Almost three years ago, I was absolutely stunned by Micaiah Johnson’s debut novel, The Space Between Worlds. So even though her standalone sequel promised a very different sort of plot from a very different perspective, there was no question about whether to give Those Beyond the Wall a try. 

Those Beyond the Wall takes place years after The Space Between Worlds, with the major characters from the first book taking on secondary roles here and the primary point of view provided by Mr. Scales, an Ashtown enforcer with plenty of righteous anger directed at the wealthy Wiley City where she spent her youth. When bodies start showing up dead and brutally disfigured, it’s clear that something dangerous is happening with the multiverse travel that was the focus of the first book. And that danger threatens both Wiley City and Ashtown, bringing the simmering class conflict to the forefront in a political struggle that may mean Ashtown’s salvation or their total destruction. 

I alluded in the opening to a very different plot from The Space Between Worlds, and it is indeed a wildly different sort of book, despite being set in the same world. The Space Between Worlds certainly included a struggle against people abusing their power, but the heart of the story was an exploration of how the characters’ lives played out differently in slightly different worlds. Those Beyond the Wall includes almost nothing of this, for all that the inciting threat comes from another world. Instead, the focus is almost entirely on Ashtown’s internal politics and their struggle against Wiley City. 

And there are times where the very different plot works well. Johnson’s prose style is just as propulsive and powerful as in the first book, even with a perspective character just as concerned with her relationships with a pair of fellows as she is the overarching conflict. And the narrative focus on the power of stories is wonderfully woven throughout, from Scales’ various explanations for how she got her name to the battle for control of the narrative that would serve a central role in the novel’s primary conflict. It’s a powerful element of Those Beyond the Wall, while it’s easy to see how the message is meant to apply to the real world, it comes across as storytelling more than preaching. 

On the other hand, there are plenty of elements that do feel like preaching, to the point of breaking immersion more than once. Scales often feels like an author mouthpiece, and there are times where her commentary feels more directed at our world than hers—it was odd, for example, to hear the caustic commentary directed at white Christians in a story where almost every major character was atheist and the remainder were part of a mystical religion that didn’t believe the Bible. That same feeling of the lead as an author mouthpiece also makes it more to swallow her uncritical conviction that the extreme violence in Ashtown’s power structure is ultimately for the good of the people. There’s nothing wrong with a morally gray lead, but this felt like a gray lead being propped up as a moral authority. 

And while the focus on the Ashtown/Wiley conflict made for an interesting main story, there were times that the details felt a little off. The deadly incursion from another world kicked off the plot and provided the impetus for so much of the conflict, but there were times it felt like a sideshow, being rushed along in order to get to the next stage of the Ashtown/Wiley conflict. And when the major figures from The Space Between Worlds did reappear, at least one was nearly unrecognizable from the first book. Some of that is explicable in terms of the perspective shift, but I’m not quite sure it explains everything. 

Ultimately, Those Beyond the Wall has flashes of the brilliance that characterized The Space Between Worlds, but it’s quite a bit messier, with key plot elements given short shrift, some confusing character decisions, and a main point-of-view character expected to bear more weight than she’s probably able. The strengths are enough to incline me to round up, but this one is firmly in the 3.5-star range after the first hit five.

Recommended if you like: class warfare with pointed political commentary. 

Overall rating: 14 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

In Those Beyond the Wall, we follow Scales as she’s tasked with unraveling the mystery of how and why mutilated bodies are piling up in both Ashtown and its wealthier counterpart, Wiley City. The shape of this adventure is new and exciting, but the heart at its center is the same unflinching yet hopeful read of humanity Micaiah Johnson gave us in the first book. Some of our old favorites and old enemies, both individual and systemic, are back for a striking follow up to one of my all time favorite reads. I’d recommend reading The Space Between Worlds to get the full impact of this one (and because it’s amazing).

I loved this so much! Where do I even begin? Firstly, the writing is beautiful. I will read anything and anything the author writes, up to and including a grocery list. This novel has the feel of oral storytelling tradition that fits so well with the shift in tone from The Space Between Worlds. We’re accompanying the sharp-edged Mr. Scales’ whose view of the world is filtered through some glaring chips on her shoulder, so we know she’s coming with some biases right from the beginning. We get to see Mr. Scales reckon with the roots of her trauma while she sprinkles in some horrifying observations and unflinching social commentary that feel all too relatable. It makes the reading journey feel like sitting with a loved one who’s sharing their life story that will have you responding viscerally but will also tell you so much about how they became this version of themselves.

