3.5 Stars ( )

Excellent YA sci-fi, about a family who's been training to run an exploratory vessel to pioneer a settlement on Tau Ceti. Really cool thought experiments about what near-future space colonization might look like, with a sophisticated political situation and a thoughtful consideration about first contact with intelligent alien species. Be warned, Bridget Tyler is not messing about when she wants it to be realistic -- characters die. There's an awful lot of 3D printing as a mechanism for building, and that is fascinating. Altogether excellent, and I didn't want to put it down. There's a certain amount of awkward YA romance that keeps this book very firmly in YA, and a wee bit of Deus Ex Machina/ magical healing that can sometimes be confusing, but the characters are good, the adventure is out of this world, and the whole narrative is fresh. Very, very interesting. Can't wait to see more from this author.

Oh, and reminds me a little bit of Sheri Tepper's Grass, and from me that's high praise indeed.

Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )