D. K. Kristof, Inspicio (Kindle 2025)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235108672-inspicio
Survival in a space of absolute loneliness
Liv wakes to the sound of breathing. She is on Europa, Jupiter’s fourth largest moon. Across from her stands a synthetic woman named Rhea. Rhea keeps her company in the engineering bay, and a little drone follows her ‘like a pale moon’. She remembers the work.
She tries to figure out the world she is in, but to her every query, Rhea answers, “I am sorry. I do not have a satisfactory answer to that question.” How much can one trust an android?
We never get the backstory (except a tiny bit at the end), why Liv is here, how this situation came about. But it’s not about that. It’s about her internal experience. How does one survive in a space of absolute loneliness?
The writing is beautiful, almost poetic. The beauty of the writing alleviates the loneliness. Where The Martian captivated us with technological innovation, this is psychological, even spiritual. Liv is all alone in the—what is it—space station?—all alone in the void. She can’t even be sure of her own mind.
Susie Helme 