I decided to read this novella out of curiousity. I've heard a lot of things about Becky Chambers' cozy sci-fi, it was up for a Hugo Award, and I remember being vaguely interested in her 'solarpunk novellas' when I first heard that Tor.com will be publishing them. Since that time, I stopped reading sci-fi but I thought this would be a good way to get back into the genre.

Sadly, this just wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy the writing style, but I kept going hoping to see what many enjoy about the author's works. I no longer care about world-building much, except when it's necessary to talk about and I just want to say I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief. Right off the bat, I felt that there was so much exposition, the story failed to stay and feel grounded. It took me out of the story because the focus is on the terms and the exposition rather than the story.

As for the story itself, while the search for meaning in life is a universal one, I felt that the main theme and core was something I've seen done better in my recent reads. I don't have a problem reading the same theme because the things that are talked about in this book are constants that will be asked over and over again. Unfortunately, I like it better with some more subtlety. The thinly veiled moralizing might have been fine if I enjoyed the writing and it felt more grounded, but it didn't.