The Space Between Worlds

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She was able to beautifully craft a world, characters, and a story that I truly cared for and left a lasting impression on me right after I finished it. The Space Between Worlds is a fresh and interesting take on the multiverse. On this version of Earth, anyway. We are told that there are about 300 worlds that vibrate just right with ours to visit it. Now, what would that entail? That would mean that of all the universes that are slightly different from ours, only 300 are different but not too much to be visitable. We don't really know how worlds are created but basically, our every decision should have parallel worlds branching out: you take the underground instead of bus - new world. You broke your coffee mug - there should be still innumerable other worlds where it's still standing on your desk. Cara's "pulls" to different Earths were managed by her handler, Dell. Dell and Cara used wit and/or sarcasm in their communiques. Dell was a product of privilege. She lived in a high tower on the 80th floor. Cara's dwelling was below, on the 30th floor, where no sun was visible. Dell was dressed to the nines, Cara was simply attired. Tensions developed...feelings...unfulfilled desires. The Space Between Worlds opens on Cara, who is “traversing” into another dimension to collect information for her employer, the Eldridge Corporation. This extraordinary task is routine for Cara, who is at the top of her field due to her—or more precisely her multidimensional selves’—aptitude towards dying. This skill is important because, by some anomaly of physics or the mysterious god Nyame depending on who you ask, the only way to travel to another universe and survive is if your other self in that universe is already dead.

This is a world where multiverse travel is common knowledge. A total of 382 parallel earths have been documented but traversing between worlds is a little like playing Russian roulette, every time you travel could be the one that kills you. Cara was actually quite likeable but I wasn’t convinced that she knew what she wanted, and because of this her character arc felt a bit disconnected from the plot.

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Nah. If it was meant to be the World Between Worlds it would have said that." ―The Lucasfilm Story Group's Matt Martin, on the "place between places" in the The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition [12] a b drbialkowski (29 December 2020). "The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson: A Review". The Roar . Retrieved 5 October 2023.

I liked many elements of the story - the ones that always draw me in - how nature and nurture and circumstances can change a person's life path. But a lot of potential here was left unexplored. The novel is too long for what it is. It doesn't quite work structurally - there are some good twists, but no big climax. The villain never materialized as a major force. The story left me wanting. Q: I’ve never been afraid to die, which has probably been my problem on more than one Earth. (c) Just one of the problems, I bet. What annoyed me was that the style was abrupt, at times there would be paragraphs where author used more descriptive language and I began to feel engaged with the environment a bit more. But then all of a sudden the voice changed and it became feeling robotic with little to no description at all. Throughout the book, this is something that Cara struggles with: she’s in survival mode, having to deal with all of the issues that come with trying to fly under the radar, assimilate, and get through the next day. As she notes at one point, her mother says that she was born reaching.Shankari, Uma (10 August 2020). "Review: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson". The Nerd Daily . Retrieved 5 October 2023. In the beginning, I was pretty excited to return to The Space Between Worlds after each break. The world this is set in is exciting, diverse, dystopian and full of adventures. I loved how rich in contrasts Micaiah's work. Although entirely futuristic, it still reminds so much of the classist reality we are living in now. Ezra wanted to pull Kanan into the World Between Worlds, same as he did Ahsoka, but she told Ezra that he would doom them all if he did. Without Kanan’s sacrifice the rest of them would have died.