Sci-fi thriller grabs you by the throat

RYLAND Grace wakes up in a spaceship after years of being in an induced medical coma. He doesn't know why he is there, or where he is.

I am not a fan of dystopian science fiction, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself devouring this very clever book.

It covers the things we all dread, an attack on earth by something from out of space, in this case in the form of an alien life form named astrophage.

Through a series of memories, it looks back at how Grace, formerly a science academic and then a teacher, came to be on a spaceship with his other two colleagues dead in their sleeping hammocks, and a strange robot-like device ministering to him.

Slowly Grace's memory starts returning to him, and he finds he is no longer even in our solar system.

There's a lot of maths and science in the novel, but more than that, even though the enemy is an alien life form, this is a novel about “human” relationships and how they intersect in memory and real time.

It is no easy task to handle what is a two-hander interaction between Grace and the alien life he meets in another galaxy far from earth.

Is he a hero, or does he have to face the fact that he might not be? These are questions that Grace will find the answers to.

Fundamental to the novel, apart from the dangers faced by earth, are moral dilemmas and how these are solved.

Although the reader possibly has to suspend doubt at the swiftness of some of the science and maths that Grace must practise, the realities of human emotions and pain felt caused by climate change, and species change, make sense in the novel.

An unexpected ending ties up a perfect storm of a story.

Prepare to hit zero gravity and be thrilled and moved by this novel.

It's long but grabs the reader by the throat and draws one along with thrills and fear.