Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)

by James S.A. Corey

Living on the surface of a planet, mass sucking at every bone and muscle, and nothing but gravity to keep your air close, seemed like a fast path to crazy.

One of the things that was interesting about writing the books was getting into the heads of people who have explicitly never had the same experiences we’ve had. It’s one of the things that fiction generally does really well, and this is just one fairly extreme example. There are a lot of places we’ve been and things we’ve done through reading that we couldn’t get in life. There are studies that show reading fiction increases empathy. Seems plausible that “being” other people is why that happens. Maybe you have some examples from your own reading life?