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A House Between Earth and the Moon
The gripping story of one scientist in outer space, another who watches over him, the family left behind, and the lengths people will go to protect the people and planet they love.
Scientist Alex Welch-Peters has believed for twenty years that his super-algae can reverse the effects of climate change. His obsession with his research has jeopardized his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his own professional future. When Sensus, the colossal tech company, offers him a chance to complete his research, he seizes the opportunity. The catch? His lab will be in outer space on Parallaxis, the first-ever luxury residential space station built for billionaires. Alex and six other scientists leave their loved ones to become Pioneers, the beta tenants of Parallaxis.
But Parallaxis is not the space palace they were sold. Day and night, the embittered crew builds the facility under pressure from Sensus, motivated by the promise that their families will join them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, with much of the country ablaze in wildfires, Alex’s family tries to remain safe in Michigan. His teenage daughter, Mary Agnes, struggles through high school with the help of the ubiquitous Sensus phones implanted in everyone’s ears, archiving each humiliation, and wishing she could go to Parallaxis with her father—but her mother will never allow it.
The Pioneers are the beta testers of another program, too. As they toil away two hundred miles in the sky, Sensus is designing an algorithm that will predict human behavior. Tess, a young social psychologist Sensus has hired to watch the Pioneers through their phones, begins to develop an intimate, obsessive relationship with her subjects. When she takes it a step further—traveling to Parallaxis to observe them up close—the controlled experiment begins to unravel.
Prescient and insightful, A House Between Earth and the Moon is at once a captivating epic about the machinations of big tech and a profoundly intimate meditation on the unmistakably human bonds that hold us together.
Scientist Alex Welch-Peters has believed for twenty years that his super-algae can reverse the effects of climate change. His obsession with his research has jeopardized his marriage, his relationships with his kids, and his own professional future. When Sensus, the colossal tech company, offers him a chance to complete his research, he seizes the opportunity. The catch? His lab will be in outer space on Parallaxis, the first-ever luxury residential space station built for billionaires. Alex and six other scientists leave their loved ones to become Pioneers, the beta tenants of Parallaxis.
But Parallaxis is not the space palace they were sold. Day and night, the embittered crew builds the facility under pressure from Sensus, motivated by the promise that their families will join them. Meanwhile, back on Earth, with much of the country ablaze in wildfires, Alex’s family tries to remain safe in Michigan. His teenage daughter, Mary Agnes, struggles through high school with the help of the ubiquitous Sensus phones implanted in everyone’s ears, archiving each humiliation, and wishing she could go to Parallaxis with her father—but her mother will never allow it.
The Pioneers are the beta testers of another program, too. As they toil away two hundred miles in the sky, Sensus is designing an algorithm that will predict human behavior. Tess, a young social psychologist Sensus has hired to watch the Pioneers through their phones, begins to develop an intimate, obsessive relationship with her subjects. When she takes it a step further—traveling to Parallaxis to observe them up close—the controlled experiment begins to unravel.
Prescient and insightful, A House Between Earth and the Moon is at once a captivating epic about the machinations of big tech and a profoundly intimate meditation on the unmistakably human bonds that hold us together.
386 pages, Hardcover
First published March 29, 2022
149 people are currently reading
8614 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Scherm
6 books207 followersRebecca Scherm is the author of two novels: UNBECOMING and the forthcoming A HOUSE BETWEEN EARTH AND THE MOON (March 2022). She lives in California.
Find her on Instagram: rebecca_scherm_books
and Twitter @SchermUndDrang
Find her on Instagram: rebecca_scherm_books
and Twitter @SchermUndDrang
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 273 reviews
March 2, 2023
***SPOILERS HIDDEN***
I was overwhelmed by A House Between Earth and the Moon. Overwhelmed by how bad it is. Even before I finished I added it to The Most Boring Books I’ve Ever Read Listopia because I realized there was no way anything that came after I did that could possibly make up for the mind-numbing awfulness that came before.
In a nutshell, A House Between Earth and the Moon is set in the not-too-distant future and hinges on the phenomenon of climate change, which is rapidly making Earth uninhabitable. Enter Sensus, a company that develops futuristic technology. Its shining-star project-in-development is Parallaxis, an outer-space biodome currently open for habitation only to those who can afford it (i.e., billionaires). Three main characters anchor this story: Tess, a Sensus employee fine-tuning a new (and personally invasive) technology; Alex Welch-Peters, a scientist living on Parallaxis while developing a breed of algae that can clean the structure’s air; and Alex’s teen daughter Mary Agnes, who’s struggling to make sense of a sexual assault back on Earth. The story also has several minor characters that get lots of page time but are too cardboard to be more than names.
This sounds inventive and interesting, and in the very beginning, as author Rebecca Scherm began establishing her characters, the book shows promise. But it quickly goes downhill. It’s not an exaggeration to say that A House Between Earth and the Moon is lacking in everything that makes a story a story. It’s devoid of suspense; dramatic conflict of any kind; and a coherent, forward-moving plot. It lacks full-bodied character development, and in that way, it lacks humanity and emotion. It tells but doesn’t show. Its three storylines are supposed to inform and complement each other, but they’re instead three different books. Larger commentary--on corporate greed and ethics and on MeToo--doesn’t come anywhere close to being realized. It’s told in third-person omniscient when it cries out for first-person. It’s boring. Few books are a more fitting example of how not to write a novel, on both the macro and micro level.
All these flaws disappointed me, but where I felt disappointment most acutely was in Parallaxis’s lack of development. I chose to read A House Between Earth and the Moon for this biodome. Before beginning, I excitedly imagined what it was going to look like, what self-contained, totally self-sufficient life would be like there, and all the thrilling drama that would stem from that. But Scherm’s writing about this structure is vague and dull. There’s excessive pointless construction talk (floors, exposed wiring, walls) mixed in with paragraphs-long, yawn-inducing discussion of algae. Without layreader-accessible description of the structure as a whole, I couldn’t get a firm mental picture (or understand the mechanics of the algae lab work). The image I ended up with is one I adopted from somewhere else, and probably inaccurate: the structure in the movie Elysium. Most of Parallaxis’s interior sounds like that of a large, multi-room rocket, with employees floating from place to place and discussing their work in nonsensical jargon. Some bland futuristic technology is thrown in to make sure readers remember these employees are actually in outer space. But structural world-building is totally missing.
