SI CLARKE reviewed The Outside by Ada Hoffmann (The Outside)
Review of 'The Outside' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book... Where do I start?
It took me two months to read this book. I'm not a fast reader, but that's slow even by my standards. Please don't assume I read slowly because it was boring. And it's not as if it's hard science fiction, wherein I need to spend hours trying to understand the science being flung around all willy-nilly. It's not actually that science-intense.
Oh, but it is intense. Dense. Rich.
One time I bought a bottle of stout that was so exquisitely intense in its flavour (not to mention its alcohol content) that I couldn't drink more than a 100 mL at a time. This book is like that beer.
In the far future, Yasira is a physicist in charge of a new power reactor on a space station. Only instead of producing power like it's meant to, it tears a hole in the fabric of the universe. Some people escape, but many die. The space station is destroyed. And then the angel Akavi (working for the AI God Nemesis) comes for Yasira. She's guilty of unknowingly committing heresy, but because the one the Gods really want is Yasira's former mentor, Evianna, Akavi makes her an offer. Instead of killing her, she can work for them to help take town Evianna.
It's all very complicated and convoluted and wonderful. I think I'm doing a terrible job of explaining it, but I just don't have the words.