The Wulver’s Library‘s Review of In Ascension by Martin MacInnes.
I picked up In Ascension by Martin MacInnes on a whim and it’s turned into my favourite read of the year so far.
Leigh travels the world to study ancient organisms. She joins an exploration team who have discovered a trench in the Atlantic. There, she discovers something that calls into question everything we think we know about our own beginnings.
This was thrilling and engaging from the very start. It is profoundly inept in its mysteriously complicative writing whilst we journey from the deepest depths to the furthest reaches of space. I found this remarkable. MacInnes has written a genre-defying novel of science and fiction that makes us question everything we thought we knew. The way that MacInnes has written the complexity of memory through relationships just scratches the surface of how relatable this can be.
The writing itself is like a gravitational pull. MacInnes grabs us and pulls us in with every word as we ebb and flow through it all. How is it a book can feel so familiar, yet so complex and strange? This doesn’t feel like just a story. This has been a mind-blowing experience of exploration, foundation and wonder that is coated with compassionate inquisitiveness.
The scope of this is more accessible than realised. The interpretation that can be had here is a clever guideline of the story that has been set out. In Ascension is the epic hope of illumination that lights up the human heart. I devoured this in a matter of days and can honestly say that this might be my book of the year. I cannot recommend this book enough.
