I’m being lazy and combining these three VERY DIFFERENT BOOKS because Space!
I read Otherworldly and Project Hail Mary as ebooks, and Atmosphere as an audiobook.
Otherworldly first!
So, one of my favorite book genres is space horror. My list of fears (to read or watch a movie / TV show about) is not very long. Deep down in the ocean scares me to bits, and so does outer space. I think they’re similar in that once you’re there, you’re at the mercy of however you got there and your equipment. There are so many areas in the deep ocean and outer space that haven’t been explored, there are bound to be creeeeepy things. My number one fear in real life is rabies, but that’s wildly unrelated to this post.
Otherworldly starts out with a crew testing for a long space journey. Our heroine Cleo is in a sensory deprivation chamber, and we quickly learn that she’s the “best” at being alone without being lonely. It makes her a good candidate for their space Odessey, as they’ll be alone for months. Cleo comes from the Xavier family, and her father discovered that there are no aliens out there in the universe. There was some sort of math involved, I think.
Cloe’s team’s mission is to travel to Orbis Alius, the farthest planet in the solar system, to see if it can be terraformed. Three of the crew travel to the planet, and one stays behind on the ship. Of course there are communication blackouts between them all, and of course there’s some sort of insidious presence. I really liked this book because it made you feel the crushing sense of aloneness that Chloe was facing. It also creatively described the different parts of the planet and the “life” that was there.
OMG I forgot about her AI companion. It’s kind of like a robot dog, and it’s programmed with her personality and likes in mind. It also raps, which sounds like it could get old, but I thought the rhymes were creative. Anyway, this was creepy and interesting and if you like space horror, you’ll probably like this! 4 stars
Prepare yourself for a wild tonal shift! While Otherworldly took us to the future with alien life, Atmosphere takes us back in time to the early 80’s with lady astronauts and love. We swing between the summer of 1980 and the “present” of Fall/Winter 1984.
If you’ve read other Taylor Jenkins Reid books, you know there’s a chance of non-hetero characters. I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, but I still wasn’t prepared. I guess when your whole life has been “normal” heterosexual love, you don’t always see the non-hetero characters coming. I’m extremely liberal and I think Love is Love, and I don’t judge anyone for their sexuality. There is no but here, I’m just laying that out! It just struck me that I never thought of how people in the not-so-distant past might have felt about their sexuality. The overwhelming emotion I had while listening to this book was anger about how people who were seen as “deviant” or “not normal” in those days were treated. I was born in 1981, and grew up in the 90’s, which wasn’t the most politically correct era. BUT, every time I read a book about the 90’s or earlier, or watch a show from that time period, I’m reminded about how assholey people were (and I know some still are). I guess I have the privilege of not having to worry about those things, and I take it for granted.
Anyway, Joan is our heroine in Atmosphere. She spent her teen years thinking there was something a little bit off because she didn’t find men attractive. And she also loved science and math and space. One day her (awful, terrible, worst) sister suggests that she should try to be a lady astronaut. A fire is ignited in Joan that continues to burn through her journey to NASA. I loved the interpersonal relationships in this book and how they changed and grew and informed how the characters lived their lives. This book was truly a love story, but not just romantic love. There’s love of family, love of job, love of friends, and love of romantic partners. Nobody gets murdered in this book, and there are no monsters (except for the hetero / traditional status quo!), but I absolutely loved this book. 5 stars
And for my third SPACE! book in this post, I present the book that probably 50% of the country just recently read. I’m a regular “read the book before the movie / TV show comes out” girl. I like to read a book and visualize it myself and then see how someone else’s brain visualized it! I went into this book knowing nothing about it, except that a guy went into space. I still haven’t seen the movie, but I hope to soon.
Like Atmosphere, we travel back and forth in time in Project Hail Mary. We learn about a new life form that’s basically eating the sun. You’d think this would be helpful for global warming, but apparently, we really really need the sun to survive. There are some WILD experiments and plans to help counteract the Astrophage, which is what our main character (Dr. Ryland Grace) names them.
I liked all of the “on land” stuff where Dr. Grace and other scientists from around the world are just shooting stuff at the Astrophage and seeing what happens. Things get even wilder when we get up to space. There’s a planet where the Astrophage are not “attacking”, so Project Hail Mary (the name of the ship and the name of the project to save the world) heads there to see what’s different and if we can replicate it to save our planet. I just looked at my kindle highlights and found this quote hilarious, as someone who is on a constant hydration journey, “You have to stay hydrated if you want to save the world.” This is just good advice overall!
I haven’t even gotten into Rocky, who is the alien that Dr. Grace meets and teams up with to save the world. He’s amazing and adorable and extremely smart and kind. I loved everything about him and would willingly read an entire series about just him. His ingenuity and resourcefulness save Dr. Grace and the project more than once or twice. I loved this book, 5 stars.
