In Ascension: Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023
Marine biologist Leigh is drawn from a mysterious deep-sea anomaly into research that links ocean science to the far reaches of space. The novel combines family strain with a vast philosophical inquiry into origins, belonging, and humanity's place in the cosmos.
Work Information
From the ocean floor to the edge of the cosmos, one pursuit keeps widening.
Leigh grows up in Rotterdam and turns to microbiology through a lifelong fascination with the sea. As deep-ocean anomalies begin to connect with a new space program, she keeps asking where life began and where home can still be found.
Review Summaries
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Its scale, moving from the deep sea to outer space, and its richly thoughtful structure are widely admired. Some readers, however, feel the slow build and density of ideas make it demanding.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Atlantic Books
- Published
- 2023-02-02
- Pages
- 512 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 14.8 x 3.6 x 21 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781838956240
- ISBN-10
- 1838956247
- Price
- 1147 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction
BLACKWELL'S BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Mesmerising' Sunday Times 'Magnificent' Guardian 'Monumental' The Telegraph Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings. Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos. 'Utterly compelling' The Times , Books of the Year 'Profound and thrilling' New Statesman , Books of the Year 'A far-reaching epic' Financial Times , Books of the Year
Martin MacInnes was born in Inverness in 1983. He is the author of Infinite Ground and Gathering Evidence , and he is the winner of a Somerset Maugham Award, the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award and a Manchester Fiction Prize. In 2020 he was selected by the Guardian /British Council as One of Ten Writers Shaping the UK's Future. He lives in Edinburgh.
Reviews
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Good story line, interesting science however the background stories of the characters though insightful is overplayed and becomes tedious.
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The author seems to have written two novels, one about a dysfunctional family, and one a fairly conventional space opera, and then cobbled them together. The basic plot is not very original - unseen aliens summon us to a distant rendezvous, we go there but find ... what? (see Contact, 2001). This rather thin plot is fleshed out with long sections about the astronaut's childhood and parents, which are well-written but become tedious.
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Real characters and situations with strange events. Set in a near future, you get to feel you know the people at the end. Less technical details but it doesn't matter.
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really nice, fast paced, unusal in agood way, loved every minute of it!
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Wonderful book, a top three of 2023-4 for me. It's a hopeful tale. Special. There is so much beauty in it, I was angry when it ended, as I just wanted more and more of its brilliance.Having strong, beautiful Characters that you invest in, a lot. From the intimacy of hurtling through Space, all the practices in a huge Pool to the actual depths of the Pacific. The Ocean sub-plot will pay off in a big way upon completion of this wonderful Space Drama. It actually left me stunned as I whispered the last word on the last page then into a "BRAVO!"; for how MacInnes pulled this off. Urgently recommended. - Benway