The characters are also so wonderfully written, even the ones we hate, and even with the Scales perspective. It’s such an authorial superpower to make us look monsters in the eyes and remind them, and ourselves, that they have only ever been human. It makes it so much harder to simply write off certain characters when we can see the echoes of who they were before and the stories that shaped them. To see how easily those same stories could have tempted or destroyed us if only a few markers of our lives or identities had been different. Each character felt real and complicated in the best and worst ways, none more so than Mr. Scales. I can already see the “unlikeable female character” judgments coming for this one, but I thought this a refreshing depiction of someone who deserves a voice even if she’s not the “right” kind of victim everyone can sympathize with.

There are so many themes covered and social commentary I’m going to be marinating in for weeks, but what I’m currently sitting with is the novel’s reflections on storytelling: the role stories play in community care, the power in stories we choose to believe, and the lies we sometimes choose over inconvenient truths. Stories transform us, connect us to each other, and they rewrite who we are until we might as well be different versions of ourselves after we experience them. We don’t need to be traverser’s to witness other versions of ourselves that might have been or are yet to be: we’re already in the stories!

This reminded me so much of my reading experience of The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera. It’s everything I love about science fiction: the hope, the rage, and the unwavering refusal to look away from all that is possible, even when those possibilities are consequences rather than triumphs.

Anyway, I cried at brunch reading the last 30 or so pages. There’s a universe where I played it cool in front of the waiter. It is not this one.

Many thanks to the publisher for the eARC!

This book was not a five star experience for me. But I also know that some day, I don’t know when, but some day, this book will be a five star book for me. I’ll come back to it at the exact right time and that this book will be everything I need. Those Beyond the Wall is a beautiful and angry and irrevocably sad book, it fleshes out the world in a way the first book didn’t for me, and stares at the gritty bits with a love and a heart that the first book couldn’t. It takes all of it in hand and says ‘this is just as cool and beautiful and loving as the seeming utopia of a clean and perfect city with no crime. Because it doesn’t lie to you about what it takes to build a world that cares for people.’ If you want escapism I don’t think Those Beyond the Wall is what you’re looking for, and if you want scifi, it’s also not that. But it is a book which marvels at humanity’s innovation.

I love this book so much for what it is, and what I know it’ll be for me one day.

On a slightly less poetic and philosophical note, Those Beyond the Wall is also a masterpiece of writing, the pacing, the tone, the characterization, all of it is gorgeous and perfect. While I loved The Space Between Worlds, a lot of that book felt flat to me, the world was not quite fleshed out, the characters weren’t quite real, everything was a facsimile, though a beautiful and convincing one. But where The Space Between Worlds and Cara were narrow and focused on making a few things real in a book where most things weren’t, Those Beyond the Wall and Mr. Scales are very cognizant of the world around them. Everything felt real and upclose, the characters, no matter how shitty, were complex, the world felt cared for and loved and lived in.

Furthermore, the pacing and structure of the story itself was fantastic. Those Beyond the Wall is a mystery and while there isn’t ever really a mystery, and that more serves as the vessel for the interpersonal conflicts that arise, all of it feels tight, everything slots together and is balanced perfectly. The pacing is fantastic, the structure is delightful, and the themes make me want to cry and wrap myself up in a blanket. It was just genuinely so good.

This book is brilliant, one of the best things I’ve read in ages. Micaiah Johnson takes no prisoners and pulls no punches. The characters are both tender and brutal and I can’t stop thinking about the ending. 11/10, everyone should read this.

Those Beyond the Wall (The Space Between Worlds, #2)
by Micaiah Johnson
A story that combines so many fantasy tropes its amazing in its breath. The book starts as an African futurism, with strong aspects of dark heroes and wonderous apocalyptic society. A fluid dynamic of definition and type, that would relate to LTGBQ+ society. With characters whose sexuality is not only fluid, but accepted, expected and honored. A story that shows prejudice, injustice and exploitation that shows remarkable social justice. These descriptions are just the beginning of the dynamics of the book. The characters are fluid, so much, you find a new definition of respect. The woven mystery and social problems make it unexpected in its path, bringing the reader farther and farther in the story. You will cheer for the characters. You will understand the multi-universal overlap in a sad dystopian image.

