Two Minute Review: The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett

Title: The Space Between the Stars
Author: Anne Corlett
Genre: science fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 368
Published: June 13 2017
Source: publishers via NetGalley
Rating: 2/5

In a breathtakingly vivid and emotionally gripping debut novel, one woman must confront the emptiness in the universe—and in her own heart—when a devastating virus reduces most of humanity to dust and memories.

All Jamie Allenby ever wanted was space. Even though she wasn’t forced to emigrate from Earth, she willingly left the overpopulated, claustrophobic planet. And when a long relationship devolved into silence and suffocating sadness, she found work on a frontier world on the edges of civilization. Then the virus hit...

Now Jamie finds herself dreadfully alone, with all that’s left of the dead. Until a garbled message from Earth gives her hope that someone from her past might still be alive.

Soon Jamie finds other survivors, and their ragtag group will travel through the vast reaches of space, drawn to the promise of a new beginning on Earth. But their dream will pit them against those desperately clinging to the old ways. And Jamie’s own journey home will help her close the distance between who she has become and who she is meant to be... 

Two stars, according to the official scale of Goodreads, means "it was okay." That's.... pretty much how I feel about The Space Between the Stars and that's being pretty generous. 

Despite an impressive summary and good start this novel quickly emerges as exceedingly average when it wasn't being preachingly pedantic. There are some good bones and good ideas in Anne Corlett's odd science fiction tale, but they do tend to get lost in the morass and the dull nature of the narration. The main character is hard to invest in or to even generally care about; I don't need to like a character but I do need to be interested in their story. That was not the case with Jamie. She's whiny and spoiled; instead of rooting for her it's more likely to go the opposite way.

The main thing The Space Between the Stars has going for it is the plot's framework. It's an interesting plot and though Corlett doesn't do all she could with the premise, there are a few decent plot reveals and resolutions. It's not enough to compensate for the utter lack of character charisma but it does make the novel at least palatable enough to finish.