A young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a fiery love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel in the tradition of Station Elevenand The Martian.
June is a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention, who leaves home to begin a grueling astronaut training program. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station, but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle’s fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world has forgotten them, June alone has evidence that makes her believe the crew is still alive.
She seeks out James, her uncle’s former protégée, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry’s fuel cells failed. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. But the love that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell’s fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to create–and any chance of bringing the Inquiry crew home alive.
Equal parts gripping narrative of scientific discovery and charged love story, In the Quick is an exploration of the strengths and limits of human ability in the face of hardship and the costs of human ingenuity. At its beating heart are June and James, whose love for each other is eclipsed only by their drive to conquer the challenges of space travel.
Title : In The Quick
Author : Kate Hope Day
Format : eARC
Page Count : 272
Genre : science fiction
Publisher : Random House
Release Date : March 2, 2021
Reviewer : Hollis
Rating : ★ ★
Hollis’ 2 star review
The best part of this story is the synopsis.
The worst part? The dialogue has no quotation marks. You have to pay attention and filter out action from words and all I’ll say is I’m glad this was a short read. But if that’s a deal breaker for you, now you know.
This would probably make a great movie as there is some The Martian-esque similarities as far as disaster and thinking on your feet but in space. But where I hear the book The Martian is as good as the movie, in this case, were this ever to be adapted, the same would not be said.
What I did find interesting were the literary paralells to a beloved classic, which I did not pick up on until quite far into the story, but once I saw I couldn’t unsee. It doesn’t stick to said plot 100% — it couldn’t — but where it can, it does. I didn’t hate it but it didn’t salvage this, either.
This is a story I wish I could’ve loved because of the interesting plot/themes but the execution, and main character, and lack of punctuation, really dragged down.
** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **
A Take from Two Cities 