Review – In Ascension by Martin MacInnes (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 382 pages
Publisher: tlantic Monthly Press
Release Date: February 27, 2024
ASIN: B0CLQNNJGK
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed on ebook from library
Rating: 3/5 stars

“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, traveling 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.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: I have had this book on my to read pile for a couple of years because it just sounded so intriguing to me. I was happy to finally have the time to pick it up. This alternates between intriguing and monotonous with an ending that is absolutely bonkers, it feels incredibly contrived.

Leigh grew up fascinated with marine life. She used the ocean as a way to escape her abusive father and silent mother at home. In college, she gets an opportunity to join an ocean exploration team that is going out to explore a newfound trench. Time passes; Leigh specializes in research around algae. Then one day, she gets a call from a woman who was on the ocean exploration team with her, and Leigh is asked to use her algae background to provide food for an upcoming space mission. The timing isn’t great for Leigh, her mother is having onset dementia issues and Leigh and her sister don’t have the best relationship, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

This book is set in a near future Earth where environmental disasters are more frequent. It’s not apocalyptic…yet. However, the Earth seems to be slowly sliding towards being more and more hostile to human life (as do the humans).

I found parts of this book fascinating. I am always fascinated by people who are so focused on an element of science that it becomes their whole life. They will chase the science and research at the cost of everything; their family, their mental health, their physical well-being, and use whatever resources it takes. Leigh is this kind of scientist, and she fascinates me. The twists and turns her life takes from sea exploration to space exploration are fascinating as well.

I also loved learning about marine biology and training for a space mission. Some of the background around algae is intriguing as well. Unfortunately, this was just too long and parts of this are also incredibly boring. We spend way too much time with Leigh in her head as she agonizes over how neglectful she is to her family but still doesn’t change her actions. Yes, she has a background of abuse from her father, and yes, she is conflicted about the rest of her family that was complacent. This was just repeated way too often; the reader gets it…let’s move on.

The ending of this was something else. I understand that the author was trying to make this whole book about circularity and existence. There are heavy themes of human existence being born from extraterrestrial origin and also of existence starting and ending in vast bodies of water. However, this ending felt contrived and forced. The sudden explanation of what happened to Leigh and her team and the very odd ending feel unsatisfying. I also thought having a few chapters at the end from Leigh’s sister’s POV was awkward. Yes, these chapters give us a bit more insight into the “after” and a broader look at the world. Unfortuantely, they felt sloppy and lessened the impact of what it felt like the author was trying to do with Leigh’s story.

The writing here is easy to read, the pacing was all over the place. The ending left me feeling dissatisfied and somewhat upset about the time I put into reading this. Yes, there are some intriguing ideas in here, but the ending feels so forced that it makes you wonder if the ideas presented throughout the story have any merit at all.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I feel conflicted after reading this and maybe that is the author’s purpose here. I was fascinated by Leigh’s life and some of the ideas presented here. I was bored by the re-hashing of Leigh’s thoughts and irritated by the contrived ending. This is an interesting read, but reflecting on my time spent reading this, this is one of those books I think I could’ve skipped. If you are intrigued by origin of life sci-fi and like adding someone’s messy life into the mix, you might enjoy this.