Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds #2)

by Micaiah Johnson

Author’s Note from Micaiah Johnson When my agent (the incredible Cameron McClure at Donald Maass, without whom you wouldn’t be reading these words) read the first draft of this manuscript, she said—accurately—“I didn’t realize how angry you were.” Yes, this novel was largely conceived during the sixty-two-day sit-in at Nashville’s Tennessee State Capitol. And yes, this protest produced hundreds of arrests under frivolous charges that dissolved shortly thereafter, and far more instances of brutalization, which proved harder to erase and linger with many of us still. If any faith in institutional justice remained in me—after living in America as a Black person with the misfortune to both study, and live through, historical moments of spectacular racialized violence—my time at The People’s Plaza would have killed it. So if you also sense an undercurrent of rage in this novel, you are not wrong. But it is not bitterness. Bitterness is anger with nowhere to go. Bitterness and resignation are close and tempting cousins. Anger with a target is Rage, and Rage is sister to Hope alone. We rage because we do believe things can be better, by fire if necessary. Science fiction is an expression born from dissatisfaction with where the world is versus where the world could be. The same is true for protest. Science fiction is fueled by dreams of a different, but possible, future. The same is true for Rage. While bitterness is an isolator, a repellent to community, Rage is a beacon calling...