In Ascension by Martin MacInnes takes set in a world where climate change has rapidly worsened. The story follows Leigh, a marine biologist who grew up in Rotterdam with a violent father whose work involved holding back rising tides. As an adult, Leigh joins a deep-sea research mission to study a newly discovered vent that is said to be three times deeper than the Mariana Trench. Her field is unicellular algae, one of the earliest forms of life on Earth. Later, she is invited to take part in a secret space mission focused on strange cosmic irregularities, with algae playing a role in both survival and research.

The novel moves at a very slow pace. For me, that slowness made the reading experience really heavy because, at the same time, the story never truly pulled me in. I often felt like I had to push myself forward, rather than being carried by the narrative. The reason I kept reading was the bigger idea running underneath the plot: a story of how human life is only one small part of a mysterious and deeply beautiful natural system.

I’ve seen other readers describe this book as overlong, dull, or overloaded with science. That part didn’t bother me at all. I enjoy science, and I’m drawn to books that lean into big ideas, whether they come from biology, physics, or astronomy. I also love novels that are often labeled as plot-light, such as Orbital, a novel that being critized for plot-less, is one of my favorite reads for that exact reason. Still, despite all the themes and ideas lining up with my interests, this book never reached me on an emotional level and that distance stayed with me long after I finished the final page.

My Favorite Bits

• In my mind, the world is not reasonable, and can never be made reasonable. It is much more interesting than that.

• You’re flawed, and the world you see corresponds to these flaws. Weaknesses define you, drive new and original strategies to cover them, and they make you who you are. You don’t exist without them.

• Everyone should be acknowledged. Everyone should be missed when they are not right there with you because of what they carry, this very distinct way they have of bearing themselves that is like no one else and that is built by everything they have done and everything they have seen.

• The silence that surrounds us, the un-meaning of deep space. Terrifying, endless directionless plane. It wasn’t possible to domesticate and cultivate this non-place.

• I questioned what else I had already missed so far, in my own life, simply through the limits of my character.

---

Author: Martin MacInnes
Publication date: 27 February 2024
Number of pages: 496 pages

---