In this sequel to The Darkness Outside Us, a Stonewall Honor Book, New York Times bestselling author Eliot Schrefer delivers another ambitious, genre-bending novel and epic love story that spans thousands of years and the far reaches of the galaxy.
Seventeen years have gone by since the Coordinated Endeavor crashed on a distant exoplanet. Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius are now the devoted parents of two teenage children, Owl and Yarrow, in a hardscrabble frontier home. Though life on Minerva is full of danger, the family’s bond is enough to make it all worth it—until they learn that the biggest threat to their survival might come from within.
More than thirty thousand years in the past, Ambrose wakes on Earth to find that his mission to save his sister was a ruse. His mother betrayed him, and the cruelty of her true plans sets Ambrose spiraling. When he discovers that another spacefarer is suffering his same fate, he will have to decide whether to risk crossing a world at war to reach him.
Separated by time and space, a young family and two strangers learn that their lives are intimately intertwined. They race to uncover the unexpected connections that might save them all . . . and perhaps humanity as well.
The Brightness Between Us is a genre-bending sci-fi survival thriller and a stunning sequel to Eliot Schrefer’s The Darkness Outside Us. The story is emotionally heart-wrenching and thought-provoking and poses the contemplation of the survival of humanity across space. This book can be read as a standalone, but it’s highly recommended to read book 1 first for both an incredible reading experience and its crucial backstory. This story follows Ambrose Cusk and Kodiak Celius, on a highly advanced 24th-century Earth, who are tricked into believing they are heading on a space mission to save Ambrose’s sister Minerva, trapped after a mission to one of Saturn’s moons. Instead, their conscious memories have been copied and transferred over to a set of clones, who will unknowingly undertake a complex space mission to settle future humanity on a distant planet. Meanwhile, far in the future, the story shifts to Ambrose and Kodiak’s clones, who are raising two children on the distant planet. The family’s idyllic existence begins to unravel as terrifying behavioral changes emerge in one of the children as a consequence of decisions made millennia earlier on Earth. The novel is broken into 7 parts, with different character perspectives and alternating dual timelines, making for a multi-layered, complex, and engrossing story. The pacing may initially seem uneven and the dual timelines disjointed, but their eventual convergence is extremely satisfying and poignant.
Schrefer’s prose is both lyrical and straightforward, creating a narrative that weaves together themes of family loyalty/deception, parenthood, and the far-reaching effects of choices. The perspectives of Kodiak and Ambrose are told on the futuristic, war-torn, 24th-century Earth, while the future timeline on planet “Minerva” is told from very differing perspectives of their children Owl and Yarrow—who’ve only known the distant planet as their home and rely on reels to capture the essence of past life on Earth. On Minerva, there is an overwhelming heartfelt connection between the children and their parents as they navigate a survival-based existence, constantly monitoring and planning for a catastrophic comet strike. Owl and Yarrow share a deep sibling bond that readers will immediately resonate with. As the plot unfolds, and Yarrow is afflicted with sudden behavioral changes that cause him to turn on his family, the story becomes increasingly heartbreaking. Meanwhile, the younger, original versions of Kodiak and Ambrose on Earth are a far cry from their future parent clones. Ambrose, coming from a very prominent family, is depicted as malicious and reckless, especially when he learns of his mother’s deception to send a clone into space in his place and seeks revenge. The eventual meeting of Kodiak and Ambrose on earth is told through a complex and thrilling series of events, putting Schrefer’s masterful and intricate storyteller abilities on full display!
The book is marketed as YA, but just like the first book, it reads more like an adult novel, with mature themes, violence, sexual content, and complex storytelling. The story escalates in intensity in the second half, followed by an explosive ending that is both captivating and unresolved. The ending will leave readers contemplating the outcomes of the characters and also wondering if there’s another book in the series forthcoming—let’s certainly hope so, or we’ll be forever wondering!
Overall, this book and series are perfect choices for fans of literary science fiction, survival thrillers, unconventional queer romances, and exceptionally original narratives. Narrator James Fouhey delivers phenomenal performances in both books, in a perfectly paced delivery, capturing the essence of each character with distinct voices and accents that give the feel of a multicast listen. If all of this sounds intriguing and you’re looking to read something unlike anything you’ve read before, give this book and series very high consideration!
