Rating: 4.25 stars
Buy Links:  Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Solomon Lange was studying the Nowhere, the void between worlds, from his lab on Facility 17, a secret space station hidden in an asteroid. Solomon had been hoping to learn more about the Nowhere and travel within it when things went horribly wrong, leading to a breach in the Nowhere and Solomon trapped inside. While Solomon was eventually rescued, he did not return the same. Not only can he now move things with his mind, but Solomon longs for the emptiness and void of the Nowhere, and desperately wants to return there. The others on Facility 17 are doing their best to help Solomon come back to himself, to realize re-entering the Nowhere means certain death, but the only person Solomon can even remotely connect with is engineer, Jacob McCreery.

Jake isn’t sure why Solomon seems to accept him better than the others at the station; before he was lost to the Nowhere, Solomon pretty clearly had no interest in interacting with any of them and now it is obvious his mind isn’t fully his own. But Jake refuses to let Solomon return to the Nowhere, to essentially kill himself, so he is determined to do whatever he can to help. Slowly, Solomon begins to come back to himself, to realize that as hard as adapting to life is again, he definitely doesn’t want to return to the horrors of the Nowhere. But being at his lab, seeing the breach, seeing the damage he caused is all too much for him right now. So he agrees to take some time on Earth to get some breathing room and Jake ends up coming with him.

As the pair spend some time together, a slow connection forms. Solomon is a genius who has never been particularly good with people, but somehow things are different with Jake. Jake has an easy comfort that helps soothe Solomon; he makes no demands on him and seems to tolerate the grumpiness that scares so many others away. And Jake finds himself surprisingly drawn to Solomon, as he has never really had sexual interest in anyone before. As they get to know another better, Jake and Solomon build a friendship and a strong attraction.

However, all is not well on Facility 17. It soon becomes clear something is damaging the station, something potentially very dangerous. But with the breach to the Nowhere still open, there is no way they can abandon the station until the problem is resolved. Now it is a race against time to figure out how to close the breach before the station falls apart. And if they fail, the fate of the world is in the balance.

Nowhere Else is the final book in Felicia Davin’s exciting Nowhere trilogy. While the books feature different couples, the series reads as one long story and you are going to want to read them in order (or at the very least, read Edge of Nowhere to get oriented to the world). This story ties things up really nicely, bringing us full circle of sorts as we get Solomon’s story, the man who started it all by creating the breach. When the book opens, we can see that Solomon is not doing well. He is sort of out of his head, telekinetically throwing things (and people) around, feeling not right in his own body, and wanting to return to the void of the Nowhere. After so much nothingness, everything feels too much for him. His co-workers at Facility 17 are doing all they can, but the only person who can reach Solomon at all is Jake. It takes some time for Solomon to come back to himself, to realize that returning to the Nowhere would kill him, and to recover from the trauma he experienced. While he doesn’t see himself as suicidal, the reality is his desire to return to the Nowhere is akin to killing himself, so be aware if this is a sensitive subject for you.

The first portion of the story focuses on Solomon’s recovery, as well as his and Jake’s time back on Earth. This part sets up their friendship and ultimately their developing romantic relationship. Even as Solomon is much more himself, he never was a particularly friendly guy. He is a genius who has been unable to really relate to others most of his life, not to mention constantly used by others for his amazing brain. He doesn’t connect well with many people, but something about Jake’s quiet gentleness is just what he needs. For Jake’s part, he doesn’t really experience attraction, but he finds himself drawn to Solomon in a way he hasn’t been with others. I liked the way the story goes against expectations in that the brilliant, antisocial Solomon is sexually confident and experienced, while the friendly, affable Jake is the one who is just taking his first steps into a sexual relationship. Romance is new to both men and they are sweet and very sexy together. Davin takes full advantage of the sci fi elements here, letting the men experiment with sex in zero gravity, as well as making use of Solomon’s telekinesis, so there is some fun heat here that gives their relationship a sexy and playful vibe. At times, I found the early part of the book a little slow. It is definitely necessary that we see Solomon take time to heal, but I do think this part of the story could have been tightened a bit. But it does set things up nicely for the suspense that kicks in when the men return to Facility 17.

This second part of the book really gets intense and exciting as it becomes clear that something is wrong with the space station and things are happening with the breach and the Nowhere. Both Jake and Solomon get a chance to shine here as Jake handles many of the mechanical issues while Solomon deals with the Nowhere. There is a nice mix of the science side of things as they team tries to work out what is happening and how to fix it, with the romance and relationship end. It ties together nicely with the first book in particular as we are once again primarily on the space station and focused on the breach. I found it all quite exciting and engaging, and I think Davin generally makes the science accessible. I missed some of the focus on the runners, as I found that part so interesting in the first two books and they don’t play much of a role here. But overall, this portion of the story is exciting and it is fun to follow along as they figure out what is going on and how to fix it.

Things resolve nicely here, tying up both the relationship and the larger series plot line. Davin does a great job bringing it all to a close in an exciting and satisfying way. I really enjoyed this series and found it a fun sci fi with some great characters and interesting world building.