This was marvelous. I haven't read the Ransom trilogy for years, and in memory the third book was my favorite, but it's going to have to be incredibly wonderful to surpass this one. My goodness. This is how you write speculative fiction. I thought Brandon Sanderson was good at writing non-humanoid fictional races, unearthly cultures and ecosystems? Ha. Roshar is nothing compared to Malacandra. And the pure beauty and wonder of the descriptions and the philosophy and theology... I'm not smart or thoughtful enough to explain everything I love about this book. So go and read it for yourself.

When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it, what will it be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then - that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it.