First the good: the novel is well-written, well-crafted, well-constructed – even if it’s sometimes transparent & obvious. Pacing is excellent, and the progression feels great: it starts as a regular book about an abusive dad, and slowly morphs into a mystery in the cold depths of space. I can see non-SF readers being sucked in, surprised by what they ultimately end up reading.

At the same time, even though it is set in the near future, In Ascension keeps it real – and MacInnes’ realism is what makes the later space scenes so harrowing and claustrophobic. Those might be the most true space ship scenes I have ever read – and that’s including Aurora from Robinson or Redemption Ark by Reynolds – who both in their own & very different ways tried to convey possible realities of fictional space flight.

But realism is not the full denominator: the alien stuff is handled differently, and remains vague & unresolved. There’s a bit of how Christopher Priest might handle such stuff there, and, as said, Stanisław Lem. MacInnes writes something that is both creepy and mystical, yet he doesn’t make it feel less real even if it is all handwavium. It also doesn’t dominate the story at all, and like the other speculative near future elements, generally remains in the background. Very well done, and rather unique.

Also the character arcs are well-done, and MacInnes lets our perception of the main character end up in some kind of liminal space. In a way there is no resolution or conclusion, or at least no definitive answer to the exact psychology of Leigh, and somehow it fits the story and its themes.

Serious novels get serious reviews, and googling will get you some quality writing on the book easily. As such, it’s nice to review this a few months after the fact, and engage in a dialogue not only with the book itself.

A few reviewers, like Duncan Lunan of Shoreline To Infinity and Stuart Kelly on The Scotsman, refer to an author’s note accompanying the review copies of the book – nowhere to be found in the edition I bought.

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Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

This is a good book. The story, mostly told in the first person, seemed at first to be mostly plot-driven the way sci-fi often is. Even though Leigh does describe growing up in her, close, caring, but not at all warm sort of family in Rotterdam, she speaks more about her early interest in biology and her path toward a pHd, and eventually a job heading a lab that is an important part of a new space project.

But I gradually became aware that, in this complex novel, each step on her way was related both to her traumatic childhood, to her parents and sister, and to her adventures to come. The book is about people and emotions as well as scientific and engineering details There are also questions about how life on Earth, including we humans, came to be the way we are now and, what might happen in the future.

Only when she finds herself one of a crew of three on a spacecraft moving rapidly through the solar system, toward interstellar space, did I think the pace slowed and wander into maybe too much detail. But that doesn’t last for long, and in the rest of the book Macinnes skillfully describes what could be only day-to-day routine in ways that kept me entranced to the end. ( )

an interesting and well written novel that to me does not really work, because it is caught between its imaginative near-future set-up about a space flight and bioengineering immortality and the very different inward-looking focus of a contemporary family psychological novel. so it moves awkwardly between the momentum of an sf story and the more static inner issues of a psychological novel, and that complicates and ultimately compromises both impulses. at the same time both the author's attention to detail and the rhythms of his prose herald a gifted writer, but i'm not certain that this approach could ever work; perhaps he tried it as an experiment. ( )

I love this book.

As an extremely picky reader with a lot of jaded feelings towards fiction, I seldom find works with characters and concepts that speak to me but I genuinely felt changed after reading In Ascension. I found MacInnes's writing to be exceptional and never tone deaf, corny, or obnoxious. I wholeheartedly cared for the characters in this book and was fully committed to understanding whatever it was that I could about the main character, Leigh, and their family. I was gutted by the book's resolution and having to part ways.

Despite being branded as science fiction, I would argue that this book is so much more. It is an incredibly slow burn with major emphasis on the main character's internal relationship with themself as well as their external relationships with family and the people they meet along the way.
My biggest gripe about this book was simply that I am not someone with a very science-y brain, nor do I care much about topics in science, especially biology. With much of this book being filled with conversation about science related topics, it was easy to find myself zoning out or bored. I do not feel like this is necessarily a flaw, but I do think it is something that will deter certain readers. This is not an action packed book filled with super entertaining adventures or crazy events that will keep you on your toes, but it is an incredibly thought provoking and moving piece of writing that I would genuinely encourage the right reader to consume.

I'll be thinking about this one for a very long time.
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I had high hopes for this novel primarily because it was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Yet, I found it to be a disappointingly complex sci-fi story that just didn’t seem to fit smoothly with a family drama or a story about a woman’s scientific ambitions. Notwithstanding his efforts to tackle big questions about the interconnectedness of humans the natural world and the universe, MacInnes’ ideas remained obscure. His settings in oceans, deserts, space, and the industrial city of Rotterdam were indeed evocative. His protagonist, however, was more nebulous. Clearly, Leigh was highly motivated by her science, yet her familial relationships, especially with her abusive father, don’t seem to be well explored or fit well with the overarching theme of the novel. ( )