It’s hard to imagine a more intriguing opening scene than an all-dark exploration vessel drifting in deep space, with the tune Silent Night reverberating on empty corridors, and the ship’s commander suddenly waking up buried in hypothermic gel in an intensive-care cocoon.
Unremitting suspense is among the best qualities of Vaughn’s novel. Mysteries are everywhere – where is the crew? What happened to the spaceship after completing their research mission on Moon Europa? What had happened to Commander May Knox before she left Earth to embark on this mission, and is it in any way relevant to her current predicament? May’s story is unfolding in front of us with constant glimpses of the recent past and earlier events, while we also accompany her present efforts to find the way back to Earth. This split chronology, a structure that can be deeply annoying if badly executed, works very well in Across the Void, and produces a suspenseful mystery embedded in a gripping SF narrative.
I’ve read Vaughn’s novel just after finishing Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield’s Apollo Murders, and it was a surprise how much more I enjoyed not only the mystery/thriller, but also the SF component in Across the Void. While Hadfield’s book is entertaining enough, Across the Void has brought both the awe and the fear of travelling in space much closer. It made me wonder about the author, but it’s another mystery – there’s an S. K. Vaughn listed as “retired school administrator, father of four” with a near-future dystopia and an adventure fantasy on Amazon to his name. And there’s another S.K Vaughn, who’s actually Shane Kuhn, producer and director who’d published three thrillers previously, none of them remotely SF. Are they the same person? Or is the S.K Vaughn pseudonym hiding an entirely different identity? No idea. But one things seems certain – whoever has written Across the Void, they’ve never been to space, and yet the book is able to transport us right on board of Hawking II, to the training simulators in Houston and to the heart of emptiness itself during EVA walks. Just a reminder how writing is really more about projecting your imagination than documenting actual experience.
Having said that, there are points where projecting imagination is not enough, and a wee bit more research would have been helpful. Where Vaughn’s hard SF really breaks down – at least noticeably even for readers without a degree in space science – is woman’s anatomy. I couldn’t go more into detail without spoiling key plot twists, but suffice to say that at a couple of times I had to work hard on suspending disbelief.
So don’t expect perfection when reading Across the Void – apart from ignorance of female biology, there are also some smaller-than-life and edging on cliché characters, dodgy motivations, “plot-needs-to-happen” type of solutions. It has been labelled as a “romantic SF thriller”, not a frequent genre combination, and depending on tastes, some may find it too melodramatic. But I’m not on a quest for the perfect novel, just the one worth my time (and yours). Flaws don’t necessarily ruin a good book: sometimes they even add to the flavour. Across the Void falls exactly in this category, so go ahead and enjoy reading – perhaps with an occasional eye-rolling.
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