Inner Space by Jakub Szamalek

Inner Space by Jakub Szamalek

*Spotify best of the month* *Gizmodo best new sci-fi, fantasy, and horror* * BOOKISH 20 Debut Novels to Read This Year *

"A Crichtonesque cascade of mistakes and misunderstandings in an all-too-plausible but entertaining thriller."—Booklist

American and Russian astronauts are trapped together in the International Space Station as war breaks out in Ukraine and life support functions begin to fail in this action-packed debut technothriller that ripples with the tension and danger of Solaris and Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary.

When an ammonia leak threatens the astronauts on the International Space Station, NASA directs Lucy Poplasky, one of the ISS’s first female commanders, to investigate the cause. Russia has just invaded Ukraine and tensions are running high—could the leak be a brazen act of sabotage?

The Russian cosmonauts aboard deny tampering with the ship’s systems and insist on the issue stems from the American side. As levels of the poisonous gas rise, Lucy’s investigation shatters trust between the Russian and Western crews, exposing deep fissures in the partnership thousands of miles below.

Intense and unrelenting, Inner Space questions what truly draws us to the stars: the urge to explore the unknown, selfish ambition, or an instinct to run away from the entrenched troubles on Earth?

Translated from the Polish by Kasia Beresford

"A Crichtonesque cascade of mistakes and misunderstandings in an all-too-plausible but entertaining thriller" — Booklist “Inner Space is a wonderfully crafted space thriller. It has everything we loved about The Martian or Gravity, but more psychological depth. It’s also a chilling picture of the Russian mentality and its workings, written by someone who truly understands it. With the resurgent conflict between the East and the West and the return of the threat of totalitarianism, this blockbuster book couldn’t be more timely.” — Zygmunt Miloszewski, bestselling author of Rage and Priceless

Jakub Szamalek is Narrative Director at Rebel Wolves game studio. Born in Poland in 1986, he studied in the UK, at Oxford and then Cambridge, where he was a Cambridge Gates Scholar. He is an author and the writer behind the international video game bestsellers, including The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Blood of Dawnwalker. He lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, with his family. He wrote the award-winning The Hidden Web series of thrillers, which has been adapted into a major motion picture by Monolith Films, and his crime novels have been awarded the Best Polish Crime Novel and Zloty Pocisk prizes. Jakub has been named among Eastern and Central Europe’s Young Leaders by the Res Publica Foundation.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780063377943
ISBN 10	0063377942
Title	Inner Space
Author	Jakub Szamalek
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Year published	2025-08-28
Number of pages	352
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.