The Brightness Between Us
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
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.
Featured Series
2 primary booksThe Darkness Outside Us is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Eliot Schrefer.
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Parts of this review are deliberately vague to avoid spoilers for [b:The Darkness Outside Us 55200663 The Darkness Outside Us Eliot Schrefer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602485938l/55200663.SX50.jpg 83111737], which I highly recommend, and which you need to read first; The Brightness Between Us is not a stand-alone novel.It's kind of misleading to call this book a sequel, because significantly more than half of the story takes place before the events in [b:The Darkness Outside Us 55200663 The Darkness Outside Us Eliot Schrefer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602485938l/55200663.SX50.jpg 83111737]. Things happened to Ambrose and Kodiak before they came face-to-face on a Saturn-bound spaceship that have a very delayed impact on Owl and Yarrow, the children they are raising many years later. So the first 100 pages are set 17 years after the end of Darkness, but the next hundred are a flashback to those earlier exploits. That pattern repeats itself, with the Before chapters taking up so much of the book's air that there is very little left for the After ones. The Young Ambrose and Kodiak scenes are emotionally effective, but IMO they are not worth sacrificing the opportunity to fully develop Owl and Yarrow's characters. This is still a quality read; it's a lot of fun to see the sunshine/grumpy couple in new roles, there's enough dry humor to temper the life-or death- drama, and Schrefer still has a few clever plot twists up his sleeve (although nothing as mind-blowing as Darkness' Holy Shit! moment). Extra points for the adorable herbivore quadrupeds who add a touch of whimsy to both timelines.
i'm SEATED!!!!!!!!!! did not expect a sequel with the same characters but we're so back
