In Ascension

Its center is Leigh, a Dutch marine biologist whose fascination with the origins of life carries her from studying deep-sea microbes to a mission chasing an anomaly at the solar system's edge - while, back home, an ordinary family history quietly frays.

In Ascension is speculative fiction in a contemplative, literary key, more interested in awe and unease than in incident, and it asks large questions about consciousness, evolution and humanity's place in a universe indifferent to it. MacInnes writes with cool precision and an almost oceanic patience; the novel rewards readers willing to drift with its currents rather than demand propulsion. The effect can be hypnotic, occasionally disorienting, and finally sublime.