Scherm also didn’t use Parallaxis. She thought up an outer-space biodome only to waste its enormous potential as both a vivid, immersive other-world and a driver of plot. Parallaxis is meaningless; these Sensus employees might as well be working in some corporate industrial park. Compounding the disappointment is the fact that, after teasing it for the whole book, In the world of sci-fi storytelling, Scherm sinned.
I don’t know what was intended with this tepid story. It’s obviously commentary on the catastrophic effects of climate change. Scherm’s vision of what humanity will have to endure when the world starts going to hell squares with scientists’ predictions. It’s also a predictive rendering of where we, with our aspirations to possibly colonize Mars, could be ultimately headed. And her inclusion of privacy-violating technology feels uncomfortably real. With that, what she invented for this story could happen. Scherm has a sharp mind when it comes to concepts, so it’s especially unfortunate that she didn’t develop any into intriguing plot devices.
I was so deathly bored by A House Between Earth and the Moon that my goal became to just finish it and move on to something better. I committed to reading a chapter a day, which was fortunately doable because the chapters are just long enough; right as I was feeling I couldn’t take another word, I hit my goal for that day. It was an absolute chore to read, made worse by the strong suspicion that the reading experience wasn’t going to pay off in the end--and I was right. It was, in complete truth, a waste of time. The best thing about it is the dust-jacket summary.
NOTE: I received this as an Advance Reader Copy from Goodreads in March 2022.
I was overwhelmed by A House Between Earth and the Moon. Overwhelmed by how bad it is. Even before I finished I added it to The Most Boring Books I’ve Ever Read Listopia because I realized there was no way anything that came after I did that could possibly make up for the mind-numbing awfulness that came before.
In a nutshell, A House Between Earth and the Moon is set in the not-too-distant future and hinges on the phenomenon of climate change, which is rapidly making Earth uninhabitable. Enter Sensus, a company that develops futuristic technology. Its shining-star project-in-development is Parallaxis, an outer-space biodome currently open for habitation only to those who can afford it (i.e., billionaires). Three main characters anchor this story: Tess, a Sensus employee fine-tuning a new (and personally invasive) technology; Alex Welch-Peters, a scientist living on Parallaxis while developing a breed of algae that can clean the structure’s air; and Alex’s teen daughter Mary Agnes, who’s struggling to make sense of a sexual assault back on Earth. The story also has several minor characters that get lots of page time but are too cardboard to be more than names.
This sounds inventive and interesting, and in the very beginning, as author Rebecca Scherm began establishing her characters, the book shows promise. But it quickly goes downhill. It’s not an exaggeration to say that A House Between Earth and the Moon is lacking in everything that makes a story a story. It’s devoid of suspense; dramatic conflict of any kind; and a coherent, forward-moving plot. It lacks full-bodied character development, and in that way, it lacks humanity and emotion. It tells but doesn’t show. Its three storylines are supposed to inform and complement each other, but they’re instead three different books. Larger commentary--on corporate greed and ethics and on MeToo--doesn’t come anywhere close to being realized. It’s told in third-person omniscient when it cries out for first-person. It’s boring. Few books are a more fitting example of how not to write a novel, on both the macro and micro level.
All these flaws disappointed me, but where I felt disappointment most acutely was in Parallaxis’s lack of development. I chose to read A House Between Earth and the Moon for this biodome. Before beginning, I excitedly imagined what it was going to look like, what self-contained, totally self-sufficient life would be like there, and all the thrilling drama that would stem from that. But Scherm’s writing about this structure is vague and dull. There’s excessive pointless construction talk (floors, exposed wiring, walls) mixed in with paragraphs-long, yawn-inducing discussion of algae. Without layreader-accessible description of the structure as a whole, I couldn’t get a firm mental picture (or understand the mechanics of the algae lab work). The image I ended up with is one I adopted from somewhere else, and probably inaccurate: the structure in the movie Elysium. Most of Parallaxis’s interior sounds like that of a large, multi-room rocket, with employees floating from place to place and discussing their work in nonsensical jargon. Some bland futuristic technology is thrown in to make sure readers remember these employees are actually in outer space. But structural world-building is totally missing.
Scherm also didn’t use Parallaxis. She thought up an outer-space biodome only to waste its enormous potential as both a vivid, immersive other-world and a driver of plot. Parallaxis is meaningless; these Sensus employees might as well be working in some corporate industrial park. Compounding the disappointment is the fact that, after teasing it for the whole book, In the world of sci-fi storytelling, Scherm sinned.
I don’t know what was intended with this tepid story. It’s obviously commentary on the catastrophic effects of climate change. Scherm’s vision of what humanity will have to endure when the world starts going to hell squares with scientists’ predictions. It’s also a predictive rendering of where we, with our aspirations to possibly colonize Mars, could be ultimately headed. And her inclusion of privacy-violating technology feels uncomfortably real. With that, what she invented for this story could happen. Scherm has a sharp mind when it comes to concepts, so it’s especially unfortunate that she didn’t develop any into intriguing plot devices.
I was so deathly bored by A House Between Earth and the Moon that my goal became to just finish it and move on to something better. I committed to reading a chapter a day, which was fortunately doable because the chapters are just long enough; right as I was feeling I couldn’t take another word, I hit my goal for that day. It was an absolute chore to read, made worse by the strong suspicion that the reading experience wasn’t going to pay off in the end--and I was right. It was, in complete truth, a waste of time. The best thing about it is the dust-jacket summary.
NOTE: I received this as an Advance Reader Copy from Goodreads in March 2022.
