This book almost didn't exist, and I am so grateful to the few dozen strangers out there who helped it come into being because it is an incredible book. I went into it going "Ooh, Firefly-esque story, nice" and it is so much better than anything I could have imagined. While it does have a ragtag crew on a ship patched together by a loyal tech who loves the ship (and its AI), it has a world-building with aliens beyond anything I could have ever dreamed up, a central government that is trying its best to handle the politics of a variety of cultures and creatures that have competing needs, the crew is what breathes so much life into the story. I love all of them, and I'm sad to see them go, but they end on such a great note. I can't wait to read the next one.