Sometimes, a bookclub pick ends up really working well. This book was described to us as being like Firefly but I’m not really sure if I totally buy the comparison. But it was still enjoyable.
The story begins with a young woman who is fleeing Mars and signs up to be a sort of secretary/translator to a working ship. The ship works by poking holes in space, creating wormholes, or something of that sort. I think they explain it in the book, but not in a really science-y way. What it’s more about than the mechanics of space travel is how several humans live on a ship with some aliens and how they navigate the galaxy working with other alien species.
I think if you like books that are heavy on the science, heavy on the world-building, you might find this book a little light or lacking. But it had a lot of really interesting stuff, diverse species, sentient AI, that made it fun. It’s kind of structured like there is going to be a big mystery about the heroine, and it turns out to not be a big mystery.
The one thing that it is kind of like Firefly is that there is a female character who is always repairing the ship and she kind of cracks wise like Kaylee, but there’s no Captain-Tight-Pants to be seen.
This being said, I really did enjoy the experience of reading this book and would recommend it to people who want to try sci-fi but are intimidated by something that is more hard science, and like character-driven stories.
