Nowhere is truly empty. The thought makes me feel lavishly alone. Somehow, space is so deeply melancholy that it’s not at all sad, like a note so low it ceases to sound. Even my sorrow about my insignificance feels insignificant. [loc. 161]
Ambrose Cusk wakes up on a spaceship, the Coordinated Endeavor. The ship's operating system (OS) informs him, in his mother's voice, that the ship is well on its way towards his sister's distress beacon, on Saturn's moon Titan. Ambrose has been in a coma for two weeks, says OS, and has fallen behind on important maintenance tasks. Ambrose, who feels dreadful, can't remember anything about the launch.
But as he regains mobility and memory, he realises that OS is not being completely honest and open. For instance, he's not alone on the ship as he expected: the Fédération ship Endeavor has been connected to another ship, the Aurora, funded by the Dimokratía -- a rival nation, which seems to have evolved from Russia/China. Ambrose's fellow (rival?) spacefarer is Kodiak, who is laconic and imposing and has some amusingly retro ideas. Opposites, as they say, attract.
From the cover, I imagined I was getting an 'enemies-to-lovers' M/M romance in an SFnal setting. The hints and clues of wrongness (ancient blood traces on a dented panel, oddities during a space walk) just served to bring Ambrose and Kodiak together. Only when something truly catastrophic happened did I realise that there was also a serious SF thriller happening. I was surprised by the twist, and impressed by the ways in which the two protagonists (three, if you count OS) reacted to further developments. And though I initially found Ambrose rather annoying (he is a teenage boy) he did develop and mature over the course of the novel. Lovely prose and poignant details: I especially liked Ambrose's violin, of which Kodiak says "You were wise to bring this violin to remember Earth. To remember forests." [loc. 1397]
Recommended: I will probably read the sequel quite soon: but I'm not going to link to it here, because the blurb is a massive spoiler for The Darkness Outside Us.
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