The Edge by James Smythe

I was so pleased to hear that the Anomaly Quartet was resuming several years after the publication of the first two books in this science fiction horror series. Appropriately, years have passed in the story, too, and the Anomaly is far too close to Earth. Characters from the past come together with Ali to investigate the Anomaly's presence and meaning while the inhabitants of Earth look on, worried, including Ali's husband. The Anomaly continues to exert its malign influence and Ali is deeply affected. Her troubled life at home and in space merge as we find ourselves deeper and deeper in Ali's mind. These are bleak books but there's a beauty in their telling. James Smythe writes so well. But I did find The Edge challenging, partly, I think, because I'm not as resilient now as I was when the first books came out and there are places I just don't want to go. I listened to the audiobook, which was well narrated, intensifying the novel's mood.

The third book in James Smythe’s Anomaly Series didn’t disappoint this long time reader. James Smythe is a drop every other book writer for me and each novel is original glimpse into strangeness.
I would recommend this series to anyone who loves Science Fiction but would advise that the other two books are read first to get the complete story. I can’t wait until the final book to see where all this ends, please don’t make us wait too long Mr Smythe!!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.

I’ve waited a long time for this book – the third in the Anomaly sequence after The Explorer and The Echo – and (heave a sigh of relief) it certainly hasn’t disappointed. I’ve been impressed by the way Smythe has developed his ideas in each book; and I’m pleased to see The Edge break new ground in a series that runs the risk of being repetitive by design. The result is my favourite Anomaly novel to date, digging deeper into questions of identity and begging the question of whether humanity is truly worth saving. I’m no closer to being able to guess where Smythe will take us in the final book, but I can’t wait to find out.

The Edge is third in the Anomaly (or Explorer) series. There are references to earlier events, though nothing that would prevent reading this as a stand-alone. The Explorer was the first of Smythe's books I read. Something different in the the ideas, the storytelling and writing, stood out. The Edge matches that level.

The Anomaly in question is a vast 'void' in space making it's way towards earth. The Edge follows Ali, one of a small team of experts on a space station desperately seeking answers.

On twitter the author referred to this as 'space horror', which seems a close a description as any. More regarding psychology and personality; the void always looms, but The Edge is more about the main character, the nature of reality. The focus is on Ali; her life on board mixed with her previous life initially through contacts with her earth-bound child. A question of what is real? Who and what can be trusted. Events on the station feed into a spiral of doubt about everything.

I have read almost all Smythe's novels and The Edge matches his best.

I just couldn't get into this....but I can understand why others might love it so definitely one I will think of during recommendations!

I've been looking forward to the third book in James Smythe's Anomaly Quartet since I read The Explorer and The Echo back in 2014. In The Edge, the Anomaly is up to its usual creepy tricks; it's moved much closer to the Earth and our protagonist and first-person narrator, Ali, is part of a team who've been sent up in space to monitor the Anomaly's progress and to try to find out more about it. Heading up the team is an ancient Tomas, the surviving twin brother from The Echo, who, it soon becomes clear, has his own questions to answer. But as strange things start to happen on the space station, Ali starts to wonder if she can trust anybody other than herself.

Smythe is brilliant at thinking logically through the consequences of a concept, and expanding his stories as his characters discover these consequences. The relatively simple time-loop story told in The Explorer became much more complex in The Echo, and The Edge builds further on what we already know about the Anomaly, further enhancing the terror of the threat it poses. However, despite the fact that the central story of this quartet advances in satisfying ways in this installment, I found it disappointing as a stand-alone read. Ali is in many ways more grounded than our two previous narrators, and more obviously relatable; perhaps this is why her paranoia feels more like the familiar gaslighting of a psychological thriller rather than the truly skewed stories told by Cormac and Mira. The originality of the first two novels was a little lacking here, and I found myself getting tired of Ali's self-questioning, and of the backstory with her husband, which drew on too many usual tropes. However, it may be that this all seems a lot fresher to SF readers who haven't read as many psychological thrillers as I have, and it is an interesting kind of genre-cross, which I always appreciate.

Despite my relative ambivalence about The Edge, I'm still very excited to read the final book in the Anomaly Quartet, and to find out how Smythe pulls together all the questions he's posed over the course of this series, though I suspect the final meaning of the Anomaly may be more metaphorical than scientific. 3. 5 stars.

I will post the full version of this review to NetGalley and to my blog nearer publication date.

The gist: Smythe is back with the third book in The Anomaly Quartet and damn it is good to get back to this series. For those who have read the first two in the series (The Explorer and The Echo), this is an interesting next step, the action moved on somewhat from where we’ve been. And when I say action, Smythe has an artful way of creating drama. There’s action, there’s tension, but it’s lived through confusion. His writing eddies and swirls around you, edging into stream of consciousness at times, never letting you completely get a hold of your footing before you’re whisked to the next scene. And in this way, he brilliantly captures Ali’s feelings as you live out the time with her, feel her confusion, learn the truth with her.
Or, at least, learn the version of the truth that is available to her.
I’ve always found Smythe’s writing beautifully done. He takes concepts and weaves his words carefully around them to build up a feeling, an emotional state, that sets the major events in context. It’s science fiction built around the human experience of it, the impact of large events on small lives.
And I can’t wait to see what happens in the final instalment.
PS If you haven’t already read the first two books in the series I highly recommend backtracking and reading the series in order – you’d probably still get a lot out of The Edge as a standalone, but why miss out on the full effect, the whole of the journey so far if you don’t have to…
Favourite line: This is what we do. We move to where we are not.
Read if: You want big science fiction seen through small human lives.
Read with: Snacks readily available because you ain’t gonna want to put this down for too long.

Review will be published at www.thedustlounge.com closer to publication date

Another fantastic book from James Smythe. The final in the trilogy, this is truly an outstanding title that challenges our perceptions of what alien life could be.