The Collapsing Wave is the sequel to The Space Between Us, my first-contact science fiction novel published last year. The Collapsing Wave picks up six months after the end of the previous book, and examines the lives of all the same characters and the connections that have been made and broken in the meantime.
Most of the book is set in New Broom, a makeshift U.S. military base built up the coast from Ullapool on Scotland’s west coast. The base is a mix between a scientific research station and a prison, and Lennox and Heather are being held there, while Ava is on trial for murdering her husband. But soon the three are reunited, along with Sandy, the alien creature they bonded with so strongly in the first book.
But, this time, the human threat to the Enceladons is much more severe. The authorities consider the aliens to be an existential threat, despite the fact that they’re really just refugees from their home world, looking for some peace and safety. But they don’t find it here on earth.
In The Space Between Us, I was mostly concerned with the individuals and their connections with each other and with Sandy. For this sequel, I wanted to look more closely at the nature of community and refugees, about how humanity in general treats other people, animals, plants and the environment so badly. We are all trapped in a capitalist machine that dehumanises people, destroys the planet and treats animals disgracefully. And there has to be another way.
I wanted to look at how other societies or consciousnesses might view things differently. The Enceladons have evolved in a benign and non-threatening environment in their under-ice seas of one of Saturn’s moons. And that clearly affects their outlook on life. They simply can’t understand the hatred and violence of the human mind, yet they have to get some grasp on it by the end of the book, in order not to be destroyed.
Since these books are about connection and community, I wanted to bring new characters into the story to support my central three. There is a camp of people up the coast from New Broom who have been drawn there by a strange desire for connection with the alien creatures. And while that does eventually happen, they also make connections with Lennox, Heather and Ava, and find their family of like-minded people in the process.
This book, like its predecessor, is a fast-paced thriller with lots of twists and turns. But ultimately, I feel like these are hopeful books about how society works and how it could be improved, about how we can better connect with the people and environment around us. I’ve certainly found myself feeling more positive about humanity and the future as I wrote them, and I hope they have the same effect on you, the reader, too.
