I initially picked this up for two reasons; the cover is freaking beautiful, and the synopsis reminded me of Firefly. And I am so immensely glad that I did because be still my heart, I am more than a little bit in love with this book. And you can bet I'll be anxious to get my little grabby hands on the sequel when it comes out later this year.
The story follows the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer, a somewhat cobbled together tunneling ship which makes sort of wormholes to make long distance space travel super fast, as they undertake a year long job. The book isn't particularly plot driven, though I did really enjoy that, it is more about the characters and the world building, and holy moly did this book deliver on those. One of the things I love so much about Firefly is how much I love the Serenity crew, and this crew managed to evoke that same feeling, they were diverse and interesting and flawed and funny and I loved them all (even Corbin by the end). And omigoodness the diversity in the alien species was fantastic, and not just in a "oh and this one was humanoid but green and they don't feel love!" kind of way, there's diversity in appearance and language, culture and gender identity and pronouns, and it was glorious. It feels like a rich and fully formed and developed society and world that we've suddenly been introduced to, but it never felt overwhelming, it felt lived in and rough around the edges, and most importantly, genuine.
Just, go read it, it's fantastic.