I'll be the odd one out. Perhaps it's because I missed the first novel but I never connected with Scales, who is on a quest to find out why shattered bodies are appearing in their postapocalyptic city. An interesting character, to be sure, but challenging. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

This is so damned good. I finished it at 2AM and am still thrumming with loving it. It's weird reading the synopsis/blurb shortly after finishing the novel, because it does *not* capture what you're in for even a little bit. Maybe the publisher is trying to avoid spoilers for the first book, but that summary makes it sound like "unlikely investigating duo" or "quirky team thrown together for a quest that will become found family." "Brutal punk rock Mad Max clash of civilizations" might be closer to the ticket. The themes of how power behaves and the far-reaching psychological & generational impacts of stark inequality from The Space Between Worlds are present in this book too, but Those Beyond the Wall is showing more teeth--and it's great.

If it's been a while since you read The Space Between Worlds, you may be struck by how much more difficult it is to feel sympathy for the main character in this book, Mr. Scales, than it was with Cara, the protagonist of TSBW. That may be in part because you're recalling Cara as you left her at the end of the book, not as you started it (recall how Cara got to Earth zero in the first place). I read the two books back-to-back and my initial feelings about both protagonists, starting out, was doubt that I was going to want to spend much time with them.

It's true that Mr. Scales, our MC, is an enforcer for a warlord emperor in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland--it would weird if she had good coping mechanisms. She is, ah, real rough around the edges. But the people living outside the wall are barely eking out an existence within sight of a glass-walled city of plenty; this is not a world or a set of circumstances that lends itself to likeable, unbroken people. But just like you saw Cara grow in the first book, if you stick around you'll get to see Mr. Scales grow too (you may still not like her, but it will be different than it was before). Johnson's ability to make a character matter to me whether or not I like them is a form of genius.

Just as in The Space Between Worlds, we have a morally complex and flawed main character whose reliability as a narrator varies wildly based on whether the situation at hand tugs on any of her broken/underdeveloped pieces. Both Cara in TSBW and Scales in TBtW ascribe attitudes and motivations to others that the reader can see are influenced by self-loathing/internalized-classism/trauma. But they're very different people and it is a completely different experience being along for a ride in this world in Scales' head.

This is very character-based sci-fi. It's fiction that concerns itself most with people and systems: how they work and break or mend. Johnson crafts such beautiful, true, revealing sentences that I must have highlighted a third of the book. Her observations on people and the effects of trauma are stunning; those on how language and social norms obscure what types of harm get labeled violence, and how state-sanctioned brutality hides in plain sight, are spot-on and pull no punches. This is speculative and it's powerful, but it's worth mentioning that the science is absolutely handwavium. If that's important to you, this might not be the book for you. But if your willing suspension of disbelief had no trouble with the maybe-science/maybe-uncanny not-really-a-dichotomy of the first book, you're likely to be just fine.

The ramp-up of tension and action is even more intense than in TSBW: I had a lot of trouble putting this down and making good choices about sleep while I was reading it.

I adored the dedication and the author's note before the story begins--my skin is prickling now recalling it. This is a personal story for the author, more so than TSBW, and the reader feels it intensely. It's fabulous--go read it. 4.5 stars

As fan of Micaiah Johnson, I was surprised that I had a hard time with this book. I wasn’t really sure what was going on and just couldn’t connect with characters. This one seemed to receive many glowing reviews so I think it was more me that anything to do with the book. I will absolutely give Johnson’s next book a try. Thank you to Netgalley for a chance to read and review this book.

I felt that something could have been left out an some things could have been put in for this to be a better read. I won't blame this solely on the book since I've recently came out of a long reading slump.

Another clever, twisty, sci-fi suspense novel set in a dystopian near-future where travel between the universe's multiple worlds is possible. Just like the previous book in this universe (from which, in this novel, you meet many familiar faces once again) it's all too enragingly based on our own world and its horrors. Not only did I read it in one big blast, but a few pages in I put it down to flip through The Space Between Worlds to refresh my memory on some things, then ended up reading that book entirely over again, so ultimately tore through both books in the same 24 hours. I really recommend this book for those who want sci-fi that explicitly has something to say about the present.

