The Darkness Outside Us

Alex Cabe reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Good Mystery and Character Study, a Little Shallow on the Worldbuilding

4 stars

This was very enjoyable sci-fi that wasn't quite as "hard" as it thought it was. The author consulted with NASA and gave a pretty good look at what long term space travel would be like, but some issues were pure magic or were handwaved. I agree with one of the prominent reviews here that there was no story reason for the characters to be 17 years old.

Making this a US/Soviet retro-futuristic conflict was an interesting choice that I'm thinking over.

Choosing the name "Cusk" was unfortunate.

This was good enough that I'll read the sequel when it comes out, but I wonder where the sequel can go. This is a pretty closed loop of a story. Seems difficult to come up with a new mystery for the next book.

Also, if you're going to have sex on a spacecraft, and there's a zero G area, you're going to try …

This was very enjoyable sci-fi that wasn't quite as "hard" as it thought it was. The author consulted with NASA and gave a pretty good look at what long term space travel would be like, but some issues were pure magic or were handwaved. I agree with one of the prominent reviews here that there was no story reason for the characters to be 17 years old.

Making this a US/Soviet retro-futuristic conflict was an interesting choice that I'm thinking over.

Choosing the name "Cusk" was unfortunate.

This was good enough that I'll read the sequel when it comes out, but I wonder where the sequel can go. This is a pretty closed loop of a story. Seems difficult to come up with a new mystery for the next book.

Also, if you're going to have sex on a spacecraft, and there's a zero G area, you're going to try it in the zero G area at least once.

📚 Alex Stevenson-Price reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Favourite book so far this year

5 stars

A truly gripping sci-fi thriller mystery thing, which for some reason was marketed as YA romance.

tate reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Breathtaking. Heartstopping. Mind-blowing. Stunning stunning stunning. I loved EVERY SECOND OF THIS. This is perhaps my favorite book I have ever read, and it will take a LOT to top it. This book was not what I expected it to be... it was so much more. A review could never do it justice. I would recommend it to anyone, it has something for everyone. Science fiction, dystopia, romance, queer representation, thriller, mystery, suspense, it is all there interwoven together in the most beautiful way. This book left me in an inexplicable feeling and I will cherish it forever.

Owen Blacker reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

cliftonmr reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review

5 stars

I am very sorry that this one ended. I want to know more about the universe this book takes place in.

anka.trini reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Don't let the other reviewers hype you up.

The book is alright but not a masterpiece.
If this isn't your first dive into science fiction, a lot of the themes will be familiar.

I also found the execution of the plot a little lacking. For me, it all came down to the protagonist. He was quite incompetent for an astronaut. Even considering the nepotism it seems unlikely that he would've been chosen out of all the academy students.

Moreover, I found the USA vs. Russia rivalry unnecessary. In the beginning, it felt like cheap propaganda. And later it was just annoying.

The love story was often too cheesy for my liking.

The ending also left me unsatisfied. It made sense for the characters but for me as a reader it was quite disappointing.

And last but not least, there were a lot of mistakes concerning science that were even obvious …

Don't let the other reviewers hype you up.

The book is alright but not a masterpiece.
If this isn't your first dive into science fiction, a lot of the themes will be familiar.

I also found the execution of the plot a little lacking. For me, it all came down to the protagonist. He was quite incompetent for an astronaut. Even considering the nepotism it seems unlikely that he would've been chosen out of all the academy students.

Moreover, I found the USA vs. Russia rivalry unnecessary. In the beginning, it felt like cheap propaganda. And later it was just annoying.

The love story was often too cheesy for my liking.

The ending also left me unsatisfied. It made sense for the characters but for me as a reader it was quite disappointing.

And last but not least, there were a lot of mistakes concerning science that were even obvious to me although I only have the most basic understanding of physics.

Books That Burn reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

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 …

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 each other I was able to settle in and enjoy the story.

They're from two different countries (apparently the only two countries on Earth at the time of their ship's launch), which are implied to be Russia and an Anglophone country (I'm pretty sure this is supported by the actual text, the audiobook narrator used a Russian accent for Kodiak and a British one for Ambrose which may have affected how I interpreted the story. They make reference to a cold war, so I'm pretty sure that's what was happening. This felt a bit off to me from a worldbuilding angle because there are other large countries who could just as easily have been used as the starting point for the two remaining world powers, but I think the choice ends up working. With that small caveat, I love the second half of the book, I had an excellent time and didn't want it to end.

I would highly recommend this, except for my uneasiness about the country choices and the fact that in the first quarter I almost didn't finish it because of the slow pacing and how I wasn't getting into the romance at first. If you want a groundhog day story about gay love in space, with a possibly hostile A.I., try this.

Annette C. Boehm reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was a very enjoyable read.

earnest ma reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

I wasn’t expecting that at all

5 stars

but it was good, and probably would have read it even if the description was worded differently

Noxus reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

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.

MichaelJoseph reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

See my web site for a full review of “The Darkness Outside Us”.

finndr reviewed The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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.