Hardcover, 397 pages
Published June 1, 2021 by Katherine Tegen Books.
Two boys, alone in space.
After the first settler on Titan trips her distress signal, neither remaining country on Earth can afford to scramble a rescue of its own, and so two sworn enemies are installed in the same spaceship.
Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor, with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: Evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.
In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust one another… especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.
This review is incomplete.
Eliot Schrefer kept me gripped with this thriller of two boys in space, made me numb and horrified at parts, and then made me cry happy years at the end.
I will definitely be reading more of his work.
I am very sorry that this one ended. I want to know more about the universe this book takes place in.
THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE US features two older teens on a space mission to rescue Ambrose's sister. When little things stop adding up, the more Ambrose and Kodiak try to find out what's happening, the more the A.I. gets in their way.
The plot takes a while to get going, the beginning is a lot of worldbuilding which is usually smoothly conveyed, but occasionally veers into thinly veiled infodumps. Once things get going (somewhere between a third and halfway in) they pick up quickly and the story becomes very engaging. It has much of what I love most about time loop stories without technically being one. I was initially hesitant about the relationship between Ambrose and Kodiak, their chemistry grew slowly and I'm a bit too demi to buy into a romance driven by being the only two people they can interact with, but once I accepted that they clearly like …
This was a very enjoyable read.
but it was good, and probably would have read it even if the description was worded differently
I was very surprised by this book. I did a very superficial search for sci fi books and this popped up. Grabbed it and loved it.
See my web site for a full review of “The Darkness Outside Us”.
Convincing plot, interesting thoughts, okay characters, lazy worldbuilding. Which makes sense, I suppose, because the author clearly wanted to write philosophical speculative fiction (which they succeeded in), not focus delving into a complex backstory and world far enough to make readers understand it. Unfortunately that also made other thoughts the book discusses more simplistic and flat than they could have been.
As other reviewers have said, this book was mismarketed, but only insofar as it isn't mainly a romance. It's definitely YA, for inquisitive young readers who like to dig deep into philosophical questions.
