Book description
Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive on board The Pride of Jai that could change the future of humanity. But when she activates it, reality warps, destroying the space station and everyone left inside.
The Gods declare her work heretical, and Yasira is abducted by…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Outside as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
The Outside is a gripping sci-fi novel with a queer autistic protagonist, written by an autistic author who perfectly conveys the flavor of autistic thinking. This one’s set far in the future, in a galaxy-spanning theocracy ruled by powerful artificial intelligences that have set themselves up as gods. Scientist Yasira Shien has developed a brilliant new energy drive. The problem? Turns out the drive taps into an extradimensional reality called the Outside, which, true to its name, exists outside ordinary spacetime—and which is capable of spilling over catastrophically into the material world. Highly original world-building blended with classic space opera.…
From Nick's list on neuroqueer speculative fiction.
If you love The Outside...
God of Murder
What if the gods could be FORCED to answer our prayers? Amelia and her friends were once DnD-style fantasy adventurers, who found themselves launched into science fiction when they discovered their medieval world’s “gods” just have access to space-age biomech.
Since ascending to "godhood" herself—that is, earning a place on…
Want books like The Outside?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Outside.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,340
readers submitted
so far, will you?
