Far from the Light of Heaven

By Tade Thompson

"Simultaneously brutally grounded and wildly imaginative." --Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner

A tense and thrilling vision of humanity's future in the chilling emptiness of space from rising giant in science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tade Thompson

The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having traveled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.

Answering Campion's distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system--from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

Praise for Far from the Light of Heaven

"Gripping and skillfully told, with an economy and freshness of approach that is all Tade Thompson''s own. The setting is interstellar, but it feels as real, immediate, and lethal as today's headlines." --Alastair Reynolds

"[I]nventive, exciting and compulsively readable...This book is like the Tardis, larger inside than out, with a range of ideas, characters, and fascinating future settings making it probably the best science fiction novel of the year." --The Guardian

For more from Tade Thompson, check out:

The Wormwood Trilogy
Rosewater
Rosewater: Insurrection
Rosewater: Redemption

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Published Oct 26, 2021

384 pages

Average rating: 6.75

8 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Seráh Blain
Jun 30, 2026
4/10 stars
Tade Thompson is one of the most inventive authors in speculative fiction today. And this book had a clever plot, putting an Edgar Allen Poe mystery in space. The initial character introductions and development were intriguing. I was ready to love this. But somehow, the book ended up really boring me. The dialogue felt strange and contrived. The segues felt choppy. I struggled to finish it, I just was not enjoying the read. Conceptually it was great, but I was disappointed with the execution.
Jessie Barnes
Jun 01, 2023
8/10 stars
I enjoyed this, I'd read a sequel for sure. The locked room mystery may be solved but what happens next for our protags?
ChrisCarne
Jan 02, 2023
8/10 stars
An enjoyable and well executed if slightly disposable piece of SF/whodunnit hokum.

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