A character-driven work, Those Beyond the Wall delivers many devastating (and a few hopeful) moments in a searing indictment of our world. The message just sometimes threatens to overwhelm the story itself.

First, it’s important to note: (1) The blurb for the novel sets up a murder mystery, but its most effective as a character-oriented drama. The plot felt secondary. (2) Though the novel takes place after The Space Between Worlds, it is a very different type of book. The Space Between Worlds is, in many ways, about Cara finding a way to belong. Those Beyond the Wall is about Mr. Scales trying to burn down the world’s inequalities.

On these fronts, the novel excels. Mr. Scales is a nuanced, unique (if not always likable) protagonist with a very strong narrative voice. I sometimes felt The Space Between Worlds rushed through important character moments. Here, Scales lingers and delivers fully on moments of betrayal, heartbreak, anger, tenderness, and bravery. Her overarching message (among many others), about the necessity of violence in the face of repression, is delivered with striking moral clarity.

The main downside is that this message sometimes subsumes all other elements of the novel. Technology and fantasy serve the message overly conveniently at times, and, most strikingly, the world sometimes seems more like a thought-experiment than a fully developed world. It’s not simply that elements are pulled straight from our world, this can be done incredibly effectively (and sometimes the novel succeeds in this). There are phrases, details, and moments that largely only make sense in reference to our world rather than anything that has previously been established in Mr. Scales’ world. If the novel’s message resonates with you, I expect this won’t matter, you’ll be caught up in the achingly rendered emotions, but for others, I suspect this might be grating.

Those Beyond the Wall is not as crowd pleasing or cohesive as The Space Between Worlds, but, in some ways, this is what makes it more striking. It’s a challenge, as I and many other readers sit safely behind walls.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC.

I will post this immediately on Goodreads and put it my X/Twitter (@laramie_graber) and Instagram (@laramiegraber) on publication day March 12th.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Micaiah Johnson returns to the story of The Space Between Worlds with its sequel Those Beyond the Wall. Readers follow Scales as she navigates her life as a runner and all of the potential of the multiverse when Ashtown is threatened by traversers.

Initially, I didn't realize this was a sequel, but listened to The Space Between Worlds on audio first when I found out. I am grateful I took the time to do so, as I don't think I would appreciate Those Beyond the Wall properly without the background knowledge.

Due to the wibbly wobbly timey wimey nature of Johnson's multiverse, this narrative is dense and does experience multiple timeline jumps in the form of potential timeliness as well as flashbacks and flashforwards. Readers do have to pay attention as this is not a candy floss read. As with Johnson's debut, her sophomore novel uses scifi to explore inequities of reality. Favorite characters from book one appear in book two, but revealing much about who is featured can be spoilers due to the sheer nature of the multiverse.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Those Beyond the Wall and can see where Johnson could continue in this world if she wanted. I do recommend these books on audio if possible as it helps to lessen some of the density of the read.

I enjoyed The Space Between Worlds so was intrigued by news of a sequel. This is a second book in the series in that it does take place years later in the same world but following different characters. Some familiar faces from the first book reappear but are secondary to the story.

The first book took some time for me to get into but I never really got into this book. For starters, if you haven't recently read the first one, there is no recap. The narrator, Mr. Scales, is a really annoying character. Scales breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the reader with (often) lies about her past got irritating as it was not clear if we should believe anything that she said. The messaging here was really obvious. I don't fault the author for getting her anger and frustrations out but I just didn't find this meandering story to be well written. I rarely DNF books but I was really close on this one. I did power through to the end which was fine but this definitely is not as good as the first book.

I loved The Space Between Worlds, so when I saw this, I immediately requested it. You absolutely have to read The Space Between Worlds to understand anything that is going on, so please make sure you do.

Those Beyond the Wall focuses on Nik Nik's kingdom in Ashtown and is told from the POV of a Runner named Scales. It is a little hard to get into at first because while we were introduced to Ashtown in TSBW, we don't get as in-depth of a look at the social structure and day to day details like we do here. This story takes place years (maybe even a decade or so) after TSBW ends and starts off with mangled bodies of both the Wiley and Ashtown populations appearing as well as dops from other worlds.

