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Title details for In the Quick by Kate Hope Day - Available

In the Quick

A Novel

by Kate Hope Day
Rebecca Lowman
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • A young, ambitious female astronaut’s life is upended by a love affair that threatens the rescue of a lost crew in this brilliantly imagined novel “with echoes of Station Eleven, The Martian, and, yes, Jane Eyre” (Observer).
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY VULTURE AND SHE READS • “The female astronaut novel we never knew we needed.”—Entertainment Weekly
June is a brilliant but difficult girl with a gift for mechanical invention who leaves home to begin grueling astronaut training at the National Space Program. Younger by two years than her classmates at Peter Reed, the school on campus named for her uncle, she flourishes in her classes but struggles to make friends and find true intellectual peers. Six years later, she has gained a coveted post as an engineer on a space station—and a hard-won sense of belonging—but is haunted by the mystery of Inquiry, a revolutionary spacecraft powered by her beloved late uncle’s fuel cells. The spacecraft went missing when June was twelve years old, and while the rest of the world seems to have forgotten the crew, June alone has evidence that makes her believe they are still alive.
She seeks out James, her uncle’s former protégé, also brilliant, also difficult, who has been trying to discover why Inquiry’s fuel cells failed. James and June forge an intense intellectual bond that becomes an electric attraction. But the relationship that develops between them as they work to solve the fuel cell’s fatal flaw threatens to destroy everything they’ve worked so hard to create—and any chance of bringing the Inquiry crew home alive.
A propulsive narrative of one woman’s persistence and journey to self-discovery, In the Quick is an exploration of the strengths and limits of human ability in the face of hardship, and the costs of human ingenuity.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 2, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593394298
      • File size: 229807 KB
      • Duration: 07:58:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 11, 2021
      In Day’s uneven latest (after If, Then), a precocious girl grows up to be an astronaut in a near future of expanded space exploration. June Reed, 12, lives with her aunt Regina, who raised her along with June’s late uncle Peter, a brilliant engineer for the National Space Program. Shortly before Peter died, he developed a fuel cell for Inquiry, a spacecraft that lost power as it was beginning its orbit around Saturn. After June hears that the blame is being put on a fuel cell malfunction, she becomes obsessed with fixing the design flaw and rescuing the four astronauts aboard the craft, and Regina sends the mischievous June away to boarding school to prep for astronaut training. Despite being younger than her peers, June’s tenacity earns her a spot on a space station, where she and her uncle’s protégé fix the faulty cell to power a rescue shuttle. While Day does a decent job developing June as a curious girl who claims to be “better with machines than with people,” the haphazard plot feels rushed and the prose can be clunky (“My eyelids were like lead. They lowered. They lowered. They lowered again”). This is primed for launch, but it doesn’t really take off. Agent: Brettne Bloom, the Book Group.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      When the crew aboard a newly designed spacecraft goes missing on its maiden voyage to the outer solar system, mechanically inclined June Reed is determined to find answers. Rebecca Lowman's thoughtful first-person narration threads June's indelible bond with her esteemed late uncle into her actions following his death. Lowman's even-keeled tone reflects June's pragmatic, driven personality. As she establishes herself, first at school and then professionally, June's continued assertions that the lost crew members are alive elicit both passionate and indifferent responses. Family, classmates, and colleagues, whom Lowman portrays in distinct voices, intrude upon and challenge June's singular focus. While a handful of charged scenes toward the end seem somewhat muted, overall Lowman delivers a solid performance that is attuned to the story's emotional arc. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      July 1, 2021

      This unconventional futuristic tale of space exploration is introspective. At its start, June Reed is a misunderstood child prodigy who designs spaceship components and has trouble relating to others and fitting in with classmates. June becomes an adult who's obsessed by the mystery of her uncle's spacecraft, which went missing, with its crew, years earlier; she and her colleagues are compelled to unravel its fate. Rather than a space rescue mission, this story becomes a work of scientific investigation and puzzle solving (with a romance shoved in for good measure). Rebecca Lowman narrates the book clearly, with distinct voices for each character. VERDICT Fans of Andy Weir's The Martian and similar sci-fi will enjoy this slow-moving but gritty space tale with a dash of mystery.--Denise Garofalo, Mount Saint Mary Coll., Newburgh, NY

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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