A gritty sci-fi survival story, Otherworldly has some very interesting concepts around the definitions of life, aliens and intelligence. It follows Cleo, a space explorer from Venus (with Caribbean roots) who is part of a mission to a planet, Orbis Alius. They are scouting it for terraforming potential and are sponsored by a lot of brands. Somehow, it has been proven that humans are alone in the universe, so the team are not expecting the craziness they find on this odd planet. It seems to be comprised of zones where the atmosphere and gravity are completely different, to accommodate different species. There is a sinister hive-mind linking them all together, which Cleo must resist. The plot and action were very cinematic and I can definitely see this being a movie (the author is a film-maker and it shows!)

Cleo has a robot companion resembling a dog, which speaks in rhyme, as it’s programmed with the voices of rappers and poets. That was cute at first, but it soon became irritating and I was glad when the machine exploded, freeing us from its annoying speech! The other thing which I didn’t like about this book was the copious amount of vomit and saliva, because Cleo is always throwing up. It was also puzzling how she got sent out on a space mission in the first place, because she doesn’t know any mathematics or physics. I think a lot of sci-fi readers will enjoy this book, but I had quite mixed feelings about it and am unlikely to read a similar one by the same author.

Published by 47North, 2026.