The Space Between Worlds

I think this excellent book suffered from being the first thing I read after finishing The Broken Earth Trilogy; I suspect most books' sheens would be somewhat dulled in comparison to the dazzle of TBET. Still, I raced through this and enjoyed it, with two caveats. First, there's one relationship between two main characters that grated on me for most of the novel, and I have a pretty high tolerance for interpersonal tension both in real life and fiction. After a plot twist, however, it becomes clear that the reader was supposed to be squirming reading those interactions, and I wish Johnson had been willing to give me a reprieve a bit earlier. The other caveat is there's another plot twist late in the novel that relies on the first person narrator failing to disclose a significant decision with the reader. That felt a bit sneaky to me, and is a good example of the success of TBET, which involved Jemisin deftly navigating second person narration without committing narrative errors of didactic commission or tricksy omission.

STILL! I'm just being picky! I believe this is Johnson's first novel, and based on how much I liked this, I'm hoping she keeps putting great stories out there in the world. Cara, her protagonist, is a nuanced and powerful character who will stay with me for a long time.