Micaiah didn't lie in her note at the beginning of the book. This story is (justifiably) angry and it comes out in the page. It did take me a long time to read it just because while I didn't want to put it down, it's also HEAVY. It is completely one of those stories that you will think about for years.

I know I usually start a series/trilogy book review with a warning to read from the beginning in order, but this time I REALLY mean it! The Space Between Worlds is a far far superior book to this one, which did fall short of my expectations. It is not a sequel per se, but is a story set in the same world, with a different protagonist.
I think part of my struggles with this book is that I might be the wrong target audience for this book given what the author says at the beginning and the things alluded to all the way through the book. Most of which went right over my head and I actually wished that I hadn't read the author's introduction in the first place. That said, I think maybe if I had understood them more, they would probably have taken me away from the story to think more on them. I do know that the obvious ones that crossed the pond as bigger news, the ones I did recognise, did distract me a bit.
I guess it also didn't help that I really couldn't get on with Mr Scales as a main character. I know I don't have to like a character to connect with them but I really tried and failed with this one. I also found the storyline to be a bit busy and all over the place and really struggled to follow it coherently.
I think I'll leave my review there. I did get through the book, struggling, and I am glad I did. Whether I will read more books in this series/world is up in the air but I think I will hang back and wait to see what others think before I dive in myself. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

When I first requested this, I didn't realize that it was a sequel to another book. The description mentions that Micaiah wrote The Space Between Worlds, and there was some promotional praise for that story, but it doesn't mention this being a sequel. I don't think you necessarily need to read the first book in order to get through this, but I definitely didn't have a lot of attachment to the overarching world, immediate setting, or reoccurring characters. This had some interesting commentary on current events, and I enjoyed that the characters felt really real and realistically flawed. Overall, I definitely want to go back and read the first book to understand the world and set up more, but this was okay even by itself.

I love a sci-fi novel that uses the futuristic setting to say something about what’s currently happening in reality and this is a great example. You rent these characters who are morally grey or sometimes just awful but you can see what pushed them to this. There are some magical/sci-fi elements that don’t feel fully justify and just serve the move the plot along and make the point for the author but I personally wasn’t bothered by it because I was so invested in the characters and the emotions.

I absolutely ADORED this sequel to THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS. It very much keeps up with the first in terms of twists & turns. In THOSE BEYOND THE WALL, we get a closer look at Ashtown and the runners. Johnson further explores the inequities between Wiley & those on the outside of it.

Our narrator, Mr. Scales, is endlessly fascinating, and the cast of characters features familiar faces.

I think fans of the first will love this addition to the world(s).

I LOVED this book. In the same universe as Johnson's previous work (which was also great), we are introduced to new characters and perspectives. Johnson writes sci-fi dystopian in a way that feels beautiful and tragic but also engrossing. Both books have sat with me after I've read them and are among my most recommended. The only caveat I will give is that there are moments that are hard to read, often from the violence or unjust world created, but it doesn't feel gratuitous but rather purposeful. All in all, I would recommend it and the previous book (The Space Between Worlds) to any one who enjoys the genre.

Full disclosure: I do not remember requesting this ARC and was mildly bemused when I got the email saying I'd been approved because...I did not actually think The Space Between Worlds was all that great. I mean, it was fine, but I've said elsewhere that it mostly reminded me of Patton Oswalt's scorned magician hate-fucking the crowd with magic. "And than THIS twist happened, OKAY? Okay. And then ANOTHER twist! OKAY? Okay." for the whole book. It was exhausting.

It took me a while to settle into Those Beyond the Wall bc even with a different lead (and despite a banger of an author's note at the beginning), I really struggled. I sat at 6-8% for WEEKS. Would pick it up, read a paragraph, think "yeah, no" and put it down again. Finally had to force myself to sit down and finish it, since the pub date is getting so close.

AND I'M VERY GLAD I DID. Johnson talks in her author's note about how this book was fueled by the anger many of us were feeling during the protests in 2020 and that rage drips off of every page. Reading this was so cathartic in so many ways, and there are parts of it that I'm going to be thinking about for a very long time.