July 22, 2022
There's a convent near where I live where I like to have a morning walk. The grounds are peaceful and I'm regularly greeted by geese, turkeys, deer, and squirrels. The nuns are friendly when you pass, always smiling and waving. Often when I'm walking, my brain is chewing on whichever book I'm currently reading.
The other morning I was thinking about The House Between Earth and the Moon when my (overly) curious brain ventured into an area I'd rather not have gone. I was thinking about the characters in this book and how most of them who'd been sent into space had to wait almost a year for their spouses to join them. There were two single lesbians who like each other and didn't have to "go without" but the others?
So I started wondering if they masturbated. Almost a year is a long time to go, for a young person, and even some middle aged and older people. That is ok to wonder about. What I wondered about next is not. It'smaybe probably sacrilegious or blasphemous, or both. If you click, be warned:
So anyway, now that I've got that stuck in my head and maybe yours too if you read it, it's driving me nuts. Not because I want to know, but because I don't want to think about it! It's like an itch or a worry you can do nothing about - the more you try not to think about it, the more of an obsession it becomes.
Ahem..... the book.....
It's a few years in the future and climate change has ravaged Earth. Every year it worsens and scientists are working hard for a solution. The billionaires, of course, don't give a shit about climate change and how it will make life on earth a literal hell for the majority of human beings and cause the extinction of many species. They're busy building their oases, their super yachts and spaceships. For themselves.
And that's the factual part. The fictional part is that this group of scientists are hired to work on a space station that's being built for a group of billionaires. They all have different reasons for wanting to go, most of them a genuine desire to help humanity. They are a diverse set of characters but at the same time felt too much alike. They all seemed the same age for one thing, in their early twenties though several are older.
I enjoyed some of the characters' POV while others were annoying, especially the teenage daughter of one of the scientists. Reading the parts about her felt almost like reading a YA novel and I'm not a fan of that genre. As the book progressed, it became more and more about her. Or maybe it just seemed like it because I didn't want to read about her.
I liked the story, or at least the premise. I don't think it was the best execution but it mostly held my interest. I appreciated the little bit of science in it, though much prefer science fiction with a heftier dose. I also liked the technology, especially the phone implants.
There are some twists that I saw coming but which were fun nonetheless. Things aren't quite as humanitarian as the scientists are first led to believe. However, I think only the most gullible would believe that billionaires have humanity's best interest at heart, rather than seeing how much more they can acquire at the expense of every other person on earth.
For those who enjoy sci-fi lite, this is a fun read. 3.5 stars rounded up.
And now hopefully my mind will move on to the characters in my next book.... and stop wondering why the nuns are smiling every time we pass and wave.
The other morning I was thinking about The House Between Earth and the Moon when my (overly) curious brain ventured into an area I'd rather not have gone. I was thinking about the characters in this book and how most of them who'd been sent into space had to wait almost a year for their spouses to join them. There were two single lesbians who like each other and didn't have to "go without" but the others?
So I started wondering if they masturbated. Almost a year is a long time to go, for a young person, and even some middle aged and older people. That is ok to wonder about. What I wondered about next is not. It's
So anyway, now that I've got that stuck in my head and maybe yours too if you read it, it's driving me nuts. Not because I want to know, but because I don't want to think about it! It's like an itch or a worry you can do nothing about - the more you try not to think about it, the more of an obsession it becomes.
Ahem..... the book.....
It's a few years in the future and climate change has ravaged Earth. Every year it worsens and scientists are working hard for a solution. The billionaires, of course, don't give a shit about climate change and how it will make life on earth a literal hell for the majority of human beings and cause the extinction of many species. They're busy building their oases, their super yachts and spaceships. For themselves.
And that's the factual part. The fictional part is that this group of scientists are hired to work on a space station that's being built for a group of billionaires. They all have different reasons for wanting to go, most of them a genuine desire to help humanity. They are a diverse set of characters but at the same time felt too much alike. They all seemed the same age for one thing, in their early twenties though several are older.
I enjoyed some of the characters' POV while others were annoying, especially the teenage daughter of one of the scientists. Reading the parts about her felt almost like reading a YA novel and I'm not a fan of that genre. As the book progressed, it became more and more about her. Or maybe it just seemed like it because I didn't want to read about her.
I liked the story, or at least the premise. I don't think it was the best execution but it mostly held my interest. I appreciated the little bit of science in it, though much prefer science fiction with a heftier dose. I also liked the technology, especially the phone implants.
There are some twists that I saw coming but which were fun nonetheless. Things aren't quite as humanitarian as the scientists are first led to believe. However, I think only the most gullible would believe that billionaires have humanity's best interest at heart, rather than seeing how much more they can acquire at the expense of every other person on earth.
For those who enjoy sci-fi lite, this is a fun read. 3.5 stars rounded up.
And now hopefully my mind will move on to the characters in my next book.... and stop wondering why the nuns are smiling every time we pass and wave.
April 25, 2022
This is an interesting book. It's about family relationships, the consequences of decisions we make, our relationships with surveillance technology and Big Tech, a mish-mash of all kinds of things. I liked it, although honestly I can't really say why.
There were parts of the story that felt a bit thin and possibly unsubtle, but other parts I thought had interesting things to say. It is more a story about personal relationships rather than being overly fixated on getting all the science exactly right. For me, that was fine, and I ended up enjoying it.
There were parts of the story that felt a bit thin and possibly unsubtle, but other parts I thought had interesting things to say. It is more a story about personal relationships rather than being overly fixated on getting all the science exactly right. For me, that was fine, and I ended up enjoying it.
January 1, 2022
3.5 stars. THE WANDERERS with a little bit of THE CIRCLE thrown in. I do like a space book, not just for the space stuff but because the close quarters inevitably gives some interesting drama and this book is that in a nutshell. The interpersonal dynamics between our characters and the way they interact with the corporation that put them in space is the real heart of this book.
It gets impressively messy in ways that feel true to life. There are multiple points in the book where you don't know how things can get messier, and then they do!
