CLAIRE CONSIDERS Mia’s Journey by Diane Byington

CLAIRE CONSIDERS Mia’s Journey by Diane Byington

“Mia's Journey” (Red Adept Publishing 2024) by Diane Byington is a boldly imagined, impeccably researched, well written and absorbing novel about a woman astronaut who must start over after a serious accident grounds her. It’s also a robust adventure tale of survival, with just the right hint of science fiction. Told in first person from Mia’s point of view, the story reveals a complex, riveting character in Mia, and the author rounds out the story well with other intriguing characters. There’s also a selfish, controlling villain to hiss at and a multifaceted mystic of a man who may or may not be a second villain—or at least a con man. When all is said and done, this is an engaging, engrossing book that works on so many levels and will entertain and educate.

Just weeks before Mia is set to go up into space for the first time on a prolonged mission, she is hit while walking in a crosswalk by an SUV. She suffers a shattered leg requiring surgery, plus a traumatic brain injury. Author Byington takes her readers through Mia’s difficult physical, mental, and emotional attempts at recovery with such personal—and authentic—descriptions as to pull them into the story and into Mia’s life. The intimacy with Mia that Byington captures in her writing is one of the great strengths of this tale of recovery and adventure.

Before her accident, Mia seemed to have everything that was important to her including a wonderful, rewarding marriage to Ramon, another astronaut, and a career that was going to allow her to fulfill her long-time dream of space travel. She and her mother are close, and she has engaging work researching cultivating plants in outer space, she is in excellent health and is physically strong, and is an avid runner. All that changes in a moment when an SUV slams into her in the cross walk.

After the accident, Mia’s traumatic brain injury leaves her reasoning/analytical powers challenged and the once calm, reliable Mia is also more volatile emotionally. Despite surgery and rehab her leg has not regained full strength. It’s just a matter of time before such changes weigh heavily on her marriage and lead to her being grounded by the space program. Told she is no longer capable of being considered for space travel, Mia perceives betrayal by Ramon, and leaves him to flee home to her mother and childhood home in Florida. There she attempts to reestablish a dear, old friendship and to reconnect with her distant sister.

While many elements of the story lean toward what is often called “women’s fiction,” (as if men don’t struggle emotionally or have family issues!), soon the story takes on a vividly fashioned and boldly daring angle. It morphs creatively into an adventure story when Mia and her long-time female friend come under the spell of a mysterious man who seeks to communicate telepathically with other beings in space. He promises Mia that a private company will fund a trip into space with that goal in mind. Mia is desperate for another chance to travel in space and so takes risks she suspects she should not be taking. As Mia observes: “The whole thing was a weird, questionable enterprise from the start.”

It isn’t long before she, her friend, and their mysterious acquaintance are trapped in a prolonged, dangerous situation. One thing after another goes wrong, leading that threesome and four other people into an increasingly perilous snare that becomes life-or-death. Mia offers this analogy: “This feels like a horror movie, and soon, a monster will burst out of the basement and eat us, one by one, before we can get away.”

In short, they will all die trapped unless Mia can find a way out for all of them.

While devouring this novel, a reader might greedily read in a quest to find out “what happens next? But he or she might pause to also wonder: How does author Diane Byington know all this? This novel contains details of space travel, plant biology, attempts to connect with beings in other universes, telepathic communications, and the emotional and physical challenges of recovering from a traumatic brain injury. As it turns out, Byington explains how she knows these things in a long author’s note which is as compelling as her novel. Like Mia, Byington suffered a traumatic brain injury that led to her stepping down as a tenured university professor. Therefore, she knows of what she writes regarding Mia’s mental, physical, and emotional challenges.

In prepping for writing this novel, Byington also did extensive research into the varied scientific issues raised by her story as she was never an astronaut. She lists several of her sources for those who wish to learn more. Thus, personal experience and a deep dive into reading, studying, and interviewing experts helped her create this marvelous gem of a novel. Yet, the magic ingredient that makes it all work so very well is Diane Byington’s vivid imagination. Her prior novels, “Who She Is,” “If She Had Stayed,” and “Louise and Vincent” also demonstrate her imagination and ingenuity.

In the novel, Byington also raises many important concerns about space travel and attempt to communicate with other worlds. Her character Mia sagely observes, for example, that: “Because if there are other sentient beings out there, the odds of their being hostile are just as strong as them being friendly.”

All in all, this is a compelling, marvelous novel which will thoroughly entertain all the while expanding a reader’s knowledge of space travel, health, telepathic communication, and plant biology. And while there is no denying the “edge-of-your-seat” and page-turning quality, the real strength is Mia’s own journey in rebuilding her life.