The first page of this book reads: "This is a work of neurodiverse, culturally diverse, gender-bendy, socio-politico-economic, drunken-arguments-in-the-pub science fiction, not bang-bang-pew-pew science fiction. Don't say I didn't warn you." What an intro!

I'm not remotely surprised that I loved this book by Si Clarke, as I seem to adore everything she writes. This book was a very different approach to sci-fi even compared to the author's other works - it focuses on the mission planning more than the space side of things, and it raises a load of fun philosophical and ethical questions as it does so. As someone who loves social science but is highly averse to hard science, it blew my mind to read the references at the end that showed that this plot was built on actual scientific research and principles! There's no immersion-loss for me if the science isn't sound, but knowing that it was does make this book feel pretty special.