I enjoy books that make me think. One of my most favorite books is "Contact" by Carl Sagan. I think that I will add "The Space Between" by Ronald Damien Malfi to that list now too. Although Malfi's prose isn't as tightened as a veteran novelist's (this is his first book, and the guy is in his early twenties), he does manage to evoke some beautifully poetic images throughout this "literary suspense" - my words, not the publisher's. Vander Case is a genius scientist who for the past several years has been mourning Alana Barsett, his dead lover. Now, in present day, the Navy discovers a strange black hole like vortex at the bottom of the sea and calls upon Vander to help uncover what it is. Some sections of the book are a bit slow, but these sections are interspersed with some of Malfi's beautiful and almost fairy tale quality prose. That whole thing with the red scarf - don't we all have a "red scarf" in our lives? Nicely done. I have read some of Malfi's short stories in magazines and always thought they were just all right, mainly because I'm not a big fan of horror, which appears to be the genre he writes in mostly. However, I was pleasantly surprised by "The Space Between," with all its tenderness and, oddly enough, its romance. I wonder what fans of Mr. Malfi's short fiction thought of the book, and I also wonder what his next book will be like. I read in a Yahoo! listing somewhere that he has co-authored a screenplay that was actually recently filmed by some low budget indie company. The film is called "Shudder," and appears to be some sort of slasher/thriller. I suppose Ronald Damien Malfi is all horror at heart. "The Space Between" - A very good book.

The Space Between is the first novel by the remarkably young author Ronald Damien Malfi. His age, in fact, is what initially piqued my interest about this book. I noticed it at my friend's apartment and read the brief description (which didn't sell me) then read the author's bio (which did). This guy was born in 1977, making him 23 or 24! Maybe it's just me, but when I picture a writer I picture some grizzled old recluse huddled over an old typewriter. So I thought to myself, "either this guy is a fluke or this book is amazing." Hmmm...I'll say this: the first chapter really grabbed me, but the two or so that followed seemed to keep me hanging on for too long. However, just before I got a little restless, it picked back up again and I quickly read the rest of it on the second night I picked it up. It's about this scientist named Vander Case who is suffering from depression since the death of this brilliant woman he used to love. Now, years later, he is abducted by the United States Navy because something "strange" is happening in the atlantic ocean. Well, I don't want to give away too much, but basically the "something strange" has a connection to Vander's dead lover and, hence, to Vander. This was a very fresh and interesting story. What I liked most about it was that it wasn't written in your "standard" thriller/horror style - the bloody description, the rambling storylines, the cliches. A lot of the dialogue and curtness of description reminded me in places of early Hemingway (I am a huge fan), only modernized. Yet, the story still propelled like a modern thriller.I am quite surprised and impressed by Mr. Malfi's debut novel, and look forward to reading more of his work.--Hunter