Our characters are all tied to the space station Parallaxis, funded by Sensus, a massive corporation owned by the Son sisters. In this near future story, Sensus created a new kind of phone that implants in your ear to let you see your screen constantly. Parallaxis is one of their other projects, imagined as a retreat for those who can afford it. But before the billionaires can get there, a small crew has to get it ready, and for good measure they've thrown in a few scientists whose work they think will be beneficial and that is where our cast of characters comes from. But on top of that we also have Tess, a sociologist, brought in secretly to develop a new algorithm to read and even anticipate human behavior by observing the crew through their phones. It's a lot of interesting pieces and Scherm handles both the science elements and the near future elements well.
It wasn't quite 4 stars for me because there were a few things that just didn't gel all the way. I have read several books about science in a row where the scientist works alone which is really not how any of this works, so I am a bit peevish about it right now. And the ending felt loose, whereas so much of the rest of the plot felt tight and meticulous.
It gets impressively messy in ways that feel true to life. There are multiple points in the book where you don't know how things can get messier, and then they do!
Our characters are all tied to the space station Parallaxis, funded by Sensus, a massive corporation owned by the Son sisters. In this near future story, Sensus created a new kind of phone that implants in your ear to let you see your screen constantly. Parallaxis is one of their other projects, imagined as a retreat for those who can afford it. But before the billionaires can get there, a small crew has to get it ready, and for good measure they've thrown in a few scientists whose work they think will be beneficial and that is where our cast of characters comes from. But on top of that we also have Tess, a sociologist, brought in secretly to develop a new algorithm to read and even anticipate human behavior by observing the crew through their phones. It's a lot of interesting pieces and Scherm handles both the science elements and the near future elements well.
It wasn't quite 4 stars for me because there were a few things that just didn't gel all the way. I have read several books about science in a row where the scientist works alone which is really not how any of this works, so I am a bit peevish about it right now. And the ending felt loose, whereas so much of the rest of the plot felt tight and meticulous.
December 13, 2021
don’t think i can quantify this, really. it made me think a lot about many things and it also made me feel very anxious. anytime i was doing anything else all i wanted to do was get back to reading this. i do think it is very good.
May 28, 2022
Once again Rachel Scherm proves the distinction betwixt literary and genre fiction is utter codswallop. Her previous book Unbecoming was a heist story about hot art and cold cash and I liked it better than I did Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. Scherm’s latest, The House Between Earth and Moon, should appeal even to finicky readers who “hate science fiction” as great tale of family relationships. It’s set in the 2030s, when our planet is undergoing ecological catastrophe; people in Indiana are literally roasting in abandoned shopping malls under heat high pressure domes. Mobile phones are now physically implanted into most people’s heads with viewing screens constantly before their eyes. Only a privileged minority are “privatized” and except for a few rebels who live “off the grid” everyone else in monitored by a global tech corporation called Sensus, controlled by the sisters Katherine and Rachel Son. They have a space station called Parallaxis orbiting far above the Earth. It’s still under construction, which is why it’s sometimes referred to as Beta. One of the crew is Alex Welch-Peters, a biological scientist who is trying to breed an artificial GM species of algae—essentially a super pond scum—that will thrive back on Earth and reverse global warming. His estranged wife, teenage daughter Mary Agnes and son (who is allergic to almost everything) are left behind. We also follow another Sensus employee, as psychologist using AI. She has an algorithm (she refers to it as “the algo”) that can not only understand human behavior in general, but gather enough information from the Sensus implants to know precisely how each one of her subjects will act in the future.
Without losing the reader in technical minutiae, Scherm makes life in space believable while creating engaging entanglements among varied but well-developed characters. As in so much current fiction, the principal teenaged character Mary Agnes is much more engaging than most of the adults, though Tess and her “algo” are fascinating. I could not help wondering whether this novel will find readers in the next decade while eager to discover if Alex and his pond scum will enable any of us to be around then to read it.
Without losing the reader in technical minutiae, Scherm makes life in space believable while creating engaging entanglements among varied but well-developed characters. As in so much current fiction, the principal teenaged character Mary Agnes is much more engaging than most of the adults, though Tess and her “algo” are fascinating. I could not help wondering whether this novel will find readers in the next decade while eager to discover if Alex and his pond scum will enable any of us to be around then to read it.
April 16, 2022
TW:
The book is not bad. At no point did I feel like I wanted to stop reading and pick up something else. But it does feel half baked, and this applies to virtually every aspect of the book.
The concept, while fascinating, is never brought to a logical conclusion or explored in a meaningful way. It is just there and we are supposed to draw our own lessons from it, yet we are not told what those lessons are and if they are bad or good or even possible.
The characters, are never more than a collection of emotional reactions. They don't grow or change, they don't react to events that should shake their worldview and rearrange their priorities. Things happen and they feel some feelings and then things go on like nothing changed. Their 'core' personalities also feel like they are temporary and only appear when it is convenient, be it a thrill-seeker or a patient mother/wife or an obsessed scientist. Their core personalities are also left unexplained. Why is this person controlling? Why is that person standoffish? What is the reason they did this big thing that to others is unconscionable? In a story about predicting human behaviors, I expected more looking into human behaviors. Time jumps did not help!
The ending, if it can be called that. There isn't one. No resolution is reached. No arc conclusions, on either character development or group cohesion. It feels like the author just quit writing and the characters just continue on their preset tracks. As a reader I am left wondering the reasons that I picked this book up if nothing got resolved and nothing of import happened and nothing got explored.
This is not to say that I missed the clever use of POV change almost mid sentence where the viewer and the observed would almost merge. Or how the internal emotional life of the character would be almost completely obscured to us as readers once the AI lost access to them. I just think it did not add to the story and if anything made it more confusing and frustrating.
I do not want to discourage others from trying out the book, my complaints maybe just my personal preferences. But if you are interested in a narrative that attempts to explain the dynamics of human interaction, there are better books out there. “War and Peace” or “Anna Karenina” might not have space stations but Tolstoy does not leave the reader wondering why this character did that but then changed their mind.
The book is not bad. At no point did I feel like I wanted to stop reading and pick up something else. But it does feel half baked, and this applies to virtually every aspect of the book.
