Where Light Does Not Reach

By Tom B. Night

Deep sea. Deep space. First contact. Final days.

Winner of the 2025 Reedsy Discovery Editors' Choice Awards.

For marine biologist Soledad, it starts with the mass stranding and ghastly death of a thousand sperm whales.

Working for the Cetacean Translation Institute-CETI-to understand whale communication, she uncovers increasingly bizarre and disturbing behavior among the deep-sea leviathans to which she has dedicated her life.

For astronomer and former astronaut Jack Dash, it began with an accident on a spacewalk thirty years ago and is rekindled by a disappearing star.

Working for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence-SETI-he probes the increasingly dark and obscure corners of deep space and time trying to fill in the blank spaces on the map.

Their obsessive investigations entwine them in a mystery spanning the remotest places on Earth, the farthest ocean depths, and the emptiest regions of the night sky.

What they discover shatters their understanding of the universe and our place in it.

For both of them, it ends with missions requiring their unique expertise to safeguard the future of Earth's conscious life in a cosmos more terrifying than ever imagined.

Ready to dive into the deep end and stare into the abyss?

For fans of Peter Watts, Andy Weir, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke, Ted Chiang, and Liu Cixin.

Praise for Where Light Does Not Reach
"Literate, big-brained SF that tells a whale of a tale." -Kirkus Reviews

"It is a visionary feat of speculative fiction, challenging the boundaries of science to ask what truly lies in the dark." -Reedsy

"Soledad and Jack have a natural repartee that keeps them engaging throughout. The ending raises thought-provoking questions on consciousness, purpose, and memory." -The BookLife Prize

"A visionary thriller stretching from abyssal oceans to the voids of deep space, Where Light Does Not Reach is a boldly crafted sci-fi mystery. Imbued with an unconditional love for the unknown, for our pale blue dot, and every species that calls it home, this is a provocative meditation on the beauty and terrifying potential of the natural world, for the kind of existential sci-fi that feels like a voyage of scientific and metaphysical discovery." -SPR (4.5/5 stars)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FHDWFNS9
• ISBN13: 9798280052659
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"