science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
novel by
Toby Litt
Toby Litt is an English writer and academic in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London.
Life
Litt was born in Ampthill in 1968. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, read English at Worcester College, Oxfor ...
about people living on a
generation ship
A generation ship, or generation starship, is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels at sub- light speed. Since such a ship might require hundreds to thousands of years to reach nearby stars, the original occupants of a g ...
which is bound for another planet. It was Litt's tenth novel and was published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. where humanity is to establish a new civilisation. Because of the vast distance involved, the journey will span the lives of many generations. Apart from the generation which began the journey, and the generation which might end it, most generations will live and die on the ship. But when a child named Orphan is illicitly born from two lovers named August and Celeste, the ship's mission is turned upside down. After a
nuclear holocaust
A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear Armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes globally widespread destruction and radioactive fallout. Such a scen ...
wipes out most life on the Earth Orphan eventually takes control of the ship and turns the ship around back to Earth. Many years later a suicidal cult takes over the ship and it plummets back into the Earth, killing everyone on the ship and all remaining life on the planet.
Reception
''Journey into Space'' received a largely positive review by Lorna Bradbury in ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' who referred to it as "an absorbing read, occasionally elevated into something more substantial by moments of inspired writing" She called Litt "perhaps one of our most interesting writers."
Ursula Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was f ...
, who reviewed the novel for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'', was critical of the ending of the book which she described as "sinking into the inane." Bradbury did agree with her that the last third of the novel was the "least satisfying part" but still was positive about the book. Brandon Robshaw, who reviewed ''Journey into Space'' for ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
'' said that Litt "expertly lays out the relationships, the hierarchies, the changing rules and orthodoxies, in short the entire sociology of this hermetically enclosed community over the duration of the voyage" and that the novel is a "welcome addition to his (Litt's) oeuvre."
Simon Akam
Simon Akam is a British journalist and historian of the British Army.
Early life
Akam was born in Cambridge and educated at The Perse School, the University of Oxford, and Columbia University. During his gap year in 2003, he served a short serv ...
, in reviewing the novel for the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...
'', opined that Litt "has a tendency to overindulge his conceptual imagination when a willingness to curb it earlier might have created a tighter result" but also states: "the reason Journey Into Space succeeds is that its author has such a plethora of good ideas to work with that he can get away with overextending a few." Andrew McKie considered ''Journey into Space'' one of the better works in a trend of literary writers trying their hands at science fiction: "Toby Litt has managed it too. He has done nothing very new, but he has written a good novel. ''Journey into Space'' avoids cliché, the sentences never go clunk, the reader is always engaged — and it offers a thoroughly old-fashioned future."