The concept, while fascinating, is never brought to a logical conclusion or explored in a meaningful way. It is just there and we are supposed to draw our own lessons from it, yet we are not told what those lessons are and if they are bad or good or even possible.
The characters, are never more than a collection of emotional reactions. They don't grow or change, they don't react to events that should shake their worldview and rearrange their priorities. Things happen and they feel some feelings and then things go on like nothing changed. Their 'core' personalities also feel like they are temporary and only appear when it is convenient, be it a thrill-seeker or a patient mother/wife or an obsessed scientist. Their core personalities are also left unexplained. Why is this person controlling? Why is that person standoffish? What is the reason they did this big thing that to others is unconscionable? In a story about predicting human behaviors, I expected more looking into human behaviors. Time jumps did not help!
The ending, if it can be called that. There isn't one. No resolution is reached. No arc conclusions, on either character development or group cohesion. It feels like the author just quit writing and the characters just continue on their preset tracks. As a reader I am left wondering the reasons that I picked this book up if nothing got resolved and nothing of import happened and nothing got explored.
This is not to say that I missed the clever use of POV change almost mid sentence where the viewer and the observed would almost merge. Or how the internal emotional life of the character would be almost completely obscured to us as readers once the AI lost access to them. I just think it did not add to the story and if anything made it more confusing and frustrating.
I do not want to discourage others from trying out the book, my complaints maybe just my personal preferences. But if you are interested in a narrative that attempts to explain the dynamics of human interaction, there are better books out there. “War and Peace” or “Anna Karenina” might not have space stations but Tolstoy does not leave the reader wondering why this character did that but then changed their mind.
April 1, 2022
3.5 rounded up. I think this book had a strong start/middle, but the last third faltered a bit. Not stumbled or collapsed, but it definitely dropped a bit compared to what came before. Still worth checking out if you're interested in the premise, and I look forward to checking out the author again.
April 22, 2022
I was in equal measure terrified and compelled by the premise and setup of this novel. The first few chapters, five stars. But I feel like the book needed to be twice as long to fully develop all the storylines and characters. For a story as potentially high stakes as this one was, it all just fell a little flat in the middle.
July 18, 2022
Here’s a thought-provoking novel set in the near future about a dozen billionaires who build a private space station in Low Earth Orbit. The architects of this dream project are two Korean-American sisters, Rachel and Katherine Son. They have advanced telephone technology by inserting phones in the ear and enabling silent person-to-person communication. Billions now wear their phones. With their immense wealth and billions more from ten others, they are building a small space habitat so they can flee the consequences of climate chaos and societal collapse. Novelist Rebecca Scherm’s A House Between Earth and the Moon is the intriguing story of the men and women who are building it.
LIFE ON EARTH IS A NIGHTMARE
Life on Planet Earth has become hell for billions. Climate change has gone amok. In the USA alone, “California was on fire nine months a year, half of Texas was flooded with mud, and the hurricanes that turned coastal towns into mulch no longer kept to any calendar.” From their perch 220 miles above the Earth, those on the private space station the Son sisters are building can view Earth in flames. “They saw the fire that burned for three weeks from Quito all the way down to Santiago, the fire that curled around the entire east coast of Australia, and twin lines of fire in northern and southern California that crept closer each day but did not meet.”
A SPRAWLING CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Son sisters are both central characters in this tale. But they are among a large cast that includes the scientists sent to the private space station Parallaxis I:
Microbiologist Alex Welch-Peters
Irma Garcia, who “called herself a space gardener”
Malik Cobb, who mines ice from the atmosphere to supply the station with water
Mary Slivens, physician
Teddy Rokeshar, a robotics engineer
Psychiatrist Esther Fetterman
Lenore Totten, who runs the 3-D fabricator
They’re all recognized leaders in their fields. And they’ve all agreed to come so they will be free to conduct pathfinding research in the sterile conditions of space. As a group, they call themselves Pioneers. They’ve joined two astronauts already in residence there. But the Pioneers find on arrival that their first responsibility is to build out the living space on Parallaxis under the astronauts’ direction. Not just their own, but that for the twelve billionaires who are destined to move there. And, soon, their lives will be further complicated when a mysterious psychologist named Tess arrives in the company of Rachel Son herself.
A CHARACTER-DRIVEN TALE
Scherm paints a convincing picture of the technology employed on Parallaxis. But her principal concern, and the heart of the novel, is the interaction among the people on the station. The scientists, the astronauts, and the Son sisters are all credible figures, and the relationships that grow among them are easy to relate to. And through Tess, the psychologist who arrives belatedly, we gain intimate access to their thoughts and feelings. Because Katharine Son has assigned Tess to head a project called Views that allows her to see the world through the eyes of her subjects. And her subjects are all the people on Parallaxis.
IS THE STORY IMPROBABLE?
Is any of this unlikely? Doubtless. Scherm sets her story in the early-to-mid 2030s, which strikes me as too soon to exhibit the catastrophic climate that seems to dominate daily life in the novel. The 2040s, 50s, or even the 60s seem more likely. But what about that space habitat? That may be a little less far-fetched.
Google the phrase “billionaires living off the grid,” and you’ll see the following headline: “50 Percent Of Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Prepping To ‘Ride Out The Apocalypse.’” While the authors of that article are self-interested promoters of survivalist living, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine billionaires fleeing the Earth when some are already preparing to hole up on private islands and New Zealand hideaways. And there is, indeed, a serious proposal in the works for a 400-person space habitat in Low Earth Orbit from California-based Orbital Assembly Corporation, slated to open in 2030.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Scherm has released little information about herself, other than that she lives in California with her family. On her website, she also discloses that “Some of my favorite things unrelated to books and writing are California native plants and ecology, praying mantids, the drink Corpse Reviver #2, fake fur, and my heating pad. I change this list whenever someone reminds me of it and I am embarrassed, and it only exists here at all because my bio is so short that it sometimes frustrates people.” Scherm is the author of two novels, of which A House is the more recent.
