The Darkness Outside UsReview posted January 25, 2025
HarperAudio, 2021. 9 hours, 49 minutes.
Review written January 10, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
Wow! I'd be very sorry I missed reading this book in its publication year - except for the lovely fact that I have the sequel in my Holds queue already. This is powerful space travel science fiction, with a side of a sweet love story between two young men.
The book is narrated by Ambrose Cusk, the son of the powerful owner of the Cusk Space Travel Corporation and the DNA of Alexander the Great. He's been training for space travel, and he wakes up on a spaceship on a planned mission to rescue his sister Minerva, who sent out a distress beacon from Titan.
Funny thing, though - he doesn't remember the launch. The ship's operating system, which has his mother's voice, tells him he was in a coma for two weeks. Next he discovers that his ship has been joined to a ship from the one other country on earth, Demokratea, and there is a space traveler on the other side of the ship, named Kodiak. Both of them have been assigned maintenance tasks that the O.S. tells them are urgent to accomplish before they arrive on Titan.
Ambrose works little by little on earning Kodiak's trust. Unfortunately, at the same time, they lose trust in the operating system. It won't explain to them why neither of them remembers the launch. Or why some other details don't add up. And then Ambrose finds some blood and hair with DNA that matches his own, but no memory of such an injury.
Well, solving this mystery is by no means the end of the book. Dealing with what they learn is what makes the book so interesting. And the ins and outs are expertly crafted. I have to say that I can get extremely nitpicky about science fiction, and easily skeptical as to whether things described could actually work. In this case, there was nothing in the book that triggered my skepticism at all, and I loved the way the author thought of repercussions and reactions to what was happening that seemed realistic when they happened - but hadn't crossed my mind at all. (I hope that's vague enough to be intriguing without giving anything away!)
This was also a lovely exploration of love during extreme circumstances. Ambrose and Kodiak don't have anyone else to love, but the book beautifully showed how their love and appreciation for each other grows under duress.
And there's so much more I wish I could say! In couched terms, I will also say that this is a book that could have gotten repetitive, and I loved the way the author kept the reader guessing and expanded on the ideas in surprising ways. He also had the two teens acting consistently with their characters - but still surprising us and making us think about the emotional and psychological turmoil they were going through - and how we might react in such a case.
Okay, I've probably said enough. If you like science fiction at all, read this book!