The Darkness Outside Us

Hardcover, 416 pages

English language

Published June 1, 2021 by HarperCollins.

ISBN:
978-0-06-288828-0
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (5 reviews)

Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission.

Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.

In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.

2 editions

Good Mystery and Character Study, a Little Shallow on the Worldbuilding

4 stars

This was very enjoyable sci-fi that wasn't quite as "hard" as it thought it was. The author consulted with NASA and gave a pretty good look at what long term space travel would be like, but some issues were pure magic or were handwaved. I agree with one of the prominent reviews here that there was no story reason for the characters to be 17 years old.

Making this a US/Soviet retro-futuristic conflict was an interesting choice that I'm thinking over.

Choosing the name "Cusk" was unfortunate.

This was good enough that I'll read the sequel when it comes out, but I wonder where the sequel can go. This is a pretty closed loop of a story. Seems difficult to come up with a new mystery for the next book.

Also, if you're going to have sex on a spacecraft, and there's a zero G area, you're going to try …

Review of 'The Darkness Outside Us' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow this was absolutely not what I expected! Honestly I couldn't let go of this book and went through it in two days as I couldn't bear to wait before knowing what would happen to Ambrose and Kodiak. I truly loved this book from start to finish and it was able to surprise me a lot while bringing tears to my eyes. Thanks for this great story!