either in a search for comp works, or just because I refuse to watch/read the news these days, I realize there is a LOT of work to be done if I want this goal realized.
AZ ROZKILLIS 