LIFE ON EARTH IS A NIGHTMARE
Life on Planet Earth has become hell for billions. Climate change has gone amok. In the USA alone, “California was on fire nine months a year, half of Texas was flooded with mud, and the hurricanes that turned coastal towns into mulch no longer kept to any calendar.” From their perch 220 miles above the Earth, those on the private space station the Son sisters are building can view Earth in flames. “They saw the fire that burned for three weeks from Quito all the way down to Santiago, the fire that curled around the entire east coast of Australia, and twin lines of fire in northern and southern California that crept closer each day but did not meet.”
A SPRAWLING CAST OF CHARACTERS
The Son sisters are both central characters in this tale. But they are among a large cast that includes the scientists sent to the private space station Parallaxis I:
Microbiologist Alex Welch-Peters
Irma Garcia, who “called herself a space gardener”
Malik Cobb, who mines ice from the atmosphere to supply the station with water
Mary Slivens, physician
Teddy Rokeshar, a robotics engineer
Psychiatrist Esther Fetterman
Lenore Totten, who runs the 3-D fabricator
They’re all recognized leaders in their fields. And they’ve all agreed to come so they will be free to conduct pathfinding research in the sterile conditions of space. As a group, they call themselves Pioneers. They’ve joined two astronauts already in residence there. But the Pioneers find on arrival that their first responsibility is to build out the living space on Parallaxis under the astronauts’ direction. Not just their own, but that for the twelve billionaires who are destined to move there. And, soon, their lives will be further complicated when a mysterious psychologist named Tess arrives in the company of Rachel Son herself.
A CHARACTER-DRIVEN TALE
Scherm paints a convincing picture of the technology employed on Parallaxis. But her principal concern, and the heart of the novel, is the interaction among the people on the station. The scientists, the astronauts, and the Son sisters are all credible figures, and the relationships that grow among them are easy to relate to. And through Tess, the psychologist who arrives belatedly, we gain intimate access to their thoughts and feelings. Because Katharine Son has assigned Tess to head a project called Views that allows her to see the world through the eyes of her subjects. And her subjects are all the people on Parallaxis.
IS THE STORY IMPROBABLE?
Is any of this unlikely? Doubtless. Scherm sets her story in the early-to-mid 2030s, which strikes me as too soon to exhibit the catastrophic climate that seems to dominate daily life in the novel. The 2040s, 50s, or even the 60s seem more likely. But what about that space habitat? That may be a little less far-fetched.
Google the phrase “billionaires living off the grid,” and you’ll see the following headline: “50 Percent Of Silicon Valley Billionaires Are Prepping To ‘Ride Out The Apocalypse.’” While the authors of that article are self-interested promoters of survivalist living, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine billionaires fleeing the Earth when some are already preparing to hole up on private islands and New Zealand hideaways. And there is, indeed, a serious proposal in the works for a 400-person space habitat in Low Earth Orbit from California-based Orbital Assembly Corporation, slated to open in 2030.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebecca Scherm has released little information about herself, other than that she lives in California with her family. On her website, she also discloses that “Some of my favorite things unrelated to books and writing are California native plants and ecology, praying mantids, the drink Corpse Reviver #2, fake fur, and my heating pad. I change this list whenever someone reminds me of it and I am embarrassed, and it only exists here at all because my bio is so short that it sometimes frustrates people.” Scherm is the author of two novels, of which A House is the more recent.
February 27, 2023
These are my incoherent notes and rambles that I wrote down while reading instead of a well articulated review since I can't come up with one. Keep in mind these were written down over the course of me reading the book, so these are my thoughts in real time
***
Premise feels very Black Mirror-y
There are a lot of characters (maybe too many?)
Not sure of everyone's roles. There seems to be too many random characters to keep track of.
Tess is obviously causing issues in Parallaxis but with Views being as big of a thing as it is, I feel like there could be more development with it. It's such a crazy concept delving into issues of privacy and the philosophy of ethics and morality and no developments like that are happening???
Was the whole thing with Ellis just to be a reason to get Alex's family to space?
The beginning felt promising but shortly after, throughout the middle and to the end of the book, it couldn't hold my attention. It almost felt like scenes would change in the middle of sentences or something. I don't know how to describe it.
Irma comes up with an algae solution so all of Alex's struggles are in vain? He works for 20 years on something that she solves in a matter of months? What was the point of Alex being there and having this struggle just for someone else to have a solution that quickly?
The very last chapter finally has billionaires coming to the station and Irma goes to destroy her algae? Alex is fighting with Carl about it? What is happening???
This is so hard for me to follow.
Who is doing what and where are they doing it and why is constantly the question I am asking myself lol.
So. Many. Characters. I don't know who 70% of these people are.
The idea for this book had so much potential. I was obsessed with this trope and wanted to LOVE it.
But it droned on and on and felt confusing 80% of the time. Hardly any character development and certainly didn't live up to the Black Mirror ideas I had in my head.
You have a world set in the future where the Earth is becoming uninhabitable. You have a tech company that is destroying the concept of what's moral and ethical and ruining everything you thought you knew about privacy. You have a world that is being made accessible only to the elite. And the author let's THAT world fall flat on its face? I would have loved this had it been handled better. Again: So. Much. Potential.
I kept rewinding on Audible or rereading paragraphs that never fully made sense to me no matter how many times I read it. Luke, why do the billionaires never show? Where is Meg at the end of the book? Where was Tess climbing a ladder to at the end? What was the point with the one guy who spent all his time in zero g and wanted to unalive himself out of the airlock? No justice for Rachel or Katherine? We don't get to see some sort of answer to the climate crisis Alex was working so hard to fix for the people of Earth?
And that ending.. it sounds like it was supposed to be meaningful but all I really got was that it sounded like a set up for a part 2. Right?
So disappointed and I really wanted to love it 😭😭😭
***
Premise feels very Black Mirror-y
There are a lot of characters (maybe too many?)
Not sure of everyone's roles. There seems to be too many random characters to keep track of.
Tess is obviously causing issues in Parallaxis but with Views being as big of a thing as it is, I feel like there could be more development with it. It's such a crazy concept delving into issues of privacy and the philosophy of ethics and morality and no developments like that are happening???
Was the whole thing with Ellis just to be a reason to get Alex's family to space?
The beginning felt promising but shortly after, throughout the middle and to the end of the book, it couldn't hold my attention. It almost felt like scenes would change in the middle of sentences or something. I don't know how to describe it.
Irma comes up with an algae solution so all of Alex's struggles are in vain? He works for 20 years on something that she solves in a matter of months? What was the point of Alex being there and having this struggle just for someone else to have a solution that quickly?
The very last chapter finally has billionaires coming to the station and Irma goes to destroy her algae? Alex is fighting with Carl about it? What is happening???
This is so hard for me to follow.
Who is doing what and where are they doing it and why is constantly the question I am asking myself lol.
So. Many. Characters. I don't know who 70% of these people are.
The idea for this book had so much potential. I was obsessed with this trope and wanted to LOVE it.
But it droned on and on and felt confusing 80% of the time. Hardly any character development and certainly didn't live up to the Black Mirror ideas I had in my head.
You have a world set in the future where the Earth is becoming uninhabitable. You have a tech company that is destroying the concept of what's moral and ethical and ruining everything you thought you knew about privacy. You have a world that is being made accessible only to the elite. And the author let's THAT world fall flat on its face? I would have loved this had it been handled better. Again: So. Much. Potential.
I kept rewinding on Audible or rereading paragraphs that never fully made sense to me no matter how many times I read it. Luke, why do the billionaires never show? Where is Meg at the end of the book? Where was Tess climbing a ladder to at the end? What was the point with the one guy who spent all his time in zero g and wanted to unalive himself out of the airlock? No justice for Rachel or Katherine? We don't get to see some sort of answer to the climate crisis Alex was working so hard to fix for the people of Earth?
And that ending.. it sounds like it was supposed to be meaningful but all I really got was that it sounded like a set up for a part 2. Right?
So disappointed and I really wanted to love it 😭😭😭
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2022
Both a science fiction thriller and a psychological and literary feat. The characters are all well-honed, the situations plausible. This story will weave its way into your mind and possibly change you, just like the Algorithms in the novel predict. One of my Staff Picks at the Bookloft.
May 8, 2022
This book had a stronger start than finish, but I did enjoy the sci fi tech and the space. Not a good choice if you're looking for something uplifting though, be warned!
May 14, 2022
3.5 ⭐ rounded up
In this novel, society is pressed on all sides, by the increasingly threatening climate crisis, and by the interests of Big Money, Big Tech, and Consumer-driven predatory Capitalism.
Nothing comes easily for these characters. In addition to dangers on all sides, they've been nearly forced to give up their privacy in the name of "safety."
This is above all, an exploration of vulnerability, both individual and communal. It's climate fiction which explores power dynamics and pokes holes in simple solutions.
In this novel, society is pressed on all sides, by the increasingly threatening climate crisis, and by the interests of Big Money, Big Tech, and Consumer-driven predatory Capitalism.
Nothing comes easily for these characters. In addition to dangers on all sides, they've been nearly forced to give up their privacy in the name of "safety."
This is above all, an exploration of vulnerability, both individual and communal. It's climate fiction which explores power dynamics and pokes holes in simple solutions.
May 9, 2022
3.5 rounded up to 4. I’m not sure the two parts of this story - new technology breaking privacy norms for the supposed betterment of humanity and the worst case scenario escape plan for billionaires from a dying planet that is slowly killing off the human population with extreme climate events - work together. Both stories explore interesting ideas, and having one or the other would have made for a good book. Together they feel at odds, fighting against each other for page time. There are moments where they cross, mostly with the overall discussion of what amounts to the inevitability of failure. If that had been more of a focus, this could have been a truly brilliant book. As it is, it ends up not actually saying anything of substance, despite the potential to do so.
October 28, 2022
Yes, I gave this 5 stars even though I felt like the ending was incomplete. Really hoping she decides to make it a series.
May 9, 2022
Rounded up to 2.5. I enjoyed the beginning of this book and was excited about the premise but this one gradually lost me as it went on. I was left confused and disappointed as there was no real resolution or proper ending.
April 21, 2022
nothing sums up my experience of this book quite like finishing it, seeing a philip glass album namedropped in the acknowledgements, and going oh yeah, that makes sense
October 17, 2022
It had potential but it's pretty boring.
March 28, 2024
Oh man this was BLEAK. Set in the near future, everything is basically horrible and doomed. Some people go to space and that is also mostly terrible! Additionally, there is algae, lying, algorithms, and some really scary implanted phones.
I can’t say that I really enjoyed this but I also couldn’t stop reading it. Mostly I need a hug now.
I can’t say that I really enjoyed this but I also couldn’t stop reading it. Mostly I need a hug now.
July 7, 2023
There's no IRB in space!!
April 15, 2022
Wow. Just wow. Haunting, too-possible story of Big Tech and climate horrors converging to make a home for billionaires in space. Captivating story of a family split between Earth and Parallaxis brings gargantuan issues down to human scale. Big tech wants to devour everyone, and is doing so...literally worming into our ears, eyes and brains as an effective distraction (while it lasts) from the scalding climate.
Privacy is not a right...it is a commodity to be bought and sold, affordable to very few. (If that sounds like science fiction, do a search of the latest tech developments...contact lenses fitted with microprocessors!)
The billionaire crowd has an escape hatch. The rest of us are reduced to data for their pleasure. Alex is the Michigan scientist who believes his one success with carbon-eating super algae can save the Earth - if only he can develop it again. Meg is his estranged wife...she's given him up to his research while she struggles to protect their children from the long fingers of big tech, roasting temperatures, life-threatening medical emergencies, and all the hard parts of growing up. Their daughter Mary Agnes suffers through teenage angst under the weight of horrifying tech advancements.
While this book has drawn a science-fiction audience, it shouldn't be pigeonholed. Author Scherm has woven all the threads of our modern-day fears into a deeply-moving family saga.
Absolutely riveting read.
Privacy is not a right...it is a commodity to be bought and sold, affordable to very few. (If that sounds like science fiction, do a search of the latest tech developments...contact lenses fitted with microprocessors!)
The billionaire crowd has an escape hatch. The rest of us are reduced to data for their pleasure. Alex is the Michigan scientist who believes his one success with carbon-eating super algae can save the Earth - if only he can develop it again. Meg is his estranged wife...she's given him up to his research while she struggles to protect their children from the long fingers of big tech, roasting temperatures, life-threatening medical emergencies, and all the hard parts of growing up. Their daughter Mary Agnes suffers through teenage angst under the weight of horrifying tech advancements.
While this book has drawn a science-fiction audience, it shouldn't be pigeonholed. Author Scherm has woven all the threads of our modern-day fears into a deeply-moving family saga.
Absolutely riveting read.
May 30, 2022
I enjoyed this despite the low grade anxiety it gave me about the future. And I 100% think the technology it describes is something we would all adopt, even if we recoil at the idea now. I think a sci fi fan would tell me that none of this is original, but it was new to me and made me think, smile — and shudder!
March 29, 2022
So this one, in a way, kind of reminded me of Project Hail Mary when it came to the science based portion of it. It’s truly amazing how educated the author is on science and space and her ability to fit in more relatable topics like family, love and betrayal. There are A LOT of characters and they each have there own little background story.
I probably enjoyed Tessa’s character the most because I think she was very misunderstood and just wanted to find a place where she truly fit in. Magnes had a lot going on in her life with family, friends and a specific boy which was interesting to watch unfold. Alex’s story made me a little sad because of the the things he had to give up to try and make a difference for the future generation. There were a bunch of other wonderful characters and I enjoyed reading the different family dynamics they shared and how everyone fit together as a group in space.
If your looking for a book about saving the planet, saving your family, and staying true to who you are…. You have to grab this one!
I probably enjoyed Tessa’s character the most because I think she was very misunderstood and just wanted to find a place where she truly fit in. Magnes had a lot going on in her life with family, friends and a specific boy which was interesting to watch unfold. Alex’s story made me a little sad because of the the things he had to give up to try and make a difference for the future generation. There were a bunch of other wonderful characters and I enjoyed reading the different family dynamics they shared and how everyone fit together as a group in space.
If your looking for a book about saving the planet, saving your family, and staying true to who you are…. You have to grab this one!
June 10, 2025
I wanted to like this book so much, and I did for a time, but the whirlwind, nothing ending changed my perspective on the book as a whole.
First, there is so much going on in this book. There's a wild web of characters and issues that circle each other throughout the beginning. Black Mirror-esque technology that goes about as well as it ever does, the world is quite literally on fire, and humanity's savior scientists are sponsored by an all-comsuming corporation run by two sisters. In addition, everyone's keeping secrets from each other but as the audience, we know everything. Dramatic irony all around! What's not to love?
Unfortunately, when everything comes to light and the main conflict happens, that's kind of it. Was it realistic? Probably! Was it interesting and did it feel like the book was bringing up any interesting points? No.
I can't tell if they were trying to leave it open for sequel potential or it was a poorly executed but intentionally vague ending.
First, there is so much going on in this book. There's a wild web of characters and issues that circle each other throughout the beginning. Black Mirror-esque technology that goes about as well as it ever does, the world is quite literally on fire, and humanity's savior scientists are sponsored by an all-comsuming corporation run by two sisters. In addition, everyone's keeping secrets from each other but as the audience, we know everything. Dramatic irony all around! What's not to love?
Unfortunately, when everything comes to light and the main conflict happens, that's kind of it. Was it realistic? Probably! Was it interesting and did it feel like the book was bringing up any interesting points? No.
I can't tell if they were trying to leave it open for sequel potential or it was a poorly executed but intentionally vague ending.
July 26, 2023
I definitely adored the concepts and themes this novel was trying to explore, however none of the characters really resonated with me or made me want to care about them. 80% of the cast is completely forgettable to the point where there were names being dropped and I simply had no idea who those people were. I blame that partially on the fact that it took me a while to finish it, but that can also be explained by me simply not being invested enough to read it consistently.
The prose was descriptive, but not entirely engaging. It read like a textbook, things that were supposed to be incredibly important fell completely flat. The characters were confusing, the plot was confusing, and when I finished the novel all I thought to myself was "oh, I guess thats it then."
The prose was descriptive, but not entirely engaging. It read like a textbook, things that were supposed to be incredibly important fell completely flat. The characters were confusing, the plot was confusing, and when I finished the novel all I thought to myself was "oh, I guess thats it then."
April 25, 2023
I was .. so disappointed by this novel. It started off strong, with great characters and an exciting plot. I liked the authors take on a dystopian society that didn’t feel too far off or off base from the present we currently are living in. However, after we spent the first 3/4 of the novel building, the ending just happened?? And it felt very rushed, nothing felt complete, and I felt like all of the characters deserved a better ending than what they got.
May 13, 2024
This book didn't pass the feelings test or author intention/quality test. An unenjoyable, dull, tedious read. If the author's intention was to warn us of corporate greed and that billionaires don't care about regular people; she succeeded. Unfortunately, all of the interesting things that would have made a book about life inside a biodome were squandered. Character development and relationships were lacking.
May 24, 2022
DNF. This started out to be quite interesting but somehow it went off the rails and I could not longer continue with it. I read some reviews to see what I was missing or not understanding. I tried skimming it. To no avail. None of the characters grabbed me. The story got choppy or something.I had the audible and the hardcover versions. Oh well.....
October 31, 2024
Did not like it much at all considering it took me 6 months to finish with multiple books read in between, but I refused to leave it unfinished. Premise sounded interesting but unfortunately, the story was slow and drawn out and didn’t quite capture my attention. Some interesting aspects but overall